Let's organize a BUYcott

This lens will concentrate on some of the actions of people who are using boycotts to coerce other people into changing their position on political questions.

I will add new situations as they happen.

The first one involves the recent statement by the CEO of Whole Foods markets, and the reaction of people who disagree with him, and why we should support him.

The second one involves the fast food chain Chick-fil-A.

Portions of trademarks used under Fair Use for educational purposes.

Well, I went to Whole Foods some extra times. The first time I went, people there told me a lot of folks had complained. One of them said to the other, see, there's one. I told them I was doing a buycott. But I wasn't the only one to think of this idea. Other people have been doing it, and it looks like some people decided they like the store, and they will become regular customers. Here is an article about this:

Health Care Debate Sparks Whole Foods 'Buycott'.

Be brave and do the right thing, and in the long run, it will work out for you.

Just a few days ago, the CEO of Whole Foods market, John Mackey, made the following statement:

"Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter?

“Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That’s because there isn’t any. This “right” has never existed in America.”

Let's analyze the statement a little.

Health care, food, and shelter cost money. The Founders of the United States provided that fundamental, God-given rights are those that evoke obligations in others, in terms of respect, but NOT in terms of paying their money for the rights of others.

The question is whether a person has a right that someone else must pay money for. The answer is that the Founders stated that the purpose of the Constitution is to provide for the GENERAL welfare. This means the well being of all the people, not the well being of some at the expense of others. The word "welfare" has been perverted to mean an "entitlement" (oh how I hate that word in this context, as I shall explain). It has been perverted to mean that productive people owe it to other people to pay for goods and services that those other people, for whatever reason, don't provide for themselves.

I would hold that we have a responsibility to provide for our families, but our responsibility to the stranger is a religious one, not property determined by government action.

The CEO here is saying the obvious. Not everyone is going to get equal treatment or equal goods and services.

If a person is able-bodied, it's his responsibility to earn the money to pay for the things he wants. If he is not able-bodied, it is the responsibility of the churches, synagogues, mosques, or whatever, to provide for him.

The second issue he mentions is that he thinks that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution both matter, and that there is nothing in either that establishes that people have a right to goods and services provided at someone else's expense. He also says that the free market works better.

I agree with both statements, and I really don't understand what the controversy is. I suspect a lot of you also agree. I don't see that there is something particularly outlandish about what he said.

Suddenly, there has been a huge outcry against what he said. It is coming predominantly from people who either collect money from the government (which originally came from taxes) or who think this is the right way to do things. There is a threatened boycott. As far as I know, it hasn't happened yet. But I did talk to some employees at Whole Foods, and they told me they had gotten a lot of complaints. Let's understand something here. These people don't have the authority to do anything about it. And if people boycott the store, it is these people who will get hurt. Do they have that right? Not in my opinion.

So those of us who understand that the government is bound by the Constitution, what should be our response?

I am asking you to join me in a BUYcott. This means that I hope people will go and buy things at Whole Foods for the first time, buy more there than usual, or whatever we can do to counteract the damage these folks seek to do to the stores and their employees. After all, employees are people, too, and they're working for the money they need to pay for their own needs.

If you can't do much, do a little.

Here are some other reasons why we should do this.

One is that we have an increasing problem with stores selling food that is downright dangerous. There are a lot of toxic substances added to food, and we now also have the problem of genetically engineered food, which I will cover in another Lens. It is wise to avoid these kinds of things, and if you do, your body will thank you. It is time people, who aren't aware of all this, seek to do something about it. It is a common belief that most people who go to markets like Whole Foods are political liberals, extreme environmentalists, and so forth. The rest of us often don't know what we are missing, and it is time we found out, because even though free enterprise is usually a very good thing, it has been perverted when people feed other people poison just to make money. Even if you don't think about the issue of Whole Foods, for your own safety and that of your children and grandchildren, we need to BOYcott stores that are careless about putting toxins in foods.

And if you are a liberal, I want to point out something else. Many of the extreme environmental positions actually do more harm to the environment than good. I will talk about this more in another article, with examples. And we need responsible businesses which strive to present healthy food and preserve the environment. If we start putting these businesses OUT of business because their CEO said something we didn't like (it IS a free country, after all, and we have freedom of speech), it won't be long before you don't have the alternatives YOU need to stay healthy. The more we ENCOURAGE people who have not yet discovered the benefits of eating healthy to start doing so, the better off we will all be. For this reason, if no other: if nobody is willing to buy genetically engineered food, people will stop raising it, and the possibility of contaminating organic crops with poisonous genes will disappear.

Please think about it.

Call to action

Awhile back, there was a proposition on the California ballot, called Prop. 37. It would compel all genetically engineered foods to be labeled as such. Whole Foods did NOT supported this proposition, and it SHOULD have. They sell a lot of foods that probably have some genetically engineered ingredients. It would be nearly impossible for them to do otherwise, because the lack of labeling means THEY don't know, either. It will hurt them to begin with, because they will have to comply with California law, which they would most likely do for the entire nation.

Dr. Mercola has numerous articles about the California effort. Here is one such article:

Massive Fund Attack on GMO Labeling Proposal in California.

Please support such efforts in the future. GMO foods are poisonous, and we need to know so we can avoid eating and feeding our families poison.

