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Walmart turns over a new leaf as it embraces local produce
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via stlToday 12/11/2009
MANCHESTER — Inside the cavernous new Walmart on Highlands Boulevard Drive, grocery manager Russell Davis stands with a gleaming bounty behind him. Lettuce from California, blueberries from Michigan and grapes from South America.Then there's the store's hottest grocery commodity these days — pumpkins and corn grown in Brunswick, just a couple of hundred miles away.
"Our customers want locally grown products," Davis says. "They all ask for it. They all want to know: Is this from Missouri?"
In the last several years, locally grown food has become the "it" consumable as more shoppers, concerned about the environmental impact or the safety of their food, seek out products from closer to home. And retailers, from Whole Foods to Safeway, have obliged.
Even Walmart, now the nation's largest supermarket chain as well as retailer, has gotten into the local scene, embarking on an effort to procure more of its produce from local growers.
"If you can get local food in there, you've really arrived," said Mary Hendrickson, a professor of rural sociology at the University of Missouri Extension and advocate for regional food systems. "It's not just a fad. It's something that everyone's taking seriously." ( read entire article... )
A new inconvenient truth
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it via Bratlleboro Reformer
Ellis-Thurber has a small role in the new documentary film, "Food Inc.," which takes an unflinching look at America's corporate food system. Her interaction with a WalMart executive in the movie caught the eye of the New York Times reporter who reviewed the film, saying that "the moment when an organic farmer cheerily tells a smiling Wal-Mart representative that her family has been boycotting the company for years is hilarious."
WEST BRATTLEBORO - Amanda Ellis-Thurber has no problem helping lead a sustainable food revolution.
The Food System and Public Policy
Posted by Jason Bradford on December 4, 2009 - 10:50am via The Oil Drum
Note: This post is based on a portion of my presentations at the recent Association for the Study of Peak Oil conference in Denver. Go to the ASPO web site for the complete slide deck. And thanks to Debbie Cook for inviting me to be on her panel. As reported by the Des Moines Register, Colombia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs had some strong words for the food industry at the 2009 Borlaug Dialogue: Sachs said agriculture is the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions, and he also linked the industry to depletion of water supplies and fisheries and poor dietary habits. What I'd like to do for this post is ask if government policies contribute to the troubles in the food system. I see ways in which we are we working against our own interests, akin to a giant tug of war game, where the work of one only serves to counter the work of another. Once we identify the policies that support current conditions, we can readily suggest adjustments that will align with broad measures of well being. I also want to acknowledge that part of the reason we produce food the way we do is because it has been incredibly successful at yielding abundantly and at low initial costs. What is more troubling are the unintended consequences that Prof. Sachs identified and that I will discuss further. These are the long-term costs, or externalities, that need to be factored into the transition towards sustainability in food production. Broad Social Goals I am first going to identify some broad social goals that I believe are non-partisan. If you look at these and study the effects of the current food system it is clear that the way we are feeding ourselves is diametrically opposed to general notions of "public good." I identify four social goals that most everybody can agree on: Environmental Protection, Healthy and Safe Food, Economic Vitality, and Peace and Security. ( read entire article... )
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