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Food politics has become an increasingly important part of social responsibility and aided by bestselling books, blockbuster movies and celebrity endorsements, the movement is gaining ground. Wal-Mart, eager to improve its reputation among progressives, has tried to capitalize on the popularity of responsible eating...with varying degrees of success. The retailer first started selling organic produce - a program it later abandoned - and more recently has publicized its sourcing of local foods.

In his new book “The End of Food,” Paul Roberts points out Wal-Mart’s impact on our food supply goes far beyond these superficial initiatives. From the New York Times’ review:

Roberts isolates a number of culprits. Wal-Mart, for example, where America spends 21 cents of every food dollar and where some experts say we will soon be spending 50 cents of that dollar, continues to drive down retail prices to unsustainably low levels. One consequence is that food is becoming, once again, a commodity of “lesser quality and nutritional value.”

As the largest grocer in America, Wal-Mart is using its marketplace power to drive down the cost - and quality - of food. As a result, our food supply is degrading faster than you can say “in-store dining options.” And it’s not just Wal-Mart’s purchasing power that’s damaging our food supply: the retailer contributes heftily to the environmental damage, suburban sprawl and economic poverty that Roberts blames for the decline in food quality and food choices.

Wal-Mart is certainly not solely to blame for the world’s food problems, but the retailer’s business model simply doesn’t qualify as a sustainable solution to growing demand for fair food. For those committed to leveling the playing field of food politics, stick to the farmer’s market and your locally-owned grocer.

Nothing to Eat [New York Times]

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Wal-Mart’s announcement last week that it would source $400 million in local produce may provide a positive PR boost for a company that is notorious for its abundance of outsourced products. It is only a small chunk of Wal-Mart’s $53 billion-a-year grocery market (less than 1%), however, leading to the conclusion that the decision to “cultivate local economies” is more hype, rather than actual progress. Wal-Mart’s overall food sourcing practices continue to display over-reliance on imported food, questionable on account of the environmental toll it effects, in addition to safety concerns within the food supply chain. In 2003, the United States Economic Research Service outlined how food imports may pose dangerous risks for consumers:

...the globalization of the food supply could introduce new food safety risks, revive previously controlled risks, and spread contaminated food wider.

Further, Brian White of BloggingStocks finds a correlation between the rise in imported food items and the rise in chemically-riden, salty foods that are so popular, and cheap, in your local Wal-mart:

Wal-Mart seems like the anti-retailer when it comes to local and fresh food items. Indeed, much of the product lines in a typical Wal-Mart location are sourced from outside the U.S. (non-food items). But, do you really know where those processed food items come from too? The ingredients inside many of those items are so loaded with chemicals and salt to make them taste good, but the true ingredients are from non-U.S. origins and are anything but local in origin.

Without a comprehensive commitment towards the goal of sourcing food locally, Wal-Mart will continue to run roughshod over the legitimate environmental and safety concerns associated with an over-reliance on imported food items. Wal-Mart’s commitment to source less than 1% of its grocery supply hardly deserves cheering commendation.

International Trade and Food Safety: Economic Theory and Case Studies [United States Economic Research Service]

The Wal-Mart Weekly: Venturing into the local food supply chain [BloggingStocks]

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Debate about Wal-Mart has raged within the environmental community ever since CEO Lee Scott first uttered the word “sustainability” back in 2005. While many organizations have seen the company’s efforts as a step in the right direction (that is, a step away from complete ignorance of environmental issues), others have continued to criticize the retailer for its ongoing environmental problems. No debate of this subject is complete, however, without including a discussion of how Wal-Mart’s green campaign ties in to its PR.

At the ECO:nomics conference in Santa Barbara last week, Scott admitted that Wal-Mart’s far from its green goals. In fact, the company doesn’t even know how or when it will become green. But, Scott added, “It has been positive from a PR standpoint.”

