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Top 100: 37. Whole Foods

June 12, 2011

After weathering boycott calls in the wake of his August 2009 Wall Street Journal editorial opposing healthcare reform, Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey went on to share a number of political views squarely at odds with most bumper stickers on display in Whole Foods parking lots. A lengthy New Yorker profile showed him to be an unabashed libertarian opposed to the very idea of regulation and taxes and a global warming skeptic who believes that "prosperity tends to correlate to warmer temperatures." Yet Whole Foods ranks third on the EPA's National Top 50 list of the largest green power purchasers. In April, the vegan CEO announced a controversial incentive to drive down the company's health insurance costs by awarding greater store discounts to healthier employees at rates to be determined by body mass index. In short, Whole Foods may prove to be the emblematic company for our times.

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