Wal-Mart and the Birth of the Organic Twinkie

Robert McClure, Seattle Post-Intelligencer blogger, quoting author Michael Pollan ("The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals), picks up on our theme of Wal-Mart's impact on organics. Far from supporting organic values, Wal-Mart will simply insert "organic" into its unsustainable global formula, diluting standards, eroding quality and making the whole process really suck.

"Wal-Mart . . . will squeeze farmers so hard to get these prices down that only the biggest organic farmers will survive and I worry that organic agriculture will move overseas . . . Food will become like every other commodity, like shoes and CDs and electronics, you know? It will be produced where it can be produced most cheaply and sold wherever it can be sold most dearly. When that happens to food, you have to wonder how organic is it, when you're shipping the food halfway around the world?"

Wal-Mart's organic emphasis ultimately may be good for visibility. But without a transformational change in its business model, Wal-Mart ultimately cannot be organic in good faith.

More on Wal-Mart's move from WorldChanging.org.

-- Paul Andrews, GreenforGood

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