Another Update

I am happy to report that Whole Foods has done an about face on genetically engineered ingredients. It will VOLUNTARILY label all products sold, with a goal several years from now. I don't think the goal is unreasonable, for the simple reason that they carry a lot of different brands, and it takes time to get all those different food suppliers to comply with all their requirements. In the meantime, keep using discernment. Whole Foods carries some products, such as cereals from General Mills, that will contain GMOs. We still have to watch our back. But it's a step in the right direction. Some products are already labeled GMO-free, and Whole Foods pledges that it won't use GMO ingredients in its house brand foods.

They claim they use only GMO-free canola oil. I want to see them stop using canola oil altogether. It was ORIGINALLY genetically modified by a more primitive technique, and it isn't a healthy oil anyway. It is actually very bad for you. People use it for commercial purposes because it is cheap.

And by the way, I have the same gripe about Trader Joe's, which pledges that it does not use any GMOs in any of its house brand foods. It's relatively easy for them because most of their food is imported from countries that don't allow GMO crops. But I have hassled them about the canola oil in their products until I am blue in the face, and they're still using it. Many of their employees agree with me.

Recently, CEO Dan Cathy, of the fast food chain Chick-fil-A, came out with a very mild statement in support of traditional marriage. It didn't address any other kind of marriage, to the best of my recollection. You would have thought the sky had fallen! Powerful liberal groups called for a boycott of the restaurant chain. The response to this demand brought forth a MASSIVE turnout for "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day". Cathy said sales broke the record worldwide.

Here is a story about this, including a few photos:

Americans flock to support Chick-fil-A

Hooray for them! (Unfortunately, that's not the whole story, as I will show you.)

Sadly, I couldn't participate. I am very careful about what I eat, and I checked their web site to find the ingredients of their food, to see if I would be able to eat it. I cannot. It is full of garbage ingredients. So I wrote to them by email, TWICE, with no response. I'm not giving up, and I hope you will join me in writing to them about this problem. Then I wrote a letter to the editor about this problem, which was published on World Net Daily. I said:

Regarding Chick-fil-A, I am ecstatic to see such strong support for its position on marriage. That said, I am equally upset about their food.

I did some investigating of the ingredients in their foods, and they are riddled with toxic chemicals, genetically engineered ingredients and particularly MSG (monosodium glutamate), which is a deadly neurotoxin. I get very sick if I eat even one bite of food with MSG in it. What this means, to my mind, is that when it comes to food, Chick-fil-A is representing to the public that they serve food fit to eat. This is clearly NOT the case, and their representation is fraudulent.

I emailed them twice about this problem, and they just ignored me. The Bible says we are supposed to keep our bodies pure, because they are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Christians have no business feeding customers poisons. I hope the many, many people who support Chick-fil-A will demand they clean up their food, because so far, I know of only two people who are trying to get Chick-fil-A to clean up their act, and I am one of them. I expect any day to see a news report that someone died from eating their chicken. Too many people don’t realize the danger, and don’t investigate like I did.

We must take the beam out of our own eye before commenting on the mote in somebody else’s. Homosexual behavior is a grave sin, but so is polluting our bodies. Chick-fil-A, STOP SERVING POISON!

The ingredients lists for the various foods available for Chick-fil-A's food, on its web site, showed me that there are only two items I can buy and consume, in their entire restaurant: a salad WITHOUT dressing, and a bottle of orange juice.

I found that many foods have monosodium glutimate in them. MSG is a deadly neurotoxin, and I am very sensitive to it. It nearly destroyed my adrenal glands, and whenever I get some, it gives me serious gastro-intestinal distress. I can only stop the problem with a particular detox remedy. Nothing else works.

Many foods have ingredients that probably come from genetically engineered crops. These include: soy, corn, canola, cottonseed oil, beet sugar, and others. Chick-fil-A may not use all of these, but I verified that MOST of their foods have either corn or soy in them. Somewhere between 85 and 95% of all corn and soy grown in the United States comes from genetically engineered seed. Chick-fil-A was unwilling to tell me that it only sources natural soy and corn. I don't take a chance on eating GMOs, and it is a serious inconvenience, but absolutely necessary. GMOs can cause Morgellons (do a Google on that term), massive tumors, sterility, and early death for children.

Some foods contain toxic ingredients of other kinds.

So here is my take on it. We ALL need to urge Chick-fil-A to clean up its food. All those ingredients are NOT NECESSARY, and no Christian should be serving food with poison in it to anyone.

Food Babe recently reported that she was going after Chick-fil-A for their toxic food, and making some headway. She is doing that in spite of the fact that she doesn't agree with the statement and the position. Good on her! We need more people who will stick to their issue and fight it on all fronts. If you end up boycotting for a gazillion reasons, you better plan on living in the wilderness. You won't be buying anything. Pick your battles. Thank you, Food Babe!

So, should you support Chick-fil-A with your business? That's up to you. If you want to support them in the face of a totally unwarranted attack on the CEO's moral principles, do so. But if you want to safeguard your health, join me in urging them to clean up their food, and when they do, THEN support them. It's your choice.

I hope it won't remain a dilemma for long.

I welcome civil discourse with all of you, regardless of your personal political views.