Wal-Mart bringing customers in to the sustainability conversation

Here is a link to an April 2 post about sustainability from Wal-Mart's "Check Out" blog. The post, written by Rand Waddoups. Here is what he said:

If I may, I wanted to ask you for a favor…you see, we at Wal-Mart are trying something new right now. Over the past 3 years we have worked to build dialogue about sustainability between Wal-Mart and a large number of groups. NGO’s, governments around the world, academics, suppliers to Wal-Mart, our own people, and more have been included. It is our hope now to begin bringing our customers into the conversation.

In stores and in the media right now there are a number of messages being shared; all with a common theme…small changes in how you purchase make a big difference when you are a part of 200 million customers. Without being preachy or overbearing, we hope to share with our customers this month some of the products that we have learned about. These products aren’t perfect, but they have taken a step toward becoming better for the earth and for society; and some of their stories are tremendous.

Take note of new products like Sam’s Choice Coffee which is fair trade certified, rainforest alliance certified, or organic at a substantial value; or the new mulch made out of recycled tires; or the t-shirts made from transitional cotton. For those of you who don’t know, it takes 3 years for a farmers field to transition to being certified organic. During that time, the farmer treats the cotton field the same way he/she would an organic field, but gets no premium for the cotton. This is a burden on the farmer that creates disincentives to moving to organic. I am proud of our apparel team’s commitment to helping these farmers, such that Wal-Mart is now the largest single purchaser of transitional cotton.

Now, the favor…I hope you’ll go stop by your local Wal-Mart, keep an eye out for the ads, and let me know what you think. I would love your opinion.

Reader comments below:

Frances said this:

I saw the commercial about the CFLs last night, and I thought it was wonderful. It's mind-boggling to me to hear the actual impact of every person making even one small change. EVERYBODY can take baby steps - because one leads to another, and pretty soon, sustainablity can just be a natural way of life for us all!

I actually sent a comment to WM through the main website a few weeks ago after I found BioBag brand biodegradeable trash bags in my local WM. I'd been ordering those online, and was tickled to see them in my store! I got a nice reply quickly, btw.

Now, if I can just find a Wii in my store...I'm dying to try out the WiiFit next month!!

Jane said this:

I think it's wonderful and it's made me less ashamed of shopping at Walmart. My friends are, by and large, well-heeled lefties and they have nothing good to say about Walmart. This new campaign may help. Keep it up!

TK: The post emphasized not being "preachy" or "overbearing" as Wal-Mart pursues sustainability. That is the fine line Wal-Mart walks - investing in initiatives that may or may not spark individual consumer interest or buy in. Can one store brand - even if that brand is Wal-Mart - make sustainability a buy-in for all the stratas of their consumers. It will be an uphill climb, if those oft-advertised always low prices don't follow the sustainability initiatives. We will follow with interest W-M's ad campaign.

The price of produce

There are more and more reports about the effects of inflation on produce consumption. Here is another one.

Posted on the USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service site, the article compares the cost of calorie-dense foods versus low-cal, nutritional items like fresh produce.

It should come as no surprise that fresh produce can be way more expensive than some of the fatty, starchy snacks out there. The article stems from research conducted by Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health and Nutrition at the University of Washington, and his colleagues, who examined the prices of 372 foods sold at Seattle-area supermarkets, comparing the prices with calorie density.

Taken directly from the article: Based on a standard 2000-calorie diet, the researchers found a diet consisting primarily of calorie-dense foods costs $3.52 a day, but a diet consisting primarily of low-calorie food costs $36.32 a day. The average American eats a variety of foods throughout the day, spending $7 a day.

"If you have $3 to feed yourself, your choices gravitate toward foods which give you the most calories per dollar,'' Drewnowski said. "Not only are the empty calories cheaper, but the healthy foods are becoming more and more expensive. Fresh vegetables and fruits are rapidly becoming luxury goods."

While I think you could effectively eat low-cal foods for much cheaper than $36 a day, this clearly shows that fresh produce marketers have a challenge in conveying to consumers the value of eating fruits and vegetables.

Palm trees, Pacific Ocean, PMA

The scene was serene on the morning of April 3 in Newport Beach, Calif., with the Pacific Ocean nearby, as the Produce Marketing Association's Consumer Trends '08: A Produce Solutions Conference began. Photo by Dan Galbraith.

