Health Whole Foods CEO: Obamacare Is ‘Like Fascism’ 
 
 In an interview with NPR, Whole Foods CEO and self-professed libertarian John Mackey revived his previous criticism of Obamacare — but this time, with a new twist. While Mackey incorrectly denounced the landmark health reform law as “socialism” in a controversial 2009 Wall Street Journal op-ed, the multimillionaire CEO has revised his assessment and now considers Obamacare — also incorrectly — to be closer to “fascism”: 
 
 “Technically speaking, it’s more like fascism. Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn’t own the means of production, but they do control it, and that’s what’s happening with our healthcare programs and these reforms.” 
 
 Although fascist nations do often control their “means of production,” Mackey seems to have forgotten that they usually utilize warfare, forced mass mobilization of the public, and politically-motivated violence against their own peoples to achieve their ends. By contrast, Obamacare regulates some of the insurance industry’s shoddiest practices and imposes a small tax penalty on Americans who refuse to purchase government-subsidized private insurance. 
 
 That hasn’t stopped other conservative critics of Obamacare from making similar statements. In 2011, former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum decried that America was falling into the throes of fascism, and that the health reform law was its “final death knell.” ||||| Eating And Health 
 
 Whole Foods Founder John Mackey On Fascism And 'Conscious Capitalism' 
 
 i itoggle caption Harry Cabluck/AP Harry Cabluck/AP 
 
 UPDATE at 12:35 p.m., ET, Jan. 17: Many of you wrote in to tell us you were taken aback by Whole Foods top executive John Mackey characterizing the health law as fascism in an NPR interview, and apparently, he's feeling a little sheepish. 
 
 About three minutes into his otherwise amiable chat with CBS This Morning hosts on on Thursday, Mackey walked back his comments in response to a direct question from Norah O'Donnell: 
 
 "Well, I think that was a bad choice of words on my part ... that word has an association with of course dictatorships in the 20th century like Germany and Spain, and Italy. What I know is that we no longer have free enterprise capitalism in health care, it's not a system any longer where people are able to innovate, it's not based on voluntary exchange. The government is directing it. So we need a new word for it. I don't know what they right word is," Mackey says. 
 
 i itoggle caption Whole Foods Market/Courtesy Harvard Business Review Press Whole Foods Market/Courtesy Harvard Business Review Press 
 
 Part 1 of his interview with Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep is linked above, and you can hear him discuss the president's health care plan and his other philosophies here in Part 2, which aired Thursday. 
 
 Our Original Post: 
 
 No doubt, Whole Foods has played a key role in propelling organic foods into the mainstream. The specialty supermarket chain has more than 300 stores and plans to continue expanding. But Mackey is not the crunchy granola liberal one might conjure while perusing aisles of earnestly labeled blue corn chips and gently misted red peppers. 
 
 He's a self-styled libertarian: a vegan who sells sustainably raised meat, a man who compares the government's health care overhaul to "fascism" but wants to improve American diets. 
 
 And he thinks big businesses have an obligation to change customers' perception that big corporations are "primarily selfish and greedy." (Not that he's opposed to profits. In fact, Whole Foods posted a 49 percent boost in quarterly earnings in November.) 
 
 Mackey sat down with Inskeep to discuss his philosophy and the new book he co-authored, Conscious Capitalism. 
 
 Mackey tells Inskeep that companies must have a higher purpose than just making money. 
 
 For example, when Whole Foods decided it wanted to stop selling overfished species of cod and octopus at its seafood counters, it didn't just abruptly cut off its suppliers. Instead, the company gave its suppliers three years to come up with a better way of fishing; during that time, the seafood stayed for sale — but with a label of "unsustainable." 
 
 In the end, Whole Foods, working with the Marine Stewardship Council (we'll have much more on them later), was able to find one supplier of sustainable cod. 
 
 "You take a risk when you do that because some of your customers ... who don't care about sustainability, they're going to go shop at your competitor's store who has the fish, so you lose some business that way," Mackey says. "But it was the right thing to do." 
 
 What he doesn't think is right is President Obama's health overhaul and the new costs that coverage requirements will place on businesses. 
 
 When Inskeep asks him if he still thinks the health law is a form of socialism, as he's said before, Mackey responds: 
 
 "Technically speaking, it's more like fascism. Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn't own the means of production, but they do control it — and that's what's happening with our health care programs and these reforms." 
 
 Still, Mackey sees room to cooperate with the administration on another front: efforts to reform the American diet, a pet project of first lady Michelle Obama. 
 
 "People in America are addicted to sugar, and to fat and to salt," he says, and as a nation, it's holding us back. "Food is intensely pleasurable, and people are afraid that if they change the way they eat, they'll stop having pleasure." 
 
 Still, he acknowledges how hard it can be to stick to a health-conscious diet. Restaurant meals, he says, rarely meet his personal dietary rules — not just no meat, but also no oil or refined flour. Luckily, Mackey jokes, there's a Whole Foods to be found wherever he travels. 
 