This lead many groups and publications to think twice about what Wal-Mart has been promising, and how realistic expectations have been. In most of the stories on Wal-Mart’s green intentions from the past three years, a shadow of doubt has always lingered: ”If they actually follow through on this...” Scott’s statements from last week seem to imply that that “if” might never happen.

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There’s been a lot of controversy about whether Wal-Mart’s environmental efforts are actually in earnest. When the notoriously damaging mega-corporation announced it was going to green up its act back in 2005, it seemed too good to be true. Ever since, debate has raged within the environmental community about whether to work with Wal-Mart (as groups like Environmental Defense have done) or to work to change it.

Lee Scott’s remarks at yesterday’s ECO:nomics conference reinforce the idea that Wal-Mart’s environmental changes are merely superficial, and aimed more towards increasing profits rather than actual environmental change. This post from Reuters Environmental Blog only reiterates that. It seems that some environmental non-profits, while willing to give Wal-Mart advice on green issues, are too ashamed to actually be associated with the company. Would this be the case with a truly responsible corporation? Probably not. Even while working to help Wal-Mart improve its environmental program, it seems these groups have always been aware that Wal-Mart’s greening is more about image than actual change.

Wal-Mart kept NGO partnerships on the DL [Reuters Environmental Blog]

When Wal-Mart decided it needed an environmental strategy, it asked for help from some of its biggest critics.

The only thing is, the non-governmental organizations it looked to for advice on building a sustainable business didn’t want to ruin their green cred — or jeopardize their relationships with their donors — by admitting that they were working with Wal-Mart.

“We had to guarantee them that we would not ever tell anybody that they were there,” Wal-Mart Chief Executive Lee Scott said during an appearance at the Wall Street Journal ECO:nomics conference in Goleta, California.

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From an interview with Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott at this week’s ECO:nomics conference in California:

Q. On an issue like packaging there’s of course a long way you COULD go. There are significant groups of people out there now who are saying we shouldn’t be bottling water. Why bottle water? It’s just an environmental waste. How do you decide how far you go and when to stop?

LEE SCOTT: Um…

Q. You’re still selling bottled water, I see.

LEE SCOTT: A lot.

Lee Scott sums up Wal-Mart’s environmental practices thus: “We have to stay in business...If the customer wants bottled water, we’re going to sell bottled water.” Scott here betrays Wal-Mart’s devotion to the bottom line, and in essence qualifies the company’s greening efforts as nothing more than a marketing campaign. As long as Wal-Mart is willing to cater to “the customer,” even at the cost of environmental harm, it cannot and SHOULD not be considered a “green” company. It’s a fundamental flaw at the heart of Wal-Mart’s business, and the company’s devotion to environmentalism remains fickle at best.

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Wal-Mart was at the epicenter of several food-related recalls last year, prompting questions about the company’s food sourcing practices. At the time, Wal-Mart brushed off the concerns, but it seems the recalls have continued to worry company execs. Wal-Mart announced today plans to adopt food safety standards currently used by the European Union. The EU’s standards are more rigorous than those currently in place in the U.S. and will hopefully result in across the board improvements for food safety.

Many concerns still remain about industrialized food, including environmental problems, animal treatment issues and continuing debate over the chemicals used to sustain mass food production. This isn’t necessarily something Wal-Mart can address, but as local food movements grow, more and more people are questioning big box-style food production.

Private Food Standards Gain Favor [Wall Street Journal]

Amid growing fears about food safety and impatience with government response, standards set by the private sector in Europe are starting to spread to other parts of the world, including the U.S.

In 1997, some of Europe’s biggest food retailers responded to food scares like an outbreak of mad-cow disease by banding together to write new global guidelines for those wanting to sell meat, fruit and vegetables in Europe—the world’s biggest importer of food, buying some $20 billion last year from outside the EU. Today, such privately enforced quality programs are becoming more popular in the U.S., too. In a key move, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said last month it would buy produce, meat and seafood only from suppliers accredited by private-inspection offices.

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This is more an update than anything else - the Sustainable Industries article appeared over the weekend, and its always fun to re-visit stories about milk, right?

