Walmart made headlines recently when they announced an initiative to double the amount of produce they bought
from local farms in the next five years. This is something that came up during my Walmart store tour, and I noticed that local food is more prominently located in “my” Walmart (but not other Walmarts, oddly.) Unfortunately, this raises more questions than it answers.
This could be a huge deal. When Walmart gets on board and demands something, it can change the whole industry. This happened with laundry soap – Walmart asked manufacturers to make more concentrated formulas in smaller bottles. All came out with All Small and Mighty, and the trend rippled through the industry ultimately reducing packaging in all major brands, and not just the bottles sold at Walmart. Many manufacturers converted their entire lines over to the more eco-friendly, less wasteful packaging.
The announced sustainability goals are:
By the end of 2015 in emerging markets, Walmart will help many small and mid-sized farmers gain access to markets by:
- selling $1 billion in food sourced from 1 million small and medium farmers;
- providing training to 1 million farmers and farm workers in such areas as crop selection and sustainable farming practices — the company expects half of those trained to be women; and
- increasing the income of the small and medium farmers it sources from by 10 to 15 percent.
- In the U.S., Walmart will double its sale of locally sourced produce and increase its purchase of select U.S. crops.
As I said, it could be a game changer, but as it is now I don’t think the program will have a large impact and may have a negative impact, depending on what your definition of sustainability is.
$1 billion. 1 million farmers. Those are big numbers – but that only works out to $1000 per farmer. That might be a nice bonus to farmers but is it enough to support local farms? Will it be enough incentive for farmers to tackle the logistical demands of becoming a Walmart supplier? Notice also that this $1 billion is for emerging markets, not the United States. It’s hard to understand what impact that will have on local farmers in other countries without knowing which specific countries and how “local” will be defined.
Walmart defines “local” as “within the same state” in Amerca. I live in TX – “within the same state” could mean it’s trucked in from almost 800 miles away. That’s not going to help reduce pollution, oil and gas consumption, or help *my* local farmers.
It’s hard not to see this as a simple marketing ploy when there doesn’t seem to be any deep thought given to what local and sustainable farming in the United States actually means. And while Walmart has announced laudable goals to improve the ecology of other countries, notably by phasing out Brazilian beef that contributed to rainforest deforestation and pledging that the Great Value line will only use sustainably sourced palm oil, there just isn’t much information on how the new policies will impact our local ecology and economy.
Walmart will be doubling their local produce purchases to 9%- which would mean that less than 5% is currently sourced locally.
So, globally, we plan to invest more than $1 billion over the next five years in our perishable supply chain to help us deliver fresher, higher quality food with a longer shelf life.
So what does that mean for small, local farmers? Will there be enough revenue from the new plan to cover the costs of the supplier to take part in this new supply chain? How will a drive for produce with longer shelf life affect growing fruits and vegetables in a more sustainable way?
I notice that one target is conspicuously absent – there is no goal to provide more nutritious food, just more shelf stable food. We’ve seen how the drive for long shelf life has adulterated bread, cereals, and other grains by making the addition of carcinogenic chemicals (potassium bromate) and hydrogenated fats actually rendering it less nutritious and possibly harmful to our health.
Walmart will not be seeking to add value to the customer, but rather to make the products cheaper. That’s an important perspective to keep in mind, and it’s that attitude that inspires activists to call these kind of initiatives “greenwashing”.
Walmart has announced the creation of a new sustainability index, which could be a great way for consumers to gauge products taking into account waste, pollution, and other eco-friendly factors. But it could go the other way, too. I hope it doesn’t end up as pointless as say, egg labeling, where buzzwords like “cage free” and “natural” don’t actually mean anything at all.
Walmart has said that they wish to:
reduce waste in the agriculture supply chain and help growers produce more food with fewer resources.
We know how this has been accomplished in the past – consolidation, CAFOs for animal products, chemical fertilizers and genetic engineering.
Reducing waste, being more sustainable, helping small farmers all sound wonderful, but the devil is in the details. HOW will yields be increased? How will the food be given longer shelf life- hybrids? GMOs? Irradiation? Will we end up with the vegetable equivalent of carbon monoxide packaged meat?
