Dr. Kenneth and Dr. Tyler Cooper in Nanjing, China (Courtesy of: Cooper Aerobics)

Dallas-based Cooper Aerobics Health and Wellness Center, a nonprofit research and education organization for preventive medicine, recently opened its first China location in Nanjing. Cooper founder Dr. Kenneth Cooper, Cooper President and CEO Tyler Cooper, and Senior Vice President of Business Development Keith Blue, executive leaders at Cooper, attended the opening ceremony.

The health and wellness organization opened an international location in order to help the people of China achieve good health by 2030. According to the Cooper center, more than 300 million Chinese citizens are now obese, with diabetes becoming an epidemic in the East Asian country.

They include: a welcome zone, including Coopers history and mantra; a learning zone, including certification courses and fitness programs; a testing zone, with physical and wellness evaluation equipment; a mini-Cooper zone, featuring Coopers business model for partners and investors; an experience zone, where the fitness center is located; a nutrition zone, where members can learn about healthy living; and the Cooper HUB, where members can gather in a co-working space.

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Cooper Aerobics Health and Wellness Opens Nanjing Location - D Healthcare Daily

Alicia Silverstone has been an outspoken advocate for veganism for years, even writing a book in 2011 called The Kind Diet that explains why she chose a plant-based way of eating that doesnt include meat, fish, seafood, poultry, dairy or eggs. Now, the Clueless actress is discussing her decision to feed her 6-year-old son, Bear Blu, a vegan diet, too.

Knowing the truth about where our food comes from is just so disturbing to me, she says in a video for the non-profit Farm Sanctuarys Compassionate Meals program, as she and Bear eat veggie burgers and kale salad. Once you see it, theres no way to go back from that for me. Bear is also asked what his favorite thing about being a vegan is. His response: That you dont have to eat yucky meat.

Silverstone says its easy for her to feed Bear vegan foods, and she regularly makes easy-to-assemble meals like tacos and stir-fries. I can make all those things based on whats in the fridge, she says. You always have a bean, you always have a whole grain. Silverstone says being vegan has turned me into a health nut because you feel so good, you feel so different, adding, being able to do something that is good for the Earth, good for the animals, and good for you all at the same time seems like such a no-brainer. Its like the biggest Duh!'

Although veganism is popular, feeding children a vegan diet is a controversial move.

According to a 2016 Harris Interactive Poll commissioned by the Vegetarian Resource Group about 3.7 million American adults identify as vegan. But the decision to put children on a vegan diet frequently comes under fire.

A law proposed in Italy in 2016 would make it illegal for parents to put their children on a vegan diet, which lawmakers referred to as "a diet devoid of elements essential for healthy and balanced growth," per Reuters. The proposed law came after several high-profile cases in the country involving undernourished children on vegan diets. In one case, a 1-year-old on a vegan diet only weighed as much as a 3-month-old and, in another, a father alleged that his 12-year-old sons growth was stunted due to a vegan diet chosen by the boys mother.

Silverstone has faced criticism in the past for feeding Bear a vegan diet, and she told People in 2014 that her son loves the food I give him. Hes not being deprived of anything. For him, having amazing fruit is like candy.

There are mixed messages out there when it comes to kids and vegan diets, and its understandable if youre confused.

Some people claim that children who are raised on a vegan diet wont get enough nutrients they need to grow into strong adults, while others say it simply encourages healthy eating in children.

So, is it a good idea to feed kids a vegan diet? Ashanti Woods, M.D., a pediatrician at Baltimores Mercy Medical Center, tells SELF that it depends. Children who consume a vegan diet are generally as healthy, if not more healthy, than children who have a normal diet, he says. Dr. Woods points out that there are various lay definitions of vegetarianism and veganism, but pediatricians pay special attention to true vegans, i.e., those who swear off all animal products. The more restrictions on a diet, the more pediatricians become concerned because these children are at risk for nutritional deficiencies, he says.

When done properly, vegan diets can be a step up from the standard American diet, Dana Simpler, M.D., a primary care practitioner at Baltimore's Mercy Medical Center, tells SELF. Dr. Simpler says that peopleand childrendont need animal protein in their diet provided that theyre getting all their important minerals and nutrients.