Wal-Mart still is the popular kid on the block these days. More than adequate at getting into class action lawsuit trouble, Wal-Mart managed to get itself named in yet another. Granted, this one might seem a little tame in comparision with Wal-Mart’s specialties - substitute mislabeled organic milk for gender discrimination or failing to pay overtime or give rest/meal breaks, and you’ve got the basic complaint at issue. Still, you’ve got to admire our favorite retailer’s ability to expand into new legal markets:

The suit names Aurora Dairy Corp. as the producer, but alleges retailers “misbranded and misled customers to purchase organic milk at a greater price than they would otherwise pay, violating state deceptive trade practices and consumer protection laws.”

Now that’s just wrong. I love cows...and more importantly, i love organic cows, and the sweet delicious organic milk they produce that turns my Cinnamon Toast Crunch into cinnamon toast mush every morning. I especially love when you finish the cereal, and there’s all that leftover cinnamon and sugar left in the milk daring your teeth not to fall out as you drink it. It’s the best.

Well, if you’ve practiced this ritual every morning with Aurora’s “organic” milk, feel free to feel as though you’ve been living a lie. And thank Wal-Mart and other retailers for making you pay more for this lie.

Wal-Mart named in milk lawsuit [Sustainable Industries]

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Wal-Mart is soliciting ideas from professionals and scientists around the world to help them widely implement environmentally friendly policies “if they can improve the company’s bottom line.”

Obviously, in the Wal-Mart edition of Webster’s, “Going Green” reads:

Verb
1) Cutting Costs,
2) Distracting environmental watch groups,
3) Convincing Consumers that social change is possible through spending.

This is where you come in.  The cornerstone of the “going green” philosophy requires an understanding that a big box chain can operate in harmony with the world.  An idea eloquently terminated in The Story of Stuff.

See? WalMart needs you, the consumer, to overlook the toxic pillows, horrendous worker conditions and egregious waste in favor of some skylights and fluorescent light bulbs, so that you, much like Environmental Defense, will accept Wal-Mart as “a very innovative company” concerned about their effect on the world.

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Wal-Mart announced plans today for four new “energy-efficient” stores, the first which will open in Illinois later this month. Utilizing new refrigeration techniques and LED lighting, the new stores are projected to be 25% more efficient than the usual Supercenter. The company touts the efficient stores as not only green, but cheaper, too, though as an article out today from BusinessWeek points out:

“When Wal-Mart (WMT) tells their suppliers to stop shipping in [costly] bulky packaging, it’s not for the consumer. It’s for the company,” Leimsider said. “The good news is that the green revolution is moving beyond corporate reputation issues.”

And reputation has a lot to do with it. If the company is saving money AND winning acclaim with its new stores, why aren’t all 170+ new stores this year going to be green? Perhaps because Wal-Mart’s just looking for a little breathing room:

Under fire from labor unions and employee groups, Wal-Mart has embraced the environment as a way to improve its image and cut costs. The retailer launched a plan in 2005 to make Wal-Mart more eco-friendly, from the products it carries on its shelves to the energy it uses to operate its stores to the fuel efficiency of its truck fleets.

The company’s initiatives are definitely a step in the right direction, but they’re incrimental and certainly don’t earn the retailer a free pass on environmental issues. It’s more important now than ever to keep pressure on the company to follow through on its environmental promises. To help this effort, join our environmental task force at http://walmartwatch.com/environment.

Wal-Mart to open eco-friendly superstore in Romeoville [Chicago Tribune]

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Wal-Mart has been talking a really big game about its green program lately. Company reps love to talk about Hamburger Helper’s straighter noodles and concentrated laundry detergent, but it seems like Wal-Mart’s starting to run out of low-hanging fruit. This article from Reuters takes a look at Wal-Mart’s attempts to green its electronics, and the mission is proving harder than anticipated. As we mentioned in an interview with Treehugger, some of Wal-Mart’s business practices are simply unsustainable, and selling disposable electronics is definitely one of them. As one supplier says in the story, “low prices” is one of the reasons why these product are so environmentally damaging in the first place. Wal-Mart’s lofty environmental goals seem farther away now than ever, but the challenges will hopefully propel the company to substantive change. To help hold Wal-Mart to its environmental promises, and encourage the company to continue innovating, join our environmental task force here.

