Category Archives: Sustainability

Walmart Stores Signal a Shift Towards Locally Grown Produce: the Heritage Agriculture Program

Local Food Growers Represented in a North Carolina WalMart

Whether you shop there or not, and it’s sometimes hard not to given Americans’ propensity to shop as cheaply as possible, WalMart continues to push forward in a marketing campaign that may not be all about shaping up its image in the country. Whatever your stance on the retail giant, positive or negative, one has to admit that the store’s presence in local economies provides ample material for rigorous debate over the pros and cons. But if the megastore enacts a pro-organic or pro-local or pro-sustainable policy that is company-wide, is that enough to turn the tide of negative press? I mean, just in terms of raw numbers, wouldn’t a nation-wide sustainable agriculture position, embodied in the sale of local-only agriculture in every WalMart store in the country look like something significant? While some want to spotlight the giant as a too-big devil capable of doing only terrible things to local economies and family-run businesses, that may be just too broad a brush to paint them with. Now, it seems that Walmart has been employing a local food distribution policy, perhaps challenging the market leaders like Whole Foods. The program that guides this new Walmart behavior has been named the Heritage Agriculture program. And as we said earlier, this is the world’s largest retailer. That’s correct. Biggest on the globe. So a shift in their approach to local economies spells something dramatic and positive. Continue reading →