Wal-Mart stepped up its marketing campaign around locally-produced food this week, announcing a "locally grown" section of its web site, along with related signage inside stores designed to attract increasingly environmentally conscious consumers.
The retail giant said that it would source $400,000 in locally-produced food this year, including more local fruits and vegetables for its stores, but it was unclear how much of an increase in value this represented over last year. It already sources a fifth of its food locally – by which it means at a state level in the US – during the summer months, and partnerships with local farmers have grown by 50 per cent in the past two years.
The average distance travelled between producer and consumer is 1,500 miles, said the company, but it would not comment on how much it has or will reduce this distance.
However, critics said that while the initiative was to be welcomed there was a lack of clarity over the level environmental savings that are delivered by local sourcing initiatives.
"None of the supermarkets properly share what that means in terms of actual food miles," said Kathy Dalmeny, policy director of Sustain, a UK advocacy group for better food and farming. "You continue to have cases of foods that are sold as local but can travel quite a long way before they get processed or labelled. The full meaning can be subject to more investigation."
Erik Esse, director of the non-profit Local Fair Trade Network which advocates food producers' rights in the upper midwest US, was cautiously hopeful about the announcement. "If it's legitimate, then nothing could be better," he said. "But when they got big into organics, they created pressure for lower prices, and that's the opposite of what we want. We don't want local farmers in the situation where they have even lower prices for their product because Wal-Mart is driving a hard bargain and buying from bigger suppliers."
Wal-Mart failed to respond to questions about how its ongoing local produce initiative is changing logistics or supplier management strategies, how much it is saving overall from local food initiatives, or how the press release represented a change to its previous food procurement strategy.
Row between green groups and farmers highlights cattle industry's links to rainforest palm oil plantations 24 Aug 2009
Professor John Beddington predicts developments in biotechnology and nanotechnology will be needed to address climate change and meet growing demand for food 06 Jan 2010
Government unveils new food strategy, as Conservatives call for new independent body to protect farmers from exploitative supermarkets 05 Jan 2010
Agencies release biofuel targets and unveil $1.8bn in funding designed to accelerate switch to second generation fuels 06 May 2009
U-turn comes as study reveals palm plantations store less carbon than previous estimates 17 Aug 2009
Yorkshire and Humberside selected as CCS Low Carbon Economic Area, as pilot project receives £6.3m grant 18 Mar 2010
Bumper day for British car industry as Nissan and Ford make major low-carbon vehicle manufacturing commitments 18 Mar 2010
The changes include a transformation of draughty homes, plus vast expansion of renewable and nuclear power 18 Mar 2010
More news
Andrew Williams casts his eye over some of the most popular green driving aids on the market 16 Mar 2010
From hydropower hot spots to record-breaking Texan winds, we run down the top stories from the past week 12 Mar 2010
Few debates cast the UK's business and political community in such an unedifying light as the never-ending row over skills.... 12 Mar 2010 More in-depth
Post your comment
Send an email to the Business Green editor at feedback@businessgreen.com
