Walmart goes local, supports small farmers
Filed under: Food, Shopping, Green
Those are some lofty goals, but when a company is the size of Walmart -- with annual sales of more than $400 billion -- even the smallest environmental effort can have a significant effect.
Walmart says its sustainable agriculture plan has three parts: support farmers and their communities, produce more food with fewer resources and less waste, and to sustainably source key agriculture products.
Walmart says it wants to increase the income of the small and medium farmers it sources from between 10% to 15% and that in the U.S., Walmart will double its sale of locally-sourced produce and increase its purchase of select U.S. crops. Walmart will ask suppliers about the water, energy, fertilizer and pesticide they use per unit of food produced, with a number of goals including plans to invest more than $1 billion in its global fresh supply chain in the next five years, and reduce food waste in its emerging market stores and clubs by 10%-15%, and in stores and clubs in its other markets by the end of 2015.
When it comes to sustainable sourcing, Walmart will focus on two of what it claims are the major contributors to global deforestation; palm oil and beef production. The retailer will now require sustainably-sourced palm oil for all Walmart private brand products globally by the end of 2015, something it claims will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by five million metric tons by that time, in the U.S. and U.K. markets alone. It will also source beef only from producers not contributing to the destruction of the rainforest.
There are a number of country-specific goals and an impressive list of agencies and experts consulted in this plan. No matter how credentialed the participants, or lofty the goals, Walmart will certainly be criticized for its motives or for not going far enough. But how can helping small businesses prosper be a bad thing? It's not the mom and pop shop on Main St., the death of which Walmart is so often credited with, but it's something. And it will have an impact on our food supply.
Walmart began emphasizing sustainability at the beginning of the decade, and has since implemented a number of practices like establishing energy saving practices and encouraging suppliers to reduce waste, streamline packaging and cut energy use. Today, it meticulously tracks its efforts in the area with some impressive results.
Even earlier, I remember that while touring new stores and formats in the late 1990s, Walmart executives proudly showed off features like skylights in supercenters to reduce reliance on electrical lighting on sunny days, and systems that could sense natural light and adjust the artificial lighting as needed.
These were early efforts and Walmart's program is far more sophisticated today. Yes, many of these initiatives help to reduce costs and improve the efficiency (and profit margin) of the company, but will the family farmers care if it helps them to prosper? Or shoppers, when they bite into a locally grown apple?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-14-2010 @ 11:42PM
jasonlogan said...
I appreciate the concern which is been rose. The things need to be sorted out because it is about the individual but it can be with everyone.
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jasonlogan
Mortgage Repayment Calculator
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10-15-2010 @ 11:02AM
hilda snyder said...
Maybe Walmart will start employing American workers, especially returning Veterans who need the jobs that are going to illegals. Banners proclaiming how grateful we are to our troops don't mean anything unless companies back it up with real help instead of lip service.
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10-15-2010 @ 11:54AM
Innovator said...
Wall Mart is the Mother root of our current economic problem. They perfected outsourcing to the point where everything that was produced in America is now coming from another country. That worker who was a machinist making parts for General Motors making $40.00 dollars per hour is now stocking shelves at Wall mart making $12.00 dollars per hour. And stocking those shelves with items not produced in America, but he has a job. Now because the small farmers market, buy local, buy fresh, buy Organic is impacting their produce volume they want to insource them. I am a small farmer and I will quit farming before I will sell to Wall Mart.
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10-15-2010 @ 3:29PM
phdpamela said...
Excellent point. First, Walmart helps tear down America, now it wants you to believe they want to help us all. Friends, beware of a future where one large corp controls what foods and other services are available to you. Starts out great, until they "yank the rug out from under you" and you've no place else to turn. Support the people in your own communities. Barter and trade, it worked just fine in the old days!
10-15-2010 @ 11:59AM
pd39 said...
Does WalMart have corporate guide lines for crops? If not, they should develop those guides and work with small farmers to implement them, and use as much locally grown produce as possible. They need some kind of standards to protect themselves and the farmers from all the nuisance law suits that will no doubt be added to the current union law suits against WalMart,
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10-15-2010 @ 4:25PM
pink said...
At least WalMart is making an effort to help small farmers. If other big corporations did the same it would help to get our country back on track economically
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10-15-2010 @ 1:28PM
wayne said...
have u ever seen how much food is throw out everyday by wal-mart ? omg such a waste ! just try and asking them if u can take some of it home & and just see what they say i have jeeze if i have to , and , again , i have i'll gone to the dumpster and picked out what i wanted and it was perfectly good [ im not the only one bty ]
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10-15-2010 @ 2:23PM
JANE said...
Just maybe this means that they will have a whole lot more FRESH produce. Who wants to pay a big price for organic veggies when they are droopy and pathetic looking? I have never seen a package of organic celery in their stores that doesn't look like it is six months old.
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10-15-2010 @ 4:15PM
Tdmitts said...
I see you all complaining about walmart, but you come there and buy stuff not made in america and you come on holidays, such as July 4, labor day, memorial day, thanksgiving day, so on an so forth. You don't mind if we work 40 hours a week for chicken feed, but like the one who worked for a union out of the auto workers who go out at lunch and smoke joints and buy liquir to drink and get filmed doing it make 40. dollars an hour, you complain. You all don't even read that gerbers baby apple juice is made from concentrate from Argentinia. Maybe you had better read where things are made and only buy american, except if it is car. Don't want anything made by a drugy or and alchy.
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10-15-2010 @ 4:22PM
Joe in JT said...
Why do I smell a rat? Why does the name "Monsanto" keep coming to mind. Since when does Wal-Mart bend over backwards to "help" small farmers make a profit. Maybe the real reason Wal-Mart wants to get involved helping farmers is to finagle there way in to farmers property and then switch the seeds to Monsanto's GMO terminator seeds. These terminator seeds grow once then die and you have to go back to beg for more seeds from Monsanto. Then they make you pay double for the seeds the following year, and these seeds will now only grow if you use Monsanto's weed killer "Round-Up." Twenty five bucks a gallon. Yeah, right, Wal-Mart is here to help, and my girlfriend is Morgan Fairchild.
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10-15-2010 @ 4:30PM
Joe in JT said...
For all you morons who want "fresh" produce at your local Wal-Mart here is what I witnessed just yesterday at my Wal-Mart. While looking for a Halloween sqeeky toy for my dog I notice a package of bacon on the floor by the refridgerated glass doors. The stock dudes high on meth just walked right by it like it was trash. I'm sure a few hours after I left and the slab of bacon was getting bacteria laden, and some good sumaritan picked it up and placed it right back on the shelf, for you to buy.
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10-15-2010 @ 4:53PM
stephen said...
Beware of greeks bearing gifts is an old and wise saying.
Walmart says, let me help you, to help me, to control you !
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