Last Week, the Wall Street Journal revealed that John Mackey, Whole Foods’ CEO, had spent the last few years posting tirades in online forums belittling rival Wild Oats, under the nom de plume Rahodeb (an anagram of his wife’s name, Deborah). More significantly, the WSJ revealed that the Federal Trade Commission was investigating Mackey, since Whole Foods was in the process of acquiring Wild Oats.

Mackey has long been known as an outrageously outspoken CEO, but the disclosure of his secret online identity has, you could say, opened up a whole new can of worms, and put Whole Foods and Mackey in a pretty bad light. Consider this rant, from March 13, 2003, in which Mackey cites his disdain for labor unions, his unbridled admiration for Wal-Mart, and his belief in the free market as our ultimate savior:

“Wal-Mart was just named the most admired company in America (also by Fortune Magazine — that magazine which obviously hates “working people”). I probably admire Wal-Mart more than any other company in the world (except for maybe Whole Foods!). What a great, great company! Wal-Mart has single handedly driven down retail prices across America. They have improved the standard of living for millions and millions of American people. Also Wal-Mart is crushing the parasitical unions across America. I love Wal-Mart! Damn straight that they should be on this list. Sexual discrimination lawsuits? Sexual harrassment lawsuits? Racial discrimination lawsuits? What company doesn’t have those? The Trial Lawyers (the richest professional class in the United States and the largest contributors to the Democratic Party — even bigger than labor unions which are #2) sue Wal-Mart. They sue Whole Foods Market. They sue every business which makes any money. They are probably even a bigger threat to our country than labor unions are (if that is possible?).”

There’s so much irksome fodder in there that it’s hard to pick a place to start, but if you’ve ever read anything critical of Wal-Mart (like Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich), or if you fancy yourself a liberal, a democrat, a greenie, or someone just trying to make the world better, chances are you don’t buy his logic.

Mackey has since, to his credit, stopped blogging.

At any rate, when my boss, Paul, saw the story last week, he sent an email around the office here:

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From: Paul Hawken
Date: July 12, 2007 9:20:05 AM
Subject: Whole Foods models itself after Wal-Mart

“In 1992 I had lunch with John Mackey, at his request, and it turned out that he wanted to discuss an invitation to go on the board of Whole Foods. When he asked what I was doing, I told him I was writing a book (Ecology of Commerce), etc, etc, and those et ceteras included helping a small community in Vermont keep Wal-Mart from building a store outside of town. He turned pale, and sputtered “What’s wrong with Wal-Mart?” and went on to do a rant fairly similar to what you read… It was the end of the conversation essentially, end of the lunch, end of civility. He was indignant. When we buy from Whole Foods, we are not supporting greenness. We are supporting a philosophy. Be sure you know what that philosophy is.”
—–

So here’s the strange part: Today, the New York Times published a glowing story (currently the 4th most popular story on nytimes.com) about Whole Foods’ latest publicity stunt, which is about as stale as a stunt can get. The news? Fifteen Whole Foods stores in New York city are selling 20,000 “designer” reusable shopping bags for $15 apiece.

Written on each bag is the phrase, “I’m not a plastic bag.” The story’s headline, “Just the Thing to Carry Your Conscience In,” couldn’t make Whole Foods happier, I bet. And that’s what’s so strange. Well into the story, the author mentions San Francisco’s plastic-bag ban, as well as anti-plastic-bag campaigns in Boston, Baltimore, Annapolis, Portland (OR), Santa Monica, Oakland, and NYC. And way down in the 13th paragraph, the author mentions that “most of the city’s supermarket chains already offer reusable cloth bags for about $1.”

So don’t be deceived by Whole Foods or their latest stunt. It’s nothing new. And it’s just for show. If you want to LOOK green, go get one of those flashy reusable bags. If you want to BE green, don’t buy it at Whole Foods.

Wilson is most famous for his insightful research on ants, but lately has also focused on much bigger things, like the impacts of human activity on life on planet Earth. He has also written about an intricately interconnected natural system threatened by a man-made biodiversity crisis, which –  fancy that — sounds a lot like another book I just read.

Wilson has predicted that  30 to 50 percent of all species will be extinct by the middle of the 21st century, and believes that the two biggest challenges of the 21st century are “to improve the economic situation of the majority and save as much of the planet as we can.” As a result, he’s working on the Encyclopedia Of Life, a (well-funded and well sponsored) project documenting all 1.8 million named species of animals, plants, and other forms of life on Earth, as well as those yet to be discovered. Here’s to him.

