For the last few years Walmart has touted its new commitment to organic and local food. (For a sampling of its news headlines, see here, here, here, and here).
How's that effort going? Mother Jones investigates.
Produce industry analyst Jim Prevor (editor of the blog Perishable Pundit) tells Tom Philpott in this recent Mother Jones article that, yes, Walmart is buying from more growers, but they're still large-scale farmers who can afford to offer cheap produce. (He also notes that because Walmart defines "local" as any produce sold in the same state as it was produced, it has only to "open more stores in California" to officially increase local sales numbers - an industry joke.)
As far as organic food goes, the push isn't really about produce at all, but rather nonproduce items like milk and baby food.
Prevor told me that its buyers had tried aggressively to bring in much more organic produce, but "they just couldn't find operations with sufficient quantity to supply them." A company of Walmart's size simply can't devote resources to "chasing down small organic apple wholesalers and buying 60 cases of apples because that's all they have." Walmart doesn't say how much of the produce it sells is organic, but "I'd be surprised if it's more than 2 percent of the total produce," Prevor said.
Read More: Is Walmart Really Going Organic and Local? | Mother Jones
Related: A Guide to Selecting the Best Produce: Vegetables
(Image: Walmart via The Atlantic)
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I keep looking for organic produce and such when I'm at Wal-Mart, but so far, nothing that I can find. I think they're just talking the talk but not walking the walk.
I went to Wal-Mart against my will last weekend (in CO) and was surprised to see they had a sampling of local produce. I can't remember if it was toted as being organic or not but it was still nice to see that it was there. I'll stick with buying my organic groceries elsewhere unless perhaps they truly step up to the plate....even then it'll probably be a very hard sell.
Why would anyone go to Wal-Mart to buy local? You're still not actually supporting the local economy. You all know this, right? If you want to support the local economy, buy from locally-owned markets or farmers' markets.
I live in a town that doesn't have its own grocery store and the nearest store (about 20 minutes away) is just a Wal-Mart Super Center. That store doesn't even have an organic produce section, though you can sometimes find packages organic lettuce, spinach, asparagus or cucumbers. I've never seen any other organic produce at all. Perhaps needless to say, but when we do need to shop produce at a conventional store, we make a day of it and got a bit further away to a more responsible store.
I have to agree with Strange.Bird - coming from Iowa, the only real options for grocery are Wal Mart or something along the lines of a regional big box store (I'm looking at you Hy-Vee). We also don't have year round farmer's markets because of the weather AND even if it is year round, it won't have a lot of produce options because, y'know, it's hard to grow stuff in the snow.
That being said, I definitely don't advocate going to Wal Mart, because they're awful for a whole huge list of reasons. I would say buy what you can when you can and maybe take up canning to get you through the winter months (which I plan to do, as soon as I have a kitchen with counters).
Not so long ago, in a pinch, i tried to pick up a couple of organics from Wal-mart, I believe Milk was the primary item. There was a half gallon of whole milk for organic, and that was it. The super center Walmart by me, at least, has only enough organics to just be able to claim they have them at all, but not enough to actually shop for them. Can't stand that place for so many reasons.
Grist did an exceptional 4-part series on Walmart's greenwashing. They point out that their "renewables" program did not reveal just how much of their energy was renewable, it turned out to be around 2 percent. Most of their "sustainable" changes were through bragging instead of doing. Their progress was at a snail's pace and they don't make substantial changes like phasing out toxic or wasteful materials. All this while pushing out local businesses with pavement and sprawl. Don't support them. This is the last Grist post but links to the other parts of the series are in the opening paragraph.
http://grist.org/business-technology/four-ways-environmentalists-can-keep-walmart-in-the-hot-seat/
Walmart is the last place anyone should shop for organics from. Yeah, they carry a few lines but mainly of the higher priced, corporate owned organics out there like Horizon. I'm lucky in that the area I'm in has plenty of farmer's markets but unlucky in that the area I'm in is made up of family farms who still believe in spraying whole fields with pesticides as a preventative. I even overheard a local farmer last year tell some woman buying from him that just like climate change was a Democrat plot, so was telling everybody that Monsanto Roundup was a killer. Needless to say, I didn't see too many people buying from him the rest of the season. I shop Walmart for a few things but the bulk of my shopping is done at Aldi, who doesn't carry organics but the majority of stuff they sell has the fewest chemicals of any other place, and one of our local grocers who does sell local farm items.
@Travelgnome have you tried container growing? I have a black, black thumb yet we've grown lettuce and tomatoes with great success on our front porch in simple ceramic pots. Finding the plants or seeds takes a bit of effort but is worth it, maybe order online from Whole Foods or even find some from neighbors who grow the stuff.
If you want quality, local, and or organic products you need to shop somewhere else. WalMart carries none of these things.
It depends on which Walmart you go to. I'm in Orlando and that is a total negative at most locations. They built a new one a few yrs ago that does offer a better selection. We went down past Naples to go camping off shore - we stopped at the last place we could find - a Walmart - and most everything was organic. We got the best vegetables and fruit there - but it was in a remote area. I have never found the same selection here back in Orlando - whether it is Walmart, Super Walmart or the Neighborhood Center.
I went to college in Arkansas for three years before transferring to UT Austin. When I left, I vowed to never shop at a Walmart again and thus far I haven't. Now that I think about it, I'm so thankful for being able to shop at Whole Foods, Central market, outdoor markets, and health food stores :-)
Haven't shopped at Walmart in years and still won't even if they carry local produce. Why not just go direct to local farmers. Co-op style is the way to go in my opinion.