The key is having a diet that is well thought out, Lauren Fiechtner, M.D., M.P.H., Director of Nutrition at MassGeneral Hospital for Children in the Division of Gastroenterology and Nutrition, tells SELF. If the diet is well-planned and monitored by a registered dietitian, this can be safe for children, she says. Worth noting: The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics says that well-planned vegetarian and vegan diets are healthy for infants and toddlers.

In the long-term, vegetarian and vegan diets have been linked with lower cholesterol levels, a lower risk of heart disease, a lower risk of high blood pressure, and lower risk of type 2 diabetes, Dr. Fiechtner says. Theyre also a good way to promote eating enough fruits and vegetables. In the United States, most children do not meet their goal intake of five servings of fruits or vegetables per day, and so this could also be a benefit, she says.

There are also other potential benefits. Lauren Blake, an R.D. at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, tells SELF that vegetarian and vegan teens typically eat more fiber, iron, folate, vitamin A, and vitamin C than their meat-eating counterparts. They also tend to eat fewer sweets, fast foods, and salty snacks.

Of course, theres a right and wrong way to do a vegan diet.

It can even be hard for adults who are in complete control of their diets and understand potential vegan pitfalls to get all the nutrients they need, much less for kids. But creating a well-rounded vegan diet is especially important when it comes to children, who need certain nutrients to develop as best they can.

This is why Dr. Woods urges parents of his patients who are on a vegan diet to be mindful that their children get enough of nutrients that are particularly easy to miss out on. One is vitamin B12. Low levels of this nutrient can lead to neurologic complications in severe cases, Dr. Woods says. According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, parents should make sure vegan children get enough via a supplement or fortified foods like soy beverages, cereals, and meat substitutes.

Another important nutrient to pay attention to on a vegan diet is iron. Getting enough iron is key in warding off anemia, and after 4 to 6 months of age, all vegan infants need an outside source of this nutrient. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends iron-fortified cereals and supplements to meet this need.

Since veganism cuts out milk and dairy foods, children on a vegan diet may also need outside supplementation for calcium, which is essential for strong bones and teeth as they grow.

Dr. Fiechtner points out that vegan diets are also low in omega-3 fatty acids, which are commonly found in fish or eggs. Failure to have enough of these fatty acids has been linked to poor cardiovascular health, as well as issues with eye and brain developmentagain, very important factors for children's healthy growth and development. To meet the potential gaps in a vegan childs diet, Dr. Simpler recommends vitamin supplementation.

Children on a vegan diet are also at risk of not taking in enough daily calories, which is why Dr. Woods recommends that vegan children eat three snacks a day in addition to three meals a day.

Overall, experts say its fine to raise children on a vegan diet, provided youre mindful that theyre getting everything they need and talk with an expert to make sure the diet is well-rounded. Without this important guidance, it's all too easy to feed children a vegan diet that skimps on important nutrients they need. It just takes an effort, Dr. Woods says. If you have questions about putting your child on a vegan diet, get in touch with their pediatrician or a registered dietitian who can help steer you in the right direction.

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Alicia Silverstone feeds her son a vegan diet - Fox News

If you thought the weirdness of Portland topped out atVoodoo Donuts or the Freakybuttrue Peculiarium, meet Casa Diablo, the citys vegan strip club. The erotic eatery is best summarized by its motto: Vixens not veal. Sizzle not steak. We put the meat on the pole, not on the plate.

Nicknamed the Famous Vegan House of Sin, Casa Diablo showcases nude dancers with a side of soy stroganoff, hummus veggie wraps, and vegan Sloppy Joes.

Casa Diablo was originally a vegan family restaurant named Pirates Tavern, but had little appeal to workers in northwest Portland, who preferred some action with their arugula. So Johnny Diablo, the restaurants owner, decided to give it a spicy twist, rebranding Pirates Tavern as a joint that is both hot and herbivorous.

Aside from serving vegan food, the club prohibits its dancers from wearing fur, feathers, leather, or wool while performing. Unfortunately the establishment has been criticized and even sued by people claiming it trades the exploitation of animals for the exploitation of women. It seems theres still quite a lot of beef.