Tour-takers taking off

Members of the fresh produce industry depart Legacy Farms, Buena Park, Calif., on April 3, after that portion of the Produce Marketing Association's Consumer Trends '08: A Produce Solutions Conference ended. Photo by Dan Galbraith.

A rainbow of tomatoes

Workers on the production line at Veg-Fresh Farms, Anaheim, Calif., finish packaging multi-colored tomatoes on April 3. Photo by Dan Galbraith.

Dietary Assessment of Major Trends in U.S. Food Consumption, 1970-2005

A new USDA ERS report is worth looking at, as it updates the progress (or lack thereof) Americans are making in consuming recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables. We already know we should be doing better. Also covers other food group....


From the 27 page pdf report, called "Dietary Assessment of Major Trends in U.S. Food Consumption, 1970-2005":

In general, Americans have been consuming more fruits and vegetables over the last three decades, according to food availability data. In 2005, per capita total fruit and vegetable availability (fresh and processed, fresh weight equivalent, unadjusted for waste and spoilage) reached 687 pounds, up 110 pounds, or 19 percent, since 1970. This 19-percent increase was not distributed equally among the 134 fruits and vegetables covered in the ERS data. Much of the rise within fruits was contributed by the noncitrus group, particularly apples, bananas, and grapes (table 3). Among the vegetable group, tomatoes, onions, and leafy lettuces contributed to the increase (table 4).
Despite our estimate that Americans are consuming more fruits and vegetables than they did in 1970, they are still not meeting the Dietary Guidelines’ recommendations. According to the loss-adjusted food availability data, Americans on a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet consumed 0.9 cup of fresh and processed fruits per person per day in 2005, less than half the Guidelines’ recommendation of 2 cups. We also estimated that each American ate 1.7 cups of fresh and processed vegetables per day in 2005, about 45 percent below the recommended amount of 2.5 cups in the Dietary Guidelines. The Guidelines also recommend choosing a variety of types of fruits and vegetables because some fruits and vegetables are higher in certain vitamins and minerals than others. In particular, the Guidelines encourage Americans to select from all five vegetable subgroups several times a week because each subgroup provides a somewhat different array of nutrients. For example, the recommended weekly intake of vegetables for persons on a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet consists of dark-green vegetables (3 cups), orange vegetables (2 cups), legumes (i.e., dry beans, peas, and lentils) (3 cups), starchy vegetables (3 cups), and other vegetables (6.5 cups). Of the five vegetable subgroups, starchy vegetables, particularly potatoes, dominated vegetable consumption, accounting for approximately a third of the total and slightly above the recommended level (fig. 3). Legumes had the lowest estimated consumption level. Overall, Americans consumed a limited variety of vegetables. Like vegetable consumption, the bulk of fruit consumption came from a limited variety of fresh and processed fruits. For example, 5 out of the 62 items covered in the loss-adjusted food availability data accounted for more than half (54 percent) of daily fruit intake in 2005—orange juice (20 percent), fresh apples (13 percent), bananas (9 percent), apple juice
(8 percent), and fresh grapes (5 percent).

Boman, Wooten star in PMA Match Game

Call it an orientation, call it an ice-breaker, call it what you will, but the April 3 evening activity at the Produce Marketing Association's Consumer Trends '08: A Produce Solutions Conference was a winner. I'm Dan Galbraith, sections editor for The Packer, reporting from Newport Beach, Calif., and I feel privileged to have been seated at the same table with two of PMA Match Game’s stars, Patty Boman of the Giumarra Cos. and George Wooten of Wayne E. Bailey Produce Co. Not only did Patty come up with most of the "right" answers (answers that matched those of "produce celebrities" standing in for the likes of Charles Nelson Reilly, Richard Dawson and Fanny Flagg), but Patty also came up with some of the most clever responses. She wasn't the only witty one in the audience, however, as a couple of people came up with the same humorous response to the question, "Before mom serves her kids vegetables, she BLANKS them."Personally, I really liked the response, "disguises." It was smart, a bit funny and, sadly, true ... I'm sure most of us in the produce industry, although we hate to admit it, acknowledge that getting children to eat fresh produce isn't the easiest task in the world. George Wooten, whose company specializes in sweet potatoes, got his moment in the sun when the question, "Maybe we'd sell more vegetables to kids if the Dr. Seuss book had been titled ‘Green Eggs & BLANK,’” came up. Wooten quickly quipped "Yams." The word is awfully close to "ham," after all. :) For the newsier side of PMA Solutions' Day 1, please scroll down a bit.