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"  John Mackey didn&amp;#039;t invent the organic-food movement. He didn&amp;#039;t even invent the original Whole Foods Market, which started as a single store in New Orleans in 1974, four years before Mackey and a partner started their own natural-foods store in Austin. We&amp;#039;re okay with that. Some people&amp;#039;s importance comes from their innovations; others matter because they are popularizers--they take a small idea and make it big and mainstream. And in so doing, they change the world. That&amp;#039;s John Mackey.  He took a cult concept embraced primarily by foodies and hippies--that fresh, local, organic food was better for you than the stuff you bought from the Safeway--and turned it into a national religion. Now, of course, the word organic is being stretched well beyond the original definition of pesticide-free produce, Wal-Mart (!) is diving into the business with both feet, and even the Chinese are growing food that is technically organic--which they then ship to the United States. In the coming century, it is not inconceivable that--due to John Mackey--most of the food we eat will be organic and fresh, if not necessarily always local.  ***** To see a slideshow of the 75 most important people of the 21st Century, please click here. To see the archive of the 75 most important people of the 21st Century, please click here. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a5055/john-mackey-1008/>