Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) just can't catch a break, not that it really deserves one. It announced
plans yesterday to begin selling about $400 million worth of produce grown in the states in which its stores are located, and already it's being bashed.
My feelings on Wal-Mart are much like the DC winds; they blow hot one day and cold the next. But even given their atrocious labor practices, most recently demonstrated by a
class action suit in Minnesota, and their hideous environment record despite their
greening initiative, my mean temperature is still only cool. And in all honesty, I shop there for basic household goods because its store is convenient and the prices are cheap.
I do think they deserve a break on this issue if not a pat on the back, even with environmentalists saying it doesn't go far enough and the organic foodies screaming it's not actually eating locally given that the food could still be trucked from some distance away. It seems ironic to me though that these groups say they want reform, but when they get a step in the right direction (even if it is just to avoid higher fuel prices), they just can't take it at face value. I'm sorry, but no mega corporation is going to be altruistic about things like this; it's just out to save a buck and make a buck, so you you'd better take what you can get.
And the benefits, marginal though they may be, are still benefits. The program means Wal-Mart will be making a greater contribution to your state's economy, even if they are buying from a corporate farm instead of mom and pop. That corporate farm will pay taxes on the produce it sells, as well as employ locals growing it. Besides, given the volume that Wal-Mart buys in, mom and pop probably couldn't produce enough of it on a sufficiently reliable basis at a low enough price to hope to be a Wal-Mart supplier. And regardless of who grows it, I'd rather eat a tomato grown in here Virginia than one trucked in from further south or out west. You can chalk it up to hometown pride, but it may just be self-preservation. The last time I checked, there wasn't any salmonella in the stuff grown around here.
That brings up the issue of food safety. The FDA still hasn't tracked down the vector of the salmonella outbreak, mainly because our food production is so spread out, it's a nightmare to figure out where a single batch of vegetables actually came from. But if the majority of the produce which you consume is grown within a four or five hour radius of the store where it's sold, it's a lot easier to track down. Again, the majority of what you buy in the stores will be brought in from who-knows-where, but what is local is one less thing you probably have to worry about.
On the environmental front, the program will reduce the company's carbon footprint by at least a bit. Given the global nature of Wal-Marts suppliers, the reduction may just be a drop in the bucket, but enough drops do eventually fill it.