 So our question to you, dear readers, is this: How big a role does a business leader's personal philosophy play in your decision to buy products from his or her company? Tell us in the comments section below. ||||| By Debbie Schlussel 
 
 **** UPDATE, 08/09/11: Anti-Israel Whole Foods “Caves” After Schlussel Ramadan Post, But Not Really **** 
 
 Don’t be surprised if you hear the words, “Ramadan Mubarak” (a blessed Ramadan), at a Whole Foods near you. The company is bragging that it is the first national supermarket chain to have a Ramadan marketing campaign, complete with social media. And the folks at HAMAS financier and unindicted co-conspirator, CAIR Action Network, are have allahgasms about it. I’m not surprised by this development. As longtime readers know, I haven’t set foot in Whole Paycheck a/k/a Whole Foods since I discovered (and reported to you) that the company was not only selling–but pimping and promoting–“Canaan Fair Trade” and “Palestinian Fair Trade” Olive Oil, olive oil that funds Palestinian Islamic terrorism and its supporters, including, among other things, scholarships at HAMAS terrorism universities. (More here.) 
 
 Whole Foods Wishes Vegan Jihadists a Happy Ramadan 
 
 After I wrote about this, Whole Foods PR hacks sent out press releases and e-mails lying and denying. But none of what the company said was true and since I wrote about this, I received many reports from Whole Foods customers that Israeli olive oil and other products had been removed from the shelves of many Whole Foods, replaced by the Palestinian terrorism olive oil. My reports didn’t stop ignoramuses like Michelle Malkin Fraudkin from blindly urging people to buy goods at jihadist-enabling Whole Foods, merely because its CEO was under fire for opposing Obamacare. Only morons–and that includes Fraudkin, bigtime–believe that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, even when they enable and financially support Islamic terrorism. 
 
 And, now, there is the Ramadan crap, solely for monetary reasons. Yes, like ALL other American corporations, Whole Foods is whoring itself out to Islam for profits. And as more and more Muslims populate America through immigration and high birth rates, more and more corporations will shill for jihadist interests. It’s that simple. We’ve already seen it with Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and others. And now this from Whole Jihad Foods. The question is, how long ’til Whole Foods no longer carries pork and other non-halal products? Answer: Not long. 
 
 Even scarier, the Whole Foods’ Whole Planet Foundation acknowledges “an ongoing charitable relationship” with halal foods maker Saffron Road. What exactly does that mean? Where is that Whole Foods charity money made from your Whole Foods purchases going? Is it going to hateful mosques that openly support Hezbollah and HAMAS (which is pretty much every mosque in America)? Is it going to support extremist Muslim schools? Why take the chance and continue to buy at Whole Foods? You don’t know where your money is going. But, for certain, it’s going for Ramadan promotions and giveaways. 
 
 Check out this blatant Islamo-pandering from Whole Foods’ “Whole Story” blog: 
 
 More: 
 
 Whole Foods has become the first prominent supermarket chain to run a Ramadan marketing campaign–and they’re hoping Muslim customers will return the favor as they break fast. Even though Muslims traditionally forego meals during the day, lavish evening Ramadan meals could mean big bucks for the natural foods giant … as well as brand loyalty from a demographic not traditionally courted by megastore advertising. Whole Foods is teaming up with Halal frozen entree brand Saffron Road (who sell a variety of Indian-, Thai-, and Moroccan-flavored dinners) to host several promoted blog items on Whole Foods’ website along with sponsored giveaways of Saffron Road food and supermarket gift certificates. Additional content for the campaign is being added by Yvonne Maffei of the My Halal Kitchen blog. While it is a relatively small promotion, it also marks a new benchmark for the Muslim-American community: the first coordinated Ramadan promotion by a national supermarket chain. . . . The “campaign focuses on reaching Muslim consumers online where they are already having conversations about halal foods, grocery shopping, and preparing for Ramadan,” Saffron Road spokesperson Lisa Mabe tells Fast Company. Saffron Road maintains a heavy social media presence and an ongoing charitable relationship with Whole Foods’ Whole Planet foundation, and hopes the promotion will further strengthen their brand awareness. . . . With Whole Foods’ self-consciously granola self-presentation and liberal-, cosmopolitan-skewing customer base, they are the ideal chain to attempt a marketing project aimed squarely at Muslim-American consumers. 
 
 Here’s a tip, Whole Foods: there is NOTHING “cosmopolitan” about Islam. In fact, Islam is the antonym to cosmopolitan. Retro is in. Retro back to the year 622 and the values of savages will NEVER be in. 
 
 Whole Foods . . . For the Organically Conscious Jihadist. Way more humane because, hey, “free range chickens” can run away from the IED. allahu natural fruitbar.
– Thought Whole Foods founder John Mackey would be an Obama-loving liberal? Not so much. The self-described libertarian, who has compared ObamaCare to socialism in the past, now says "it's more like fascism." The quote comes from a new interview with NPR, and continues: "Socialism is where the government owns the means of production. In fascism, the government doesn’t own the means of production, but they do control it—and that’s what’s happening with our healthcare programs and these reforms." But, writes Sy Mukherjee on ThinkProgress, Mackey has apparently forgotten that fascist nations also "usually utilize warfare, forced mass mobilization of the public, and politically motivated violence against their own peoples to achieve their ends." ObamaCare, on the other hand, "regulates some of the insurance industry’s shoddiest practices and imposes a small tax penalty on Americans who refuse to purchase government-subsidized private insurance."