Wal-Mart faces hurdles in green electronics [Reuters]

A campaign to reduce packaging has been a success for Wal-Mart Stores “green” campaign, but a move toward environmentally friendly electronics is proving that changing the mechanics of a TV is much more complex than changing the mechanics of a cereal box.

Manufacturers that sell goods in Wal-Mart’s stores have responded quickly to the company’s request to cut packaging waste, slashing the size of cereal boxes or bulking up toilet paper rolls to eliminate the need for extra cardboard centers.

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Wal-Mart’s apologetic sustainability report, reactions to Wal-Mart’s new health care plan, a national survey reveals the PR just isn’t working and more.

WAL-MART’S SUSTAINABILITY REPORT APOLOGIZES FOR EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN
Wal-Mart released its long-awaited sustainability report yesterday. The document is 61 pages of shiny PR work, only 19 of which are actually dedicated to “the environment.” What does the rest of the report talk about? The table of contents read like our Issues page. Huh. Wonder what that’s about.

Wal-Mart Releases Sustainability Report Card [Huffington Post]

Officially, Wal-Mart Stores released a “comprehensive report of its sustainability efforts” yesterday. But the much-anticipated document could more accurately be described as a citizenship report...Wal-Mart used sustainability as a catch-all phrase that encompasses areas as disparate as health care plans for employees, charitable giving, diversity and promotion policies, even corporate governance issues like the structure of its board and the way it pays executives.

Regardless of Edelman’s Wal-Mart’s choice of topics to address, the report’s discussion of Wal-Mart’s environmental initiatives left activists wanting. From GreenBiz:

The company vowed to reduce its environmental footprint in October of 2005. Some of its moves include selling 100 million compact fluorescent light bulbs and increasing its own use of LEDs to increase energy efficiency in its operations.

But while some groups lauded the report from the world’s largest retailer, others expressed disappointment that it didn’t go far enough in offering details or transparency. Most of the initiatives listed in the report were previously reported.

And even if the copany were to achieve all of the goals it has laid out, Writing on the Wal points out that the inherent problem would still remain:

For Scott to say there is no conflict between his business model and his company being a more sustainable business is like me saying that there is no conflict between my three-pack-a-day cigarette habit and a healthy lifestyle. Yes, smoking 55 instead of 60 cigarettes a day would be more healthy, but in the long-term. I’d have to quit, drastically alter my health model, if I didn’t want to die a lot younger.

After the jump, Wal-Mart gets peer-pressured into changing its health care plan, we question whether Wal-Mart really saves consumers $2500 a year, and Band of Horses is suddenly too cool for school.

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Wal-Mart finally released a summary of its environmental sustainability efforts yesterday, after many months of delay. Analysts, activists and Wal-Mart’s CEO weigh in on the content of the report.

It all started with a promise. In 2005, Lee Scott made a speech promising lower emissions and higher profits. From the Washington Post:

Two years ago, Wal-Mart chief executive H. Lee Scott Jr. outlined ambitious goals to turn the world’s largest retailer into a more environmentally friendly company. In a speech titled “21st Century Leadership,” he vowed that Wal-Mart would one day create zero waste, be completely supplied by renewable energy and sell more sustainable products.

That day remains a long way off.

Two years later, the company has made some progress and even more promises. The report was meant to outline the progress the company has made on its initiatives. But as the Financial Times points out, there weren’t a lot of details to go on.
Mixed response to Wal-Mart’s ‘green’ report [Financial Times via MSNBC]

The 90-page progress report received a mixed welcome from environmentalists and socially concerned investors, who expressed some disappointment with the lack of measurable data provided...it continues Wal-Mart’s habit of offering isolated facts on its efforts, without context that provides a broader understanding of the impact of changes.

