Friday Blog Round Up: Earth Millenium Edition

RICE SHORTAGE CAUSES MASS MEDIA HYSTERIA
So maybe the rice scare wasn’t really as bad as it got chalked up to be. But the media definitely had us going there for a minute! If it wasn’t a legitimate sign of the sorry state of the world’s food supply, it’d almost be funny.

Walmart Rations Rice [Consumerist]

Wal-Mart “working with our suppliers to address this matter to ensure we are in stock, and we are asking for our members’ cooperation and patience.” It’s not as bad as it sounds, the bags are still 500 lbs each.

Wal-Mart Rations Rice [Mother Jones’ Blue Marble]

Shoot! You were planning a rice-and-beans dinner party for 100, and you thought for sure your local Wal-Mart would meet all your bulk rice needs...In light of this two-spoonfuls anecdote, Wal-Mart’s four-bag limit sounds downright decadent, but rice rationing in the U.S. means that whatever is going on with supply and demand trends is not good. Once land-o’-plenty retailers start fretting about global food shortages, you can be sure it’s time to worry.

Rice shortages in America? Unbelievable [BloggingStocks]

My guess is the businesses who buy their supplies at Sam’s Club or Costco are probably too small to meet the minimum purchase requirements of food wholesalers. Of course, they will pass on their rising costs to the consumer.

Much as we all feel tiffed at being restrained to 200-pounds of rice at a time, the Writing on the Wal highlights some larger implications of our cheap food:

the system that lets Wal-Mart customers buy cheap food makes it increasingly harder for people in lesser-developed countries to feed themselves as their food is increasingly destined for middle-class people overseas.

After the jump, rBGH-free milk, Wal-Mart’s Fortune and Rumer Willis on the beach.

WAL-MART WON’T LABEL IT’S MILK “rBGH-FREE”
Despite Wal-Mart’s recent decision to only sell hormone-free milk, the retailer isn’t planning to label any of it “rBGH Free.” Why? Because Monsanto is lobbying the states to mandate pro-rBGH fine print on every carton of hormone free milk. Monsanto is hoping to destroy some of the marketing power a “rBGH free” label wields, and Wal-Mart seems to be playing along. Consumerist highlights this press release from Food and Water Watch:

Already Kroger and Wal-Mart, while they’ve gone rBGH-free this year, have decided not to label their milk pending the outcome of the state-by-state battles.

ENVIRONMENTALISM: IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT REUSABLE BAGS
Earth Day was this week, marking not only the sad state of the modern incarnation of the holiday, but also the third week in Wal-Mart’s Earth Month. Up next on Wal-Mart’s social responsibility calendar: Employee Health Benefits Improvement Hour.

Wal-Mart’s customers prove going green is gaining steam [BloggingStocks]

Is Wal-Mart becoming a leader of promoting eco-friendly products? Being the world’s largest retailer and all, anything it does to make these products more available to its shoppers can have an enormous impact. On Earth Day, it’s good to see that impact being demonstrated.

The vegetarians and vegans at Wal-Mart Watch do our best to keep the prosletyzing to a minimum (we know, we know: “bacon is just too good to give up"), but Jonathan Rees’ comment about Wal-Mart’s sustainability program is too good to resist:

If every Wal-Mart customer, all 200 million of you, drank soy milk instead of any kind of cow’s milk it would not only keep 17 million pounds of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers out of the environment, it would prevent each cow from burping out as much 130 gallons of methane a day and save you a ton of money.

ROLLING WITH THE HOME GOODS
Did we mention that Wal-Mart makes a $&!# ton of money? Like, more than you could ever count if you sat down with a pile of it?

Wal-Mart again tops the Fortune 500 list of companies [BloggingStocks]

Just two non-oil companies were located in the top five: Wal-Mart and General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM). If you own an SUV and will be filling up your gas tank today, remember that. Or, if you’re pinched for money due to a mortgage reset recently, you’ll probably not want to remember it. Point is this: Wal-Mart is raking in more sales than ever, and 2008 probably won’t slow down as U.S. consumers everywhere flock to bargains and low prices in the midst of mortgage nightmares, gas prices that are out of control and a shaky economy.

CELEBRITY NEWS! RUMER WILLIS TO MODEL FOR WAL-MART
Ok, I don’t know if Rumer Willis really qualifies as a “celebrity,” but her name came up in my Google searches, so it must be important!

Rumer Willis… For Wal-Mart! [X17]

Rumer and Wal-Mart? I can’t think of a better pairing! A super-hot, not-at-all-airbrushed Rumer Willis joins the likes of Kristin Cavallari, Pete Wentz and Wilmer Valderrama in the new summer ad campaign for Op, a young men’s clothing brand to be sold exclusively at Wal-Mart.

Hey, Rumer takes whatever job she can get!

Rumer Willis For Walmart [dlisted]

Rumer Willis, Pete Wentz, Wilmer Valderrama and a bunch of other hags are whoring themselves out for Walmart. They are starring in an ad campaign for Op which will be sold exclusively in Walmart stores.

Yes, Op! I had at least a dozen of their velcro wallets. They seriously should be buried along with Camp Beverly Hills and Hypercolor. I lie. Hypercolor needs to make a comeback. I really need a pair of Hypercolor panties.

And from the comments on People Magazine’s Off the Rack blog:

Wal-mart? Really? Do they really need a paycheck that badly? If they’re interested in becoming more famous they should try to team up with a brand/store-chain that does not exploit it’s employees.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, April 25, 2008

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