Wal-Mart Waxes Organic
Take it as a good thing or bad, Wal-Mart, the criterion of soul-free big-business, has finally jumped on the Organic bandwagon.
It seems that Organic now has become profitable and marketable. It is no longer just a niche market. This is going to mean more land being converted and cultivated for organic farming. Seems to me that this is good fucking news! Is change actually possible in this fucking country? I guess, as long as enough people are willing to pay for it.
Obviously, when they finally do carry organic products, they will squeeze smaller companies out of business and subsidize big factory farms, but it is a step, right?
Although I will not ever shop at Wal-Mart, this is a pretty epic step.
sarah said,
25 May 2006 at 7:14 pm
unfortunately, i think walmart’s move to organic will actually decrease the amount of land being cultivated organically.
not only will walmart be subsidizing big factory farms, but they will be pushing organic farming overseas. walmart has promised to carry the organic food at only 10% over the price of our non-organic ho-hos (currently organic is 20-30% higher than non-org). to keep this price commitment, walmart will look for the cheapest products and labor available, not likely to be in the united states. while lowering this price gap will give more people access to organic ice cream that doesn’t have bovine hormone in it and such, we are compromising domestic farmers, and by extension our environment. buying organic food is about the quality of food, but its also about social justice and taking care of our environment — each mn organic farmer walmart drives out of business is one less person taking care of our soil.
(the commercialization of the organic market didn’t start with walmart — look at whole foods — while they used to support local farmers, in the last 2 years almost all of their product has come from 2 california mega-farms.)
James said,
14 July 2006 at 7:44 am
Wallmart isn’t just looking to go organic, but entirely pro-environment. We’re talking eventual goals of 100% renewable energy, no-waste, etc. They are even asking their employees to be sustainable/green at home, buying the better lightbulbs, that sort of stuff. And they’re meeting with Al Gore.
Check it out here:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/13/news/companies/walmart_gore/index.htm?cnn=yes.
Too bad they still treat their employees like shit.