Wal-Mart’s Environmental Report Card [New York Times]

“We’re pleased to see some improvements in the company’s behavior, but we can and should expect more from the world’s largest, most innovative company,” said David Nassar, executive director of Wal-Mart Watch, who dismissed Wal-Mart’s report as a public relations effort.

More after the jump.

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When reports emerged two weeks ago that Wal-Mart was planning to sell groceries online, business analysts scoffed. An arena where no company has really succeeded, online grocery sales could be a growth opportunity for Wal-Mart....if it could pull it off. After all that skepticism and negative feedback, Wal-Mart announced today that it is NOT planning to go in to online grocery sales. Looks like the company will have to figure something else out to raise grocery profits.

Walmart.com says not in online grocery delivery [Reuters]

Walmart.com has not entered the online grocery delivery business, the CEO of the retailer’s Web site said on Tuesday.

“We’re not offering it,” said Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez in an interview.

A media report last month said that Wal-Mart Stores Inc was dipping its toes into online grocery sales with the expansion of a home delivery service for grocery items sold at its Sam’s Club warehouse division.

A spokeswoman for Sam’s Club, the warehouse division of Wal-Mart, also said the retailer is not in the home grocery delivery business.

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According to a new report, Wal-Mart is now the nation’s largest retailer of organic products. Surprisingly, after researching into the matter, it turns out that this Wal-Mart is actually quite a large company, and that the fact that they are #1 should not come as a huge shock. The numbers might be slightly inflated, since Wal-Mart will apparently label ANYTHING as organic as long as one component of the product was produced from some vaguely naturally occurring material, and not conjured in some futuristic science laboratorium. Regardless, it IS always nice to be #1.

Still…

While the report, as reported on by the New York Press, indeed reveals that Wal-Mart sells the most organic foods and has the most organic shoppers, it also points out that those facts are basically a function of size, and not popularity. Apparently, organic consumers are 21% less likely to shop at Wal-Mart than your average everyday grocery shopper. This is probably caused, aside from Wal-Mart’s labeling trickeration, by concern over the retailer’s longing glances across the Pacific in search of lower priced foods. And we all know how THAT has turned out. More lead-dipped organic strawberries, anyone? No? Great, more for me.

According to the report:

Wal-Mart Supercenter top grocery store used by organics; but Whole Foods has the highest concentration of organics consumers in their aisles.

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Think that Wal-Mart’s ethical problems have been solved with compact fluorescent and concentrated laundry detergent? Not by a long shot.

Wal-Mart’s ethical sourcing – Green does not mean ethical [Ethical Corporation]

Despite what Wal-Mart says are some marked improvements at its supplier factories, the retailer’s recent ethical sourcing report is being met with scepticism.

In its 2006 Ethical Sourcing report, Wal-Mart reveals the results of more than 16,000 audits of supplier factories and announces enhancements to its sourcing programme, including expanded environmental criteria. But the report, which touts a 23% reduction in high-risk factory violations as a result of supplier training, is getting a lukewarm reception, at best, from workers’ rights advocates and Wal-Mart watchdogs.

Wal-Mart reports that in 2006 it conducted more factory audits than any other company in the world – at nearly 8,900 supplier factories producing goods on its behalf. The total number of audits is 15% higher than in 2005 and unannounced audits rose to 26% last year from 20% in 2005.

The giant retailer says it has expanded environmental elements in its factory audits to include waste identification, waste handling and discharge, wastewater treatment and discharge, and air emissions.

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This article from the Financial Times (and the accompanying video) explain why it’s so important that Wal-Mart take real, substantive action on climate change: Wal-Mart is the most effective player in the game. The announcement today that the company will be more closely monitoring suppliers’ gas emissions is promising, but once again, it’s only talk. Does Wal-Mart’s environmental plan really just consist of a series of well-publicized announcements?

