Wal-Mart organics

Some of the concepts I struggle with when it comes to organic and healthy food include that it's inherently pretentious. There is a sense that rich people sit around wondering where there food comes from while poorer people don't have the time, money or options in the areas they live to have such luxuries. Then there is the all or nothing idea. A world with McDonalds bothers me daily but it's not going anywhere. Should its efforts to improve the treatment of animals from which it sources its meat be praised? That's a topic for another day.

Wal-Mart -- yes, the company that is most commonly associated as the evil empire of corporate America -- quickly became a major player in organic foods. As of this summer it's been selling organic products at some stores for three years. Walk into a Wal-Mart today and you'll find organic produce, milk, cheese, yogurt, packaged goods, and even organic cotton clothes and mattresses. They are in the game. This is pretty amazing as for the first time organic foods are being made available and affordable to America's working class. (Estimates suggest that Wal-Mart customers earn an average of $35,000.) To anyone who thinks the world should be eating organic this is a massive victory. But few are cheering. How much of the hesitancy and pessimism is due to this being the evil empire and how much of it is true cause for concern?

The main issues here are the source and the price. Much of Wal-Mart's organic produce comes from large industrialized farms in third-world countries, primarily China. This isn't necessarily that novel though when you realize that Silk Soymilk and other brands of organic foods source their organic ingredients from the same place (Silk sources it's organic soybeans from third-world countries). And I don't kid myself that the cucumber or tomato I bought at Whole Foods didn't come from Chile. The problem here is scale and a general race to the bottom. When Wal-Mart gets involved we know one thing for sure -- price is king. If anyone anywhere in the world can sell a cheaper organic product (no matter how they treat their workers, how they treat there animals, etc.), Wal-Mart would likely be interested. This is the antithesis of the organic movement, which relies on a general approach for sustainability -- for workers, animals, land and communities.

In the end, I think that this is a good thing when I consider that now a lower-income mother can choose to feed her child organic yogurt or choose to eat organic vegetables when she is pregnant. And the small farms in American and elsewhere will still be there to supply Whole Foods and Green Grocer and so forth. Most people believe in organic foods because they care about their health, the environment, and the treatment of the animal. This is a victory for the health of Wal-Mart shoppers -- not much more and not much less.

Finally, there are accussations that Wal-Mart misleads its customers into thinking that a variety of non-organic items are indeed organic through its signage. This has yet to be fully investigated.