Walmart...Organic?

According to a study done by Scarborough Research in 2007, Wal-Mart is the leading seller of organic food in the United States.  The study says, "Twenty-nine percent of organics consumers shopped Wal-Mart Supercenter during the past week."  Wal-Mart, known for its immense store sizes and unbeatable prices, has now not only entered the realm of the often perceived elitist foodie, it has now mastered the market.  How is this possible you might ask?  "The company sells 18 percent of all the groceries bought in the United States--more than anyone else by a wide margin," says an article in the Mother Jones publication.  If a company of that magnitude enters any new market, it seems that that company is headed for success.

Wal-Mart first began its "green initiatives" in 2005, according to an article in the encyclopedia Green Food.  The company has pushed to be more energy efficient; S. Robson Walton is on the board of Conservation International and his grandson, Sam R. Walton, currently serves on the board of Environmental Defense.  One of the largest green advances that Wal-Mart has made is to have all of their fish certified by the Marine Stewardship Council.  In order to attract more suppliers, the megalith company encouraged non-sustainable fisheries to become sustainable instead of simply skipping them over.        

But there has been a substantial amount of controversy surrounding Wal-Mart's switch to go green.  Take the fisheries for example.  Critics say that perhaps Wal-Mart is doing what is called "greenwashing" or over-promoting green PR to the point that it is not sincere, but merely based in marketing stratagem.  Some think that  the over-fishing many suppliers do to meet high consumer demand is strategically overshadowed by the retailer's commitment to stay sustainable.  Also, according to the Mother Jones article, produce industry analyst Jim Prevor said that a company as big as Wal-Mart can't waste its time "chasing down small organic apple wholesalers and buying 60 cases of apples because that's all they have...I'd be surprised if it's [organic food] more than 2 percent of their total produce."

From the critical point of view, Wal-Mart is not the most environmental or local-minded company around either, and its sheer size doesn't help.  According to an Economic Policy Institute article, Wal-Mart fuels unemployment in the U.S. by using vast amounts of Chinese imports.  The company sells cheap products to many, many people in the U.S. that are easy to make in China, but only through certain, often labor-rights-abusive methods.  This process is profit-minded, which is not in keeping with the organic mindset promoting local businesses and a low carbon footprint.  Yet, Wal-Mart must be doing something right if it has gained so much more notoriety for going green.  The company has built environmentally friendly stores and has packaged items with less material than before.  So what is one to think about all of this controversy?  Is what Wal-Mart doing laudable or immoral?  Should companies like Wal-Mart's still try to be more sustainable or is it just too difficult because of their size?