Austinite Named One of America's 50 Most Powerful People in Food

Austinite John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods Markets, joins other corporate and agribusiness executives, First Lady Michelle Obama, plus a smattering of chefs, authors, and food media personalities on the Daily Meal's third annual list of culinary heavy hitters.

According to Daily Meal executive editor Colman Andrews, "In the industry of food, the people with power are the ones who affect what and how and where and why we eat — or who can, if they want to. They're the agribusiness moguls who decide what gets grown and how it gets harvested and sold; the representatives of major food processing, distribution concerns, and retail food outlets who create new products and service the demand for edibles old and new. They're the scolds and nannies — and admirable consumer advocates — who tell us what we should and shouldn't eat, sometimes upending whole industries in the process." For a look at the complete list, go here.

It should come as no surprise to Austinites that John Mackey is on this list of folks who shape our current culinary world. Homegrown Whole Foods Markets have been shaping the conversation about the marketing of "health food" since Mackey and his first partners opened the original Whole Foods store at the corner of West 10th and Lamar in 1981.

The announcement of this new recognition for Mackey comes on the same day he'll be signing copies of the book he co-wrote with Raj Sisodia called Conscious Capitalism - Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Businses (Perseus Books, $27). The event is at BookPeople (603 N. Lamar) Tuesday, Jan. 15 at 7pm.