Don’t Help Wal-Mart Degrade the Quality of Organic Food
by Vin Miller
Wal-Mart stores are well known for their variety and low prices, but are often criticized about the questionable approach to their success. Among the many negative impacts that Wal-Mart is often accused of, their tremendous influence is degrading the quality of organic food.
Wal-Mart is the largest public company in the world and is the largest grocery retailer in the United States. They are able to offer such low prices because they use their prominence to pressure wholesalers into selling them goods at a significant discount. Although this is a great business tactic, it encourages wholesalers to compromise their level of quality in order to meet the demand. One such compromise is the use of cheap offshore labor. In fact, Wal-Mart has been accused multiple times of dealing directly with foreign suppliers that run sweatshops and is even known for treating their own employees poorly.
How Wal-Mart’s Cost Cutting Practices Affect Your Food
When suppliers cut corners to meet the price demands of large retailers like Wal-Mart, it usually leads to a reduction in quality. In most cases, cheaper materials are used, production is accelerated, and the final product is compromised. This may not be such a big deal with a piece of furniture or a small appliance, but it most certainly is a big deal when it degrades the quality of the food that your health and longevity depend on.
Through the use of chemicals and other unnatural farming practices, modern industrial farming is destroying our land and has greatly reduced the quality of our food. Even whole foods like meat, fruit, and vegetables aren’t guaranteed to be healthy anymore and are often contaminated with traces of agricultural chemicals and contain much less nutrition than they did just a few decades ago. With Wal-Mart as the leading grocery retailer in the United States, this can only get worse.
The Irony of Wal-Mart Selling Organic Food
Our last hope of having an abundant supply of healthy and nutritious food for many years to come and an adequate amount of fertile land to produce it on is slowly fading away. The people who are keeping this hope alive are the farmers who understand the importance of sustainable farming and the superior nutritional and health promoting qualities of organically raised produce and pasture raised livestock.
We’ve spent millions of years depending on the foods provided to us by nature which is one of the many reasons why natural, sustainable, and responsible farming is so important. There’s a limit to how quickly and easily nature can produce our food, but this conflicts with the interests of a retail giant like Wal-Mart. However, like many other large corporations, Wal-Mart has recognized the growing popularity of organic food and isn’t about to let nature interfere with their ability to take advantage of this rising trend.
Although the USDA certification requirements for organic food enforce a basic standard of quality, this standard is far from perfect and leaves plenty of room for questionable farming methods, particularly in regard to raising livestock. Wal-Mart’s practices encourage their organic food suppliers to take advantage of this by cutting every corner possible, and several of them have even violated a number of the USDA’s requirements. This could very easily cause a ripple effect and pressure other organic food suppliers into doing the same. The remaining farmers who are unwilling to compromise the quality of their food are often unable to compete and can ultimately be forced out of business. If this trend continues, it can have a significant impact on the quality of organic food in general
Not All Organic Foods are Created Equal
The organic milk that Wal-Mart sells under their own “Great Value” brand is a perfect example of how their influence can negatively effect the quality of organic food. This milk is supplied by Aurora Organic Dairy which is a large company that supplies other retailers such as Safeway, Costco, and Target as well. Aurora Organic has been accused on multiple occasions of selling organic milk that is in fact not organic. Horizon Organic is another large distributor of organic milk that also supplies Wal-Mart and has been accused of the same thing. Based on this, the Organic Consumers Association has called for a boycott of both suppliers.
In 2007, USDA investigators found Aurora Organic to be in violation of 14 organic dairy requirements and threatened to revoke their certification. Legal complaints have also been filed against Horizon Organic. Unfortunately, no further action was taken and both Aurora Organic and Horizon Organic continue to flood the market with low quality “organic” milk. For more information on this issue, visit the Cornucopia Institute’s page on Aurora Organic Factory Dairy.
The USDA’s policy for organic dairy requires that cattle have access to a pasture, but this is only required in a limited amount. As such, the cattle can still be kept in feedlots part time and can still be fed grains as long as they’re organic. Because cows don’t naturally eat grain, this compromises their health as well as the quality of their milk regardless of how good the grain is. This is just one example of the many opportunities that farmers have to cut corners while staying within the USDA’s requirements for organic certification and is exactly what corporations like Wal-Mart are encouraging.
Don’t Be Part of the Problem
It only takes a little common sense to recognize that corporations like Wal-Mart have no interest in the true benefits of sustainable farming, and as a result, are jeopardizing the future of organic food. If you have any interest in preserving the availability of the high quality food that our health depends on, please, don’t buy your groceries from Wal-Mart. Instead, buy as much of your food as possible directly from local farmers. They generally produce the most nutritious food available and are the people who truly deserve our support. If you’re unable to buy from local farmers, the next best option is to buy organic products from reputable companies.