The Sundance Channel just released their Eco-munity Map, which looks like it has potential, if you ignore the banner ads above and below the meat.

It’s a free, open site, built by users who want to share, discuss, or just promote green people, non-profits, businesses, events, exhibits, parks, and places that have been or need to be greened-up.

Check it out

Slate is running a good piece today, by Emily Bazelon, in which the author, an admitted countercultural greenie, ponders how best to get the environmental message to her own kids, and more broadly, the next generation.

In the thoughtful little narrative, Bazelon begins by considering her reasons for driving a hybrid Toyota Prius. Sure, she gets a tax break from DC, and staves off becoming a minivan mom. But the car also makes a statement about her beliefs, and she wonders how her kids see it.

Her kids already count hybrid cars at a parking lot, and have learned, at school,  about turning off lights and saving water. But something rubs the author the wrong way, and she realizes that “there’s a fine line between pride in one’s identity and unearned moral superiority.” Worse, she admits that preachy yoga-inspired environmentalism reminds her of 1980′s antinuclear propaganda.

She points to Thomas Friedman, who has argued that going green should be “capitalistic and patriotic;” an ethos that belongs to middle-class Americans as much to liberal/urban elites. As she writes, “If environmentalism remains the snooty project of the Pious Prius Brigade, then my kids and your kids, or their kids or grandkids, will be moving to Greenland.”

Rosie and Derrick, both from Los Angeles (via the East coast, and before that, Ghana), are busy developing a couple of projects. The biggest, World Wide Market, is the most intriguing. For lack of less tech-jargon language, it’s an extension for your internet browser that lets you manage your identity and values preferences, so that as you go about your regular business of buying stuff, you can apply whatever social/environmental values you care about. You can create your own “ID Card,” or sign on to, say, the Sierra Club’s, or your neighbor’s, allowing any person or group to be come a surrogate decision-maker for you. It’s affiliated with the Interra Project and Higgins, and it’s way cool.

They also told us about Take Back The Mic, a movie-making project in 12 American cities that highlights urban youth changing the world; a view not seen in mainstream media. The film debuts on October 28th.

We talked with Rosie and Derrick for a couple of hours; and the more we heard, the more we liked. There were lots of “yeahs” and “wows” and “totallys.” And then, before we knew it, they ran out the door to catch a ride over to Berkeley. I know I’m gonna keep an eye on those two, and I expect you’ll hear more about them not too long from now…

“What a great time to be born. What a great time to be alive. Because this generation gets to… completely change this world.”

I like it because Paul makes it sound so exciting. And, OK, I admit, I also like it because he’s my boss.

Nice work, team.

They were glad to get out of the virtual-web-world here in the office and get out, on the ground, into the real world, where, notwithstanding flight delays in both directions, they met tons of committed people working on a diverse array of projects. In describing these projects, one word kept coming up: inspiration. They just kept on mumbling that word.

They also did some work: they got a lot of fresh eyes on WiserEarth, and gathered a lot of good feedback. They found that people very quickly figured out how powerful WiserEarth could be in keeping them connected.

Some other highlights from the 2007 US Social Forum:

*They presented WiserEarth to 35 members of the Funders Network on Trade and Globalization (FNTG), and are excited to collaborate with them.

*They met Adrian, a local organizer and musician who seemed to know everybody in Atlanta. Somehow our team missed out on getting a table on the first day at the event, so the next day Adrian loaded up his truck with a table and 3 chairs, and helped set up their booth. He also passed out flyers, enthusiastically helped new users explore the website, and helped out with other logistics. Much thanks goes to you, Adrian — you’re an angel.

*They met Cody and Heather, who will be walking almost 5,000 miles across 20 Eastern US states in an effort to register voters. They’re calling it Liberty Walk, and hoping that it will help make the 2008 presidential election the largest in US history. They were thrilled with WiserEarth, particularly as a way to connect with organizations in each state along their route

*They met a whole bunch of students from Powershift 2007, a coalition of 16-to-26-year-olds who want to tell presidential candidates about global warming. They were psyched by the potential of WiserEarth as a tool to reach new students to join their efforts.

*They met Kathie and her children, who together started VoteHealthCare.org. They’re going to use WiserEarth to coordinate outreach around the country.

Reflecting on the trip Peggy, Kelsang, and Melinda told me about how they realized that more important than getting tons of new people to join WiserEarth (we just passed the 2,000-user milestone) was making sure that those who do join find what they need. So they’re on a new mission to listen. And to serve. So please let them know what you like, what you don’t, and what you want to see.