Comments on: Local Food: How Wal-Mart Falls Short

By: smalltowngal

smalltowngal — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 19:42:57 +0000

“Suddenly the options become, fold the business or start talking to Wal-Mart.”
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I guess in localities where WMT is going in for the first time, they may well displace other buyers the farmers have depended on, and back them into that corner. But where they are simply bringing a commitment to local products into their existing stores, then I see it as adding a channel the growers didn’t have access to before. In the latter scenario, a farm that is surviving without WMT is unlikely to be driven extinct by it, and one that is struggling will have a new option.

Pressuring manufacturers and distributors to surrender their profit margins has indeed been a cornerstone of WMT’s biz model. But applying the same tactic to small farmers would be self-defeating. It’s not like WMT could turn to cheap offshore sources to fill their quota of local products. What I’m reading in these articles is that WMT plans to bring their distribution leverage to bear, to get local products onto shelves at reasonable prices (and, it’s reasonable to hope at this point, reasonable margins for the growers).

By: David

David — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:38:06 +0000

Channeling Thumper Rabbit verrry hard now….

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By: Decatur Metro

Decatur Metro — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:43:56 +0000

Yeah, I think I went a little strong in that statement.

And if you look at it from a big economy, national perspective, I believe you’re right. Community is a by-product, while planetary, nutritional and economic are the real drivers and paths to peoples motivations and wallets. But if you listen to conversations within the local food/slow food movement, they’re currently struggling with a couple things: first, as exemplified in “The Town that Food Saved” is this small economy/large economy tension within the movement. And then within the large economy, they’re struggling with how local food defines itself when it’s been dissected into all these little interest groups in the marketplace.

All I’ve really been trying to say is that the source of all this tension, both between the large economy/small economy folks (think the Stonyfield example in Food, Inc.) and the lack of a collective voice at the national level is because in many of these examples the community aspects of local food have been abandoned in favor of large economy principles (cost, efficiency, economies of scale, etc). At the local level, all these elements are tied together and kept in balance thanks to community. So we shouldn’t be all that shocked that it’s now hard for a national movement to speak with one voice (i.e. Yay Wal-Mart! Boo Wal-Mart!)

By: nelliebelle1197

nelliebelle1197 — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:23:49 +0000

I was reading what you said a different way- that the price pressure WM would put on the farmer would cause the failure.

By: Decatur Metro

Decatur Metro — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:11:56 +0000

Farms fail like everything else. Even if a local grower is committed to his farm and lifestyle, he or she still might be having trouble making ends meet. Suddenly the options become, fold the business or start talking to Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart sounds like it will work to streamline delivery, and that’s how they will offer lower prices from local farmers. I can certainly see how this could work, but over the years, Wal-Mart is known for demanding lower and lower prices from suppliers. How a small farm can ever survive this is beyond me at this point.