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Casa Diablo Vegan Strip Club - Atlas Obscura

Longtime animal rights activist Pamela Anderson is taking her dedication to vegan living one step further by opening a restaurant in France, her new home, that will not serve any meat or daily products. The announcement is buried in a tribute to her boyfriend, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is trapped inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Anderson wants to convince political leaders around the world to help Assange become a free citizen once again. The Barbed Wire actress writes:

I am reaching out to Emmanuel Macron, and to his wife Brigitte Trogneux. As a resident of France, my adopted home, I would like to meet with you and discuss Julian's situation. I am opening a new vegan restaurant in France in July, and I would like to extend my invitation to the new President and his First Lady. Join me on the day I open the doors, and we will sit and eat good food and discuss what can be done for Julian. France could display its strength, and so could you, if you give Julian asylum.

And in a new update on her homepage, the former Baywatch star explains that shes partnering with chef Christophe Leroy on this new temporary restaurant in the southwestern commune of Ramatuelle. The restaurant, dubbed La Table du March, is part of the country inn called Les Moulins de Ramatuelle, which is owned and operated by Leroy. According to Pams website, La Table du March will open on July 4 for 50 nights only. The announcement is accompanied by a series of photos of Anderson posing in the French countryside with a golden retriever.

No word yet on whether the President of France and his wife will take Pam Anderson up on the offer to dine at her seasonal vegan restaurant and wine bar in the south of France, but hed be a fool not to at least seriously consider this invitation.

Why My Heart Stands With Julian [Pamela Anderson] La Table du March by Pamela [Pamela Anderson]

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Pam Anderson Is Opening a Vegan Restaurant in the South of France - Eater

Patch.com

Watertown Vegan Cafe Closes Patch.com WATERTOWN, MA Wild Rice Vegan Cafe closed over the weekend, but its presence will remain in Watertown. The restaurant announced its closure last week in a Facebook post first reported by Boston Restaurant Talk. According to the announcement, ...

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Watertown Vegan Cafe Closes - Patch.com

West Village eatery Detroit Vegan Soul will open the doors at its second location in Grandmont Rosedale next month. Owners Kirsten Ussery and chef Erika Boyd tell the Detroit News that the restaurant is poised for a July 22 launch at 19614 Grand River Avenue on Detroits northwest side.

Ussery and Boyd purchased the former Blue Moon Ice Cream shop building near Pages Bookshop a little over a year ago and have been slowly working on renovations. At roughly 1,200-square-feet the second Detroit Vegan Soul outpost will feature roughly the same sized footprint as the original with seats for 36 patrons. The new location also has a dedicated parking lot and a larger kitchen.

It's almost here! It's almost here! #northrosedalepark #grandmontrosedale #detroitrestaurants #detroitvegan #detroitvegansoul #yum @detvegansoul

A post shared by NRPCA (@northrosedalepark) on Jan 3, 2017 at 4:54pm PST

The menu is also expected to be mostly identical to its predecessor with items like catfish tofu and seitan pepper steak. Ussery told Eater in January that the dessert offerings would be slightly different at each restaurant. At the time Ussery also hinted at another possible expansion opportunity in the works. Stay tuned for more updates.

Detroit Vegan Soul Opens Second Location July 22 [Detroit News]

Detroit Vegan Soul Aims for Early Spring Opening in Grandmont Rosedale [ED]

Detroit Vegan Soul Is Expanding to Grandmont Rosedale [ED]

Detroits Most Anticipated Restaurants and Bars, Winter 2017 [ED]

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London Symphony Orchestra has more digital recordings than any other orchestra in the world. Since opening in 1904, they have gone from gramophone recordings to digitised film scores. Now, after 113 years of classical music, the orchestra is moving into new territory: forming a visual identity with motion capture technology.

At a Barbican rehearsal in June 2016, Sir Simon Rattle, music director of LSO, donned a motion capture suit and gloves to conduct a performance of Elgars Variations on an Original Theme, Enigma. Using a specially modified conductors baton with reflective markers, a motion capture team from the University of Portsmouth was able to track Rattle's upper body, arm, hand and finger movements from the beginning to the end of his performance, over a 45 minute period.