The main thrust of the local US produce movement will be through the new Heritage Agriculture program, concentrating on three main areas. Supporting local farms and encouraging former tobacco and cotton plantations to grow fruit and vegetables instead is a great idea, but if you live in the west you might not see much impact from the new “double local buying pledge”.
The Four Corners area, which is mostly small farms, may be left out entirely. So while the goals are a step in the right direction, don’t expect to see big changes at your local Walmart. Will the amount of local produce in say, Colorado, actually decrease as Walmart funnels resources to selected growing regions, putting into place their “longer shelf life” policies? Will local cantaloupe be replaced with Delta area melons? Will food miles in some areas actually increase as a result of this program?
Supporting family farms is great, but one objection to this lies in their labeling of the program as local. If there is no formal program set up for farmers in midwest or west coast, then really the local goals aren’t for the U.S. in general but only for a few selected regions. Is that what you thought at first when you heard that Walmart will be doubling local produce offered in their U.S. stores?
What do you think? Is this a groundbreaking step in sustainable agriculture, or is it just greenwashing?
I’ve sent these questions to Walmart directly, and I’ll let you know what the response is.
Please note that while all comments are appreciated, excessive use of profanity and lewd remarks/suggestions/threatening me and/or your boss will result in automatic banning. How sad that I’ve only had to post this warning on my Walmart posts. Who knew that a discount store would inspire such passion?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Walmart gets their prices so low by beating the vendors over the head and demanding low prices, even tho it may be lower than the cost of the item for the vendor to produce. That does not bode well for small farmers.
I would love to know how “supply chain efficiencies” and small, local farms are going to work together.
I would have to agree that Walmart does not have a great reputation for being beneficial to local economies. I am not a Walmart shopper myself, that being said, I did not know about their impact on the revolutionizing of laundry detergent. Now, I don’t buy laundry detergent (I make my own), but certainly Walmart has the clout to enact significant change. But how often do they use their power for good? Great and informative post!
Walmart, keep your hands out of my local farmers lives. I can see nothing but bad, bad, bad things happening here. When Walmart speaks, people act. The healthy, high quality, high standards that our local farms have now will go by the wayside once Walmart gets a hold of them. Local doesn’t mean healthy. Local chocolate cheese cake isn’t healthy. Local deep fried chocolate cookies aren’t healthy. And that’s often what food turns into once someone big like Walmart starts buying it, junk. I buy local for a reason. I know the way the food is handled from field to table. I know how the meats, eggs, and produce are raised and processed. They are truly healthy. But once Walmart starts with all their regulations, low balling prices, and mass production efforts, this will leave and we will have nothing more than local junk.
As a future local farmer, I seriously distrust Walmart. Their chain alone accounts for 9% of the nation’s trade deficit with China. They are only concerned about getting their suppliers to give them the lowest price so they can make a huge profit. How is it going to benefit a farmer to sell their intensively grown produce at wholesale prices when they can sell it at the local farmer’s market for retail?
The deck is already stacked against the small farmer with all the production, marketing, and storage costs borne by one family with little economic cushion. If Walmart wanted to help the small farmer then they could establish a rotating farmer’s market in the parking lot or inside and take a small percentage of sales. The customers could meet the person that grew their food, Walmart would get kudos for innovation, and the farmers could afford to keep growing their crops.
With places like Walmart, people get used to paying lower prices and so they have to keep finding ways to keep prices low while making a profit. I can see the farmers will be the ones who lose with this kind of deal. I think it’s best that we try to support farmers without this kind of middle-man so they will get a fair and honest price for their food. We all know Walmart won’t. It’s admirable they are trying to be more sustainable, but there is nothing sustainable about this monolithic giant.
I do like the farmers market in the parking lot idea.
I love the farmer’s market in the parking lot idea! Besides, once people are there to buy produce, they would go in to buy household and other items. Seems like it would be a win-win to me!
Also remember, when you buy at Walmart, your supporting their corporate office in Bentonville, Arkansas-NOT your local community. Most employees at the store make min wage. Ever notice a Walmart in a small run-down town? Ever wonder why that town is run down yet, there’s a MONSTER store in their town? Buy local people…please!
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