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i ate some locally produced corn grown for wal-mart from a small farm in central missouri this past summer. but this corn was given away from the farm because wal-mart rejected the corn for being too small. i guess the ears didn't meet their size standard. so here was a farm that contractually grew 5 acres for a company that just walked away in the end. the corn was perfectly formed and delicious, but for the corporate standards of wal-mart, not good enough. wal-mart is expecting industrial agricultural results from small farms, which is just flawed thinking, and bad for small farmers.

"The Better World Shopping Guide" (betterworldshopper.org) calls Wal-Mart a "corporate villain" & lists it as #3 in their rankings of the 10 worst co's. (based on environmental & social criteria). Specifically, they say it's been on Multinational Monitor's 100 Worst Corporations for years; it's been ordered to pay major toxic waste dumping fines; it got an F from the Council on Economic Priorities in overall corporate responsibility; & it's had documented exploitation of child labor. And then there's the way they treat their store employees. Anyone really think they're going to do any better by farmers?

BTW, Organic Valley is rated #4 on the 10 best list in the Better World guide.

Having finished with (the start of):

Comprehensivehealthcarereform
Comprehensivefinancialservicesform

What do you think are the chances for
Comprehensiveagriculturalreform

after we finish with Comprehensiveimmigrationform
