The Whole Food Journal

Say what you want about Walmart……and plenty of people have plenty to say. But today Walmart is to be commended for taking a huge step in bringing locally grown food to consumers. Normally locally grown food is found in Farmer’s Markets around the country and a multitude of roadside stands. Now, it seems, we’ll see it in our local Walmart store.

The retail giant did introduce organic food to it’s shelves a while back. Some came all the way from China. However, this looks like a win-win situation for everyone. Adding locally grown food to their stores is good for not just Walmart and their customers, but also for local folks who would sell more of what they grow if there were a stable outlet. And, perhaps this could encourage more people to become growers for their locality. How great is this?

Consumers will need to understand that while this is what we call whole food, it isn’t necessarily organic. It depends on the grower. Some do grow organically. Others grow chemically free. Some do use synthetic fertilizers etc. Being local, it should be easy to figure that out.

I’m sure the locally grown product will differ with different areas of the country. Where I live avocados don’t grow. But I sure wish they did. I suspect some of the more popular offerings will be greens including lettuce and spinach, carrots, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squashes, onions. I would expect some herbs, especially dill, cilentro and parsley.

This is a good thing!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 8:53 pm and is filed under Whole Food 101. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.