Click here to learn more about Wal-Mart and the Environment.

Wal-Mart seeks emissions data [Financial Times]

Wal-Mart is to ask its suppliers to measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions, in the biggest move to disclose emissions from businesses.

Few companies disclose their emissions, making it difficult to judge which are “clean” and which are “dirty”.

Paul Dickinson, chief executive of the Carbon Disclosure Project, a group of institutional investors that asks companies to report their emissions, said reporting was the first stage in cutting emissions. “You can’t control what you don’t measure,” he said.

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This is the second major American industry to request mandatory government oversight. Why? The food and toy industries seem to think that when it comes to recalls, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It’s obvious though that these industries are under so much pressure (from retailers like Wal-Mart) to keep prices low that drastic measures are necessary to prevent dangerous production practices. Click here to read the release from the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

Food Firms Want FDA To Oversee Imports [Washington Post]

The country’s largest food suppliers, including Kraft Foods, H.J. Heinz and Dole Food, facing congressional food-safety proposals that could cost them millions of dollars a year, proposed yesterday to grant the government more oversight of the industry.

The plan, offered by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, covers imported food, the subject of increasing attention from Congress. It would require all importers to develop a plan for assuring the quality of imported foods and give the Food and Drug Administration the power to enforce it. Most companies already have such plans, but the FDA does not have authority over them, according to the group.

The association’s proposal would also create a voluntary program that would allow importers to submit testing records, information about their supply chain and other data to the FDA in return for expedited processing at the borders. That would allow the FDA to focus on the riskiest importers, the group said.

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This story from ABC News is a prime example of how Wal-Mart continues to spread the mythology of its “environmental friendliness.” This story, which aired on Friday, is reporting on Wal-Mart’s announcements from more than a year ago. Despite the fact that Wal-Mart’s environmental initiatives are old news, the reporter makes it seem like the company is actually advancing those goals, which is it not. As this story proves, Wal-Mart has done next to nothing in the last year since announcing its green-friendly program.

Wal-Mart Commits to Going Green [ABC News]

Wal-Mart has long been synonymous with rock-bottom prices. Today, the retail giant says it also wants to be synonymous with the green movement.

In 2006, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott announced plans for a bold sustainability initiative. Among other things, the initiative calls for Wal-Mart to cut energy use in its 7,000 stores around the world by 30 percent and to cut greenhouse-gas emissions at existing stores by 20 percent in seven years.

Wal-Mart has also pledged to reduce solid waste produced by its U.S. stores by 25 percent in the next three years and to make its trucking fleet more efficient.

The goals are lofty. And, say environmentalists, they should be, given Wal-Mart’s spotty environmental track record.

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It’s great to see that there’s momentum behind Wal-Mart’s green initiatives. We’re all looking forward to seeing what these groups can come up with and how Wal-Mart will implement them. From the Washington Post:

Critics argue that the big-box model of retailing is inherently unsustainable because it eats up large tracts of land and forces customers to drive long distances to run errands. A report released last week by Wal-Mart Watch, which is funded by the Service Employees International Union, estimated that the retailer’s new stores will use more energy than can be saved through its current programs.

Green Valley In Wal-Mart’s Back Yard [Washington Post]

Daniel Sanker has traveled to the most chic cities—London, New York, Los Angeles—as founder of the shipping and logistics firm CaseStack. But his quest to create a more sustainable business is taking him to the home turf of a company that is virtually synonymous with suburban sprawl: Wal-Mart.

Two years ago, the world’s largest retailer set out on a mission to change that reputation by promising to transform itself into an eco-friendly business. It set wildly ambitious goals to create no waste, be supplied by renewable energy and sell more sustainable merchandise.

Critics have dismissed the effort as a public relations stunt designed to draw attention away from Wal-Mart’s controversial labor and health-care policies. How successful Wal-Mart will be at greening itself remains to be seen. But there is little question that it already is reshaping its own back yard.

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From today’s issue of Roll Call: