Wal-Mart Organics: Oxymoron of the Year?
A few words that come to mind when I think about Wal-Mart:
BigA few words that come to mind when I think about producers of organic products:
Community-killer
Monopoly
Evil
Earth-destroyer
SmallSo, when I read this article about how Wal-Mart is going to be offering organic products, it kinda blew my mind. Strangely enough, my first thought was, “Awesome! Since Wal-Mart is trying to conquer capitalism by wiping out small businesses one by one, at least consumers will have access to healthy, low-cost organic food when Wal-Mart is their only shopping choice.”
Community-based
Family-friendly
Good for the Earth
My second thought was, “Crap! What affect will this have on organic standards in this country if Wal-Mart becomes the biggest distributor of organic food in the country?”
I can just see the Wal-Mart lobbyists meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill now.
“Well, gee, Senator, why should we have to guarantee that produce is 95% pesticide-free to qualify for the USDA organic label? How about 90%? That’s still an “A” if you want to grade us. And this doesn’t preclude us from labeling genetically engineered fruit as organic right?”
Maybe I’m wrong, but I just have a bad feeling about this.
Bad. Bad. Bad.
posted by Cristina @8:43 PM
11 Comments:
Good point. Sounds like some manipulative marketing on their part. And I agree - Bad bad bad!
I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart and now my two young daughters have taken up the battle cry. My nine yeear old's teacher told me he mentioned Wal-Mart as a place to get supplies for a school project and she immediately chastised him for it so he retracted and got into an unplanned lecture on their unfair labor practices. One little brain at a time...
That is so great that your kids have taken up the cause :) Good for them--and good for you for educating them so early. As parents, we truly are our kids most important teachers!
Now that everyone makes organic stuff, I wonder what the regulations are - like what makes it organic that they can charge $2 more and I buy it.
I refuse to shop there - and I'm interested to see where they get their stuff from. Organic sweatshop greenhouses in Vietnam?
I love mom's with political and civic minded opinions! Is great that you got your kids involved too.
And thanks for visiting. If you haven't checked out www.dooce.com, please do. She's a really talented writer and let's it all hang out.
Be very afraid.
i thought that same thing when i saw a display at walmart devotes solely to "organic" foods. I wonder what "organic" is my walmart standards!?
Oh Lord. The sky is falling. Organic food at Wal Mart? I shudder to think.
I know we don't go to Wal Mart if we can help it, but sometimes its a necessary evil.
Ellen(http://www.thereignofellen.blogspot.com/) worked at their corporate office for like 3 days. She posted about it a month or so ago, and it was a funny read.
WalMart is known for wrecking almost everything they touch in one manner or another. It's bad enough there are bills being voted on to weaken organic standards; putting WalMart into the mix can yield nothing good, IMO. Thanks for speaking up about it. I didn't even know about it.
Wow, I'm so glad that there are other moms out there who hate Wal-Mart like I do. Awesome.
I have to admit that I was tempted recently by the $.50 a jar cans of organic Earth's Best baby food they were selling, but I RESISTED. I WILL NOT ENTER! NOT EVEN FOR CHEAP BABY FOOD!!
You prevailed in the face of serious temptation! A 39¢ per jar savings would have crumbled a lesser woman :)
Uhhh...what? 'Wal-mart' and 'organic'
are not connecting in my head.
Jesus, where have I been not to have heard this? Certainly not wal-mart...
I would be interested as well, to see where they get their organic produce, etc, from....
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