Whole Foods Just Says No to Live Lobsters

In a move consistent with WFM’s visionary John Mackey’s vegan lifestyle Whole Foods Market will discontinue selling live lobsters. While animal rights activist applaud the move, NBN wonders if more than concern for animals inspired it.As a native New Englander NBN has always been mortified at the prospect of boiling those poor creatures alive. Mortified yes, but not so mortified that we don’t ask our mother to buy some live and wriggling critters every time we head back east to visit. So in full disclosure NBN is somewhat of a hypocrite.

Yet the point here isn’t about NBN’s gluttony and might not even be about animal cruelty. And while Whole Foods commitment to ‘foodies’ has been unparalleled, NBN wonders if the shellfish ban might send a few folks storming off in their Range Rovers to other fashionable locales looking for the freshest crustaceans in town.

Yet while some salute Mackey’s bringing his own values into the business at the risk of alienating seafood lovers (what others call sea life), NBN wonders. Sure we get his commitment to animal rights but does Mackey values shellfish more than the United Farm Workers he has so consistently dismissed, and even ridiculed? Do the pitiful geese tortured to make the treasured foie gras WFM now refuses to sell deserve more compassion than the coffee growers producing Whole Foods Allegro brand that the company refuses to produce with fair trade practices?