Saturday, October 16, 2010

Times Reading Log for Thursday, October 14, 2010

"Wal-Mart to Buy More Local Produce""

"Wal-Mart Stores announced a program on Thursday that focuses on sustainable agriculture among its suppliers as it tries to reduce its overall environmental impact," according to the New York Times. 

Wal-Mart is expected to meet their goals by the end of 2015. 

"In the United States, Wal-Mart plans to double the percentage of locally grown produce it sells to 9 percent. Wal-Mart defines local produce as that grown and sold in the same state."

While I can agree that this direction is great to be moving in, other countries are doing much better. 

"In Canada, for instance, Wal-Mart expects to buy 30 percent of its produce locally by the end of 2013, and, when local produce is available, increase that to 100 percent."

I don't understand why the U.S. can't compete with that.  What does Canada have that we don't, apparently they just understand the slogan, "Think Global, Act Local"  a little better than we do. 

The article says they are able to do this in Canada because the food business with Wal-Mart is brand new. 

The article used many great sources, and went on to address that while Wal-Mart isn't really doing anything to support small farmers, which is a huge part of the "Buy Local" movement. 

As a monster corporation that shuts down small businesses all the time, how much can they really do?

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