London Symphony Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra

Over the course of Rattle's performance, 12 motion capture cameras were used to record 120 frames per second. Using these recordings, it was then possible for digital artist, Tobias Gremmler, to transform this data into a series of animated films, bringing to life the sheer power of music at full force and in startling colour. The result is a vortex of wood, brass, smoke and strings, all derived from Rattle's sweeping gestures.

London Symphony Orchestra

Alex Counsell, principal technician at the University of Portsmouth, told WIRED about the process of transforming a conductor's music into visual images: "The art of the conductor is to convey the score, making every gesture as natural as possible. Using motion capture data we're able to visualise Sir Simon Rattle's conducting movements in great detail and learn more about his interpretation of the piece. Additionally, it provides new information on the relationship between the conductor and the instrumentalists. Learning more about how instructions relating to tempo, volume and much more are communicated to the musicians."

The transformation of Sir Rattle's performance is an example of how data visualisation can be used to project visual emotion onto a piece of music. As Rattle's arms sway to the lull of string instruments, so the spirals he creates grow looser, calmer in colour, almost relaxing upon the air. As the tone reaches a frantic climax, we move to minutia, a pulsing set of squares, like dominos collapsing without end.

London Symphony Orchestra

The art produced by LSO's motion capture project is largely impressionistic in nature, with a digital twist. However, Rattle's performance has also been used to develop two custom typefaces - with the conductor himself having cut them into being. Each letter has a particular swipe through one point, where Rattle's baton cut through air.

London Symphony Orchestra

LSO's experiments with motion capture technology can be used to reflect a performer's physicality during extremes of musical expression - how a body changes to reflect certain pitches in sound, or scores that necessitate rapid motion.

The animated films derived from this project will form a "visual language" that will introduce the LSOs 2017/18 season, demonstrating the colourful, passionate motion of the orchestra's performers.

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London Symphony Orchestra is bringing its music to life with motion capture - Wired.co.uk

Amidst the sounds of overhead announcements and the general hustle and bustle of an airport, live music filled terminal two at San Diego International Airport on the morning of June 19 when Switchfoot performed a brief concert with children from the area.

The Grammy Award-winning musical group, which hails from Encinitas, played three songs with local youth to celebrate the band's nearby art installation at Gate 36 and to preview its upcoming Bro-Am music and surf event on June 24 at Moonlight Beach.

The gallery will be on display for airport travelers past security checkpoints through September. It includes photos, instruments used on the band's albums and customized surfboards, commemorating Bro-Am, which is entering its 13th year.

Lifehouse, Donavon Frankenreiter, G. Love and Cisco Adler are also slated to perform. There will also be various surf competitions, including the More BRO than Pro Team Surf Contest, the Rob Machado Bro Junior Surf Contest, the Challenged Athletes Foundation Kids Surf Contest, and the comedic Surf Joust Expression Session.

Jon Foreman, lead vocalist and guitarist for Switchfoot, considers Bro-Am a "group hug" with Encinitas.

"We were just over in Europe last week, and there's something really special about being able to travel the world and know that your hometown still plays a huge part in who you are," he said.

Players from the San Diego Youth Symphony and Conservatory, as well as fourth through sixth grade singers from Casillas Elementary in Chula Vista, joined Switchfoot on stage for two songs during the special airport performance.

Foreman, after finishing the bands signature song Dare You to Move, said supporting the children is at the band's core. Each year, Switchfoots Bro-Am Foundation raises money and awareness for underprivileged and at-risk youth.

"I think part of me likes kids more than I like adults," he said, smiling. "I feel like kids are honest and real, and music is the same way where it has this honesty. For me, I think back to when I was a kid and music became this vehicle that I could use to go places. I want that same empowerment for the next generation."

The band teamed up with Casillas which was recently recognized as a VH1 Save the Music school and received $35,000 in band equipment earlier this school year when they heard the choir was learning the band's song "Float." Switchfoot, after surprising the students in class, then invited the children to perform with them at the airport and at Bro-Am.

Lilly, a 10-year-old Casillas student, said she was excited to sing with Switchfoot and just be able to participate in the arts in general.

"Sometimes people with cell phones and other electronics can just forget the things that entertained us before that stuff," the fourth grader said. "We're helping to spread the influence of art all around the world."

Briandi, another 10-year-old fourth grader, agreed, adding music is important because "it helps your brain develop and is relaxing."

Casillas Music Teacher Jonathan Seligman said he is grateful to Switchfoot for performing with his kids and for being humble in the process.

Seligman considers the performing arts for kids as vital.

"It's a way for them to express themselves," he said. "Our school is very well known for its sports, but there are still those students who are not able to express themselves because they're not athletically inclined. When music first came to Casillas, you just saw a lot of people who were in the shadows of these athletes. For a group like Switchfoot validating this and telling us we're doing a great job, that's huge."

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Switchfoot empowers youth with performance at airport - Del Mar Times

Australian man Shaun Davidson is among four foreign inmates who staged a daring escape from Bali's Kerobokan prison, and remain on the run from Balinese police.

Police show pictures of the Kerobokan jail escapees Shaun Edward Davidson or Eddie Lonsdale or Michael John Bayman from Australia, Sayed Mohammed Said from India, Dimitar Nikolov Iliev from Bulgaria and Tee Kok Ming from Malaysia.

FOUR Bali jail escapees are still on the run today as authorities intensify their search for how the men escaped Kerobokan jail in broad daylight in a busy suburb.

The four foreigners, including Perth man Shaun Edward Davidson, were discovered missing at yesterday mornings roll call and authorities believe they may have tunnelled out via an old water drain.

A view of the tunnel that an Australian and three other foreigners are believed to have escaped through outside Kerobokan prison in Bali, Indonesia. Picture: Putra SinulinggaSource:AAP

Police wearing scuba diving gear have now entered the jail. It is believed they are going to enter the tunnel which authorities believe was used by four men to escape.

Badung police chief Yudith Satriya Hananta said the divers would endeavour to go inside the 15 metre long tunnel. Equipment is currently being used to pump all the water out of the tunnel.

Police wanted to check the tunnel to ensure that no one was trapped inside, he added.

We want to check the tunnel. Where it goes, how deep it is and find out all things, to anticipate if they may still be trapped there, Mr Hananta told News Corp Australia from inside Kerobokan prison.

So far there are no witnesses who saw the men emerging covered in mud from the drain, just under an unmanned guard tower at Kerobokan prison and on a busy street.

And despite a police dragnet to hunt them down including sea searches, there has been no sign whatsoever of the four men.

Our team are still working. They havent been found yet, Bali police spokesman Hengky Widjaja said today.

There are now calls for security at the overcrowded and understaffed jail to be increased.

And there are questions about whether the men used the tunnel to escape amid revelations that there is no excess soil around the tunnel entrance to indicate it had been dug out recently to allow four men to fit inside.

The Bali Ombudsman this morning visited Kerobokan jail and met the Jails Governor about the case which has made headlines around the world.

Mubarok, the assistant ombudsman, said the jail security needs to be stepped up.

Security has to be tightened, because this is not the first time prisoners have escaped from the jail, Mubarok said after inspecting the suspected escape route tunnel.

He questioned why there was no fresh soil near the tunnel entrance.

We are wondering why there was no sign of any soil dug there. Maybe the hole has been open for a long time. It is at the clinic it is 15 metres long with diameter around one metre. Even inside, people can stand, Mubarok said.

We are yet to know what was it for? If they dug it, around eight to 10 cubic metres of soil should be around it. But where is the soil? So, it is alleged that the tunnel has already been there for a long time, but we dont know what the function (of it) is.

We have conveyed to the prison to reveal everything about this case. All the guards should be questioned and intelligence functions inside should be activated. The prison should increase their security to anticipate any other cases like this. Prisoners escaping through a tunnel has never happened before.

So far police have questioned 10 jail guards who were on duty at the time of the brazen escape but there is yet to be any clear answer as to how the four men escaped so easily. The prison has long been overcrowded 1378 inmates supervised by only 11 guards most of the time. The prison was built for just 323 prisoners.

Jail Governor Tonny Nainggolan said the ideal guard-to-prisoner ratio is one guard for 20 prisoners but at the moment there are 11 guards for 1300-1400 prisoners. Mr Nainggolan said he had previously requested an extra 200 staff but had no response from the Ministry.

The tower near where the tunnel emerged just outside the jail was unmanned due to staff shortages.

Davidson, 32, from Subiaco in Perth, had just two months and 15 days left to serve of his one-year sentence for fraudulent use of another mans passport. He was also wanted in Perth on drugs charges.

Shaun Edward Davidson inside Denpasar District Court cell awaiting his first trial of using fake identification and overstaying in Bali. Picture: Lukman S. BintoroSource:News Corp Australia

A Facebook page, believed to belong to Davidson, shows photos and videos of Davidsons life in Kerobokan jail. His last public post was on May 18.

On May 12, he posted a Facebook live video titled Relaxing with brother Bashir, another jail prisoner, and appears to be filmed in a cell where Davidson and Bashir chat live with others.

Hows it going? This is Bashir, hes a good man, have a chat to him. Say hello people, an Australian accent, believed to be Davidson, says. He says they are kicking back, relaxing and listening to music.

On April 11, Davidson posted that he was doing Bintang (beer) and movies and videos of him boxing and sparring in jail are also seen.

In another post he alludes to my book and story.

Mobile phones and the internet are meant to be contraband inside Kerobokan prison, but Davidson appears to have had unfettered access to them.

The last time a prisoner escaped from Kerobokan jail was 2013 when a man, on gardening duty outside the prison walls, simply walked away.

In late May a Peruvian prisoner on ATM fraud charges, miraculously escaped by squeezing himself through a window in the toilet of the holding cells at Denpasar District Court, where he was waiting to appear.

He was caught less than a week later, in Pekanbaru, Sumatra, and has since been sentenced to six years in jail.

Of those who escaped this week, Davidson was serving the shortest sentence.

Indian drug smuggler Sayed Muhammad Said was serving a 14-year sentence. Bulgarian ATM scammer Dimitir Nikolon Ilev was serving seven years, as was Malaysian Tee Kok Ming, on drug charges.

The Daily Telegraphs cartoonist Warren Browns view of the Bali jail escape.Source:News Corp Australia

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Bali police search the tunnel where four inmates including Australian Shaun Davidson escaped - NEWS.com.au

A customer shops at a Whole Foods Market on Oct. 15, 2014 in San Francisco.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Whole Foods Market founder John Mackey was livid. Theyre greedy bastards, Mackey spouted to Texas Monthly in April after the investment management firm Jana Partners, Whole Foods second-biggest shareholder, signaled its intention to sell off his company. These people, they just want to sell Whole Foods Market and make hundreds of millions of dollars, and they have to know that Im going to resist that. Whole Foods is my baby, Mackey declared. Im going to protect my kid, and theyve got to knock Daddy out if they want to take it over.

Yet justtwo months later, Mackey is selling his baby to Amazon for $13.7 billion, a dramatic denouement for a company that is deeply rooted in the hippie counterculture of the 1960s and 70s. Since its founding, Whole Foods has made its name bucking corporate conventional wisdomeven as it has come to epitomize the massive, often mercenary contradictions of Big Organic. The company sold organic foods long before any major supermarket chain thought it was worthwhile, and its thrived in part by defying the grocery industrys insistence on centralized distribution and standardization.

Now the organic supermarket pioneer will be owned by one of the most brutally efficient and standardizedretailers in the world, a company with a relentless focus on selling things cheaper and faster.

The purchase is a dramatic leap for Amazon into brick-and-mortar commerce. So far, the company has only launched a handful of grocery pick-up locations and storefronts for selling books. But the acquisition of Whole Foods vastly expands Amazons share of the grocery trade, a move that should raise deep concerns about a marketplace already dominated by a handful of massive retailers.(Disclosure: Slate is an Amazon affiliate; when you click on an Amazon link from Slate, the magazine gets a cut of the proceeds from whatever you buy.)

But perhaps more significantly, it signals the end of a dream for Mackey and Whole Foods, and even for the entire organic food business. With more than 400 locations, Whole Foods has long ruled the organic marketplace. But unlike any other national retailer, it claims to be rooted in environmentalism and the hippie movement of the 1970s. Its not that Whole Foods didnt care about profits. Mackey has long contended that Whole Foods began as a company seeking to make our country and world a better place to live by recognizing human rights, food safety, and environmental deterioration were major concerns. But with its sale to Amazon, a company with a poor environmental track record, questionable labor practices, and limited experience selling organic food, Whole Foods has lost any credible link to its countercultural roots. Whatever Whole Foods will be able to say about itself now, it will be much harder for it to maintain its do-gooder image.

The modern organic food business started as a cottage industry of longhairs selling brown rice and tofu out of wooden barrels in small stores. In 1978, Mackey and his then-partner, Renee Lawson Hardy, launched one such store, a vegetarian grocery in a two-story house called SaferWay. The name spoofed Safeway and indicted the environmental dangers of supermarket chains reliance on large-scale agribusiness and wasteful production methods.Two years later, Mackey merged the store with a competitor to form a new business he and his partners would call Whole Foods Market. In the next decade, the store expanded throughout Texas and into other states, and by the start of the 90s, it had become the highest-volume seller of organic food in the country.

Whole Foods growth was rapid. In 1992, the company became the first ever publicly traded organic foods retailer. The organic food marketplace transformed into a major industry with Whole Foods at its helm. Yet Mackey and Whole Foods insisted their company wasnt only interested in profits. The companys Declaration of Interdependence, a mission statement of its core values, contains sections on Team Member Happiness and Environmental Stewardship. With missionary zeal, Mackey has devoted himself to promoting conscious capitalism in a popular 2013 book by that title and in a series of CEO summits he organizes.

Mackeys politics havent always aligned with Whole Foods stated values of conscious capitalism, of course. In recent years, hes speciously criticized the Affordable Care Act as fascist, and hes also remarked that climate change isnt necessarily bad. And for all its public statements endorsing employee satisfaction, Whole Foods has long opposed workers efforts to unionize.

Despite Mackeys libertarian leanings, Whole Foods sets itself apart from other chains.

Yet Whole Foods remains one of the most environmentally responsible retailers in the country, ranking highly on a variety of sustainability metrics. Whole Foods also offers its employees some unusual freedoms. Individual stores and their departments have considerable power to make purchasing decisions, and local managers enjoy a level of discretion unheard of at most chain stores. Employees have major input in hiring and get to vote to approve or reject new co-workers whove completed a trial period. Despite Mackeys libertarian leanings, Whole Foods sets itself apart from other chains through these practices.

Will Whole Foods be able to retain its distinctive culture once this deal is finalized? While Amazon says it wants to keep Whole Foods as is, its impossible not to wonder how Amazon's corporate culture might rub off, especially as the store struggles to compete with other sellers of organic products such as Trader Joes, German discounters such as Aldi and Lidl, and even Walmart and conventional supermarkets.

While deeply objectionable, Whole Foods efforts to discourage unionization seem timid in comparison to Amazons proud endorsement of unreasonably high expectations with uncompensated overtime, combative meetings, and encouraging employees to anonymously report each others mistakes to management. Working conditions in Amazons shipping facilities appear just as bad, if not worse. It seems unlikely that Amazons cutthroat managerial approach will tolerate Whole Foods employees long-held freedoms and team leaders decentralized autonomy for long.

The sale also jeopardizes Whole Foods devotion to environmental stewardship. Amazons Web Services subsidiary is one of the dirtiest and least transparent companies in the sector, far behind its major competitors, with zero reporting of its energy or environmental footprint to any source or stakeholder, according to a 2014 report by Greenpeace.If Amazon doesnt value sustainability, will it accept the considerable expense and effort that Whole Foods devotes to environmental stewardship?

Top Comment

When did Whole Foods have a do-gooder reputation? It's always been a symbol of elitism. (I can say that since I shop there occasionally, but not exclusively.) More...

After six consecutive quarters of losses, Whole Foods had recently begun to make its own changes in the composition of its board and executive team. But such changes are trivial compared to being swallowed by the worlds largest online retailer.With its relentless efficiency standards, Amazon is poised to radically transform not only the pioneering organic chain but the entire brick-and-mortar grocery business.

Whole Foods may have been John Mackeys baby, the object of his affection he raised from infancy. But once this sale is completed, Amazon will be its legal guardian and Whole Foods will be the online retailers stepchild. Mackey and Whole Foods already debatable claims of conscious capitalism now seem even more dubious.

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So Much for Conscious Capitalism - Slate Magazine