You can visit EatWild.com or LocalHarvest.org to find local farmers, or you can order online from places like U.S. Wellness Meats, Vital Choice Seafood and Organics, and Blackwing Quality Meats.
I like saving money just as much as anyone else, but when it comes to Wal-Mart or any other retail giant, the savings often incur significant costs elsewhere. Every time you buy something from Wal-Mart, you’re contributing to their influence and the degradation of organic food. If you need more convincing, I suggest you read the action alert from the Organic Consumers Association explaining why you should boycott Wal-Mart.
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That is why I love the farmers’ market! Unfortunately, ours is now closed till spring, but while open it had local, organic: free-range eggs, honey, fruits and veggies. It’s going to be a long winter! At least I have frozen and home-canned some of the produce from my garden and the market.
Hi meatlessmama, thanks for your comment!
This is when it’s nice to have local grocery stores and health food stores that have a decent organic selection. Although there isn’t anyplace like Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s in my area, I’m grateful for the few decent resources that I do have.
Thanks for those two links through which one can find local organic farmers. It’s simply a question of convenience/cheapness VS what we know is good and right. Unfortunately, I think humanity has quite clearly shown its preference for what’s convenient and cheap. Even if it comes at the expense of our own health!
Hi Phil, thanks for your comment!
I agree, everyone prefers cheap and convenient. While some people unfortunately don’t care about the impact of unnaturally low prices, I think many people simply aren’t aware of it. Hopefully that will change!
Ugh..I don’t like going to Walmart. I get a weird, trashy vibe when I’m in there.
By instinct, I never trusted their food anyway.
Same here, Sharona. I especially don’t like the chaos resulting from how crowded it usually is.
Hi Vin! I hate Wal-Mart because I can’t stand the experience of shopping there. However, when I do go into Wal-Mart (I never buy food there), I find it full of people who are obviously not rolling in money. I’m glad I can afford to buy higher quality food, but I would never deny other people to the right to spend their money where they see fit.
Government is not and has not ever been the friend of small business or small farmers. I don’t think it is companies like Wal-Mart that are the ultimate cause of our problems. Were it not for government screwing up the economy, we would be a lot wealthier and more people could afford to be picky about what they buy. The more government screws things up, the more it is only large companies that can afford to survive. Poor economies hurt the small guys much worse than the large guys. Big companies LOVE big government. Did we bail out the small guys or the big investment banks? Obama has started some asinine idea called “too big to fail”. We are on a path to nonsense.
The best hope for small farmers and true organic farming is a vibrant and growing economy. The freedom that the internet and technology has given us give me hope that small independent wealth will be created and we can save the producers of quality natural food.
Sorry, I sort of got off track there, but I don’t hate Wal-Mart as much as I hate a system that makes them so successful. The worse the economy gets, the more people will shop at discount stores.
Hi Stephen, thanks for sharing your thoughts!
For the people who truly have trouble affording organic food, I would rather see them buy it from Wal-Mart than for them to buy conventionally produced food. However, there are many Wal-Marts across the nation that are in middle to upper class residential areas where such people are a minority among the customers. My local Wal-Mart is one of them and the parking lot always seems to be packed with cars that I wouldn’t expect underprivileged people to be driving.
I think there are a lot of people who claim that they can’t afford good food when it’s really their priorities that make it so. For me, the quality of my food is more important than the type of car I drive or the size of my house. Many people who complain about the price of high quality food don’t think this way.
For Wal-Mart to maintain their low prices, they need more customers than just the underprivileged who can’t afford to shop anywhere else. Otherwise, Wal-Mart wouldn’t be big enough to have the influence they now have to push down prices. Although I would like to see organic food be more accessible to underprivileged people, there must be a better way to do it than allowing Wal-Mart to degrade quality all across the organic food industry.
I agree that government and the economy are the bigger problems, but I feel that I have very little control over that while I have complete control over how I choose to spend my money and who I support as a result.
Thank you so much for that information. More and more I am equally unhappy with the products at Walmart.
One of my complaints is that when Wal-Mart Started, they professed to use only products made in the USA! Yesterday, I was looking for jackets and sweat suits and was totally shocked to see that everything is made in China! I was appalled.
If you think about it, from a financial point of view. Remember that our president borrowed money from China for the famous stimulus plan. Now they are flooding the market with products. We are pretty well being sold out to China. Do we really want their finger on us that much. I don’t think so.
Shopping somewhere else is the best way to make a point with Wal-Mart!! They understand revenue.
Thanks again for the tip!!
Jo Anne Morris
Hi Jo Anne, thanks for your comment!
I agree with Stephen that the poor economy is a big part of the problem. I’m far from an economics expert, but it seems to me that the more we buy from Wal-Mart, the more money we’d be sending overseas, and the more it would hurt the economy.
I too don’t want China or any other country to have that much influence over us. I’m not against buying imported goods, but when we come to rely on them for so many of our needs, I think it’s a problem.
There’s a documentary about Wal-Mart that I bet goes deeper into these issues. Now that we’re talking about politics and economy, I may have to watch it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Vin, for posting this. It’s something that many are not aware of. And I agree the more we support Wal-Mart I think the more we do send $$ over seas. Plus we are supporting environmentally destructive practices, NOT supporting local people with shops, and probably supporting to child labor and sweatshops. But back to the organic part, what you wrote here is sooo true. Even in health food stores not ALL the products are equally organic. I researched that Hoizon’s Milk and they are so far down on the organic list that they barely scrap through into the organic classification. And yet that is one of the most sold brands in health food stores. I don’t do any dairy but I found the info for a friend, as well as wrote a complaint to Vitamin Cottage and WildOats. Thank you for bringing this and so many other important issues to light.
Hi Robin, thank you for your comment!
I agree, there are many other reasons besides the quality of organic food to not buy from retailers such as Wal-Mart that employ questionable practices. I hope more people will realize that saving money isn’t always a good thing.
In regard to Horizon barely qualifying as organic, I think some would argue that it’s not organic at all!
After reading this article and many of the comments following I was upset that no one pointed out any benefits whatsoever of retail chains like Walmart getting involved with organic foods. I have never been a great fan of Walmart, however, they have been working in recent years to improve their practices and promote employee and consumer health and welfare
For every pound of organic produce Walmart buys that is pounds to tons less pesticide spread in our fields, less damage to soil, farming practices and general health. Walmart is the largest distributor or organic foods in the US. Walmarts stand in parts of the country where “organic” is still draped clouds of incense, love beads and liberal political views. The company has a powerful opportunity to educate consumers and allow more environmentally sound options. Many of the folks who now have access to organic produce at all have Walmart to thank for it.
For each of us in the comments section who have owned up to shopping at Walmart: our spent dollars go to support the corporation, no matter what we spend it on. Walmart does indeed change their buying practices based on consumer spending habits. For instance, Walmart ceased buying milk products produced with growth hormone after CONSUMERS made a point of asking for products without it.
Also, humans have not been making our mark on the planet long enough for the authors statement of “We’ve spent millions of years depending on the foods provided to us by nature” to be valid.
There is more than one side to every story.
Hi Sarah, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I do not know if Walmart is truly sincere in their campaign to improve their practices or if it’s just a shallow attempt to improve their image. If they are sincere, then this is obviously good news and I appreciate you bringing it to everyone’s attention.
Yes, there certainly could be tremendous benefits from major retail chains like Walmart selling organic food. An even better example is a farmer like Joel Salatin providing sustainably raised pork to his local Chipotle restaurant. (For anyone who doesn’t know who Joel Salatin is, check out Fresh the Movie or his farm’s website) However, as is seen with Horizon and Aurora Organic, the pressure for low pricing that these major retailers impose hurts the quality of organic food. In some cases, it’s questionable if the food sold as organic is really organic. This is certainly not a benefit. People don’t go to Walmart for quality food, they go for convenience and a good bargain. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for, and if Walmart is selling organic food for a cheap price, then chances are that the quality of the food was compromised somewhere along the way to accommodate that price.
I agree that Walmart does have an incredible opportunity to educate consumers and reduce pesticide use and soil damage, but the question is if they’ll really embrace it. I also agree that it makes sense to buy organic food at Walmart if it’s the only place accessible, but I think it’s better to buy from local farmers, health food stores, or even local grocery stores.
One thing that I certainly think we can agree on is that consumers do have a say. If people take the time to educate themselves and only purchase the quality organic products that Walmart might sell, they’ll be more likely to stop selling the organic products that are of questionable quality and are harming the integrity of organic certification.
I think you misinterpreted my statement about the millions of years that we’ve been relying on natural foods. It was meant to point out the tremendous amount of time that we’ve spent evolving on foods that were produced by nature and that food quality suffers from the modern farming practices that resist the principles of nature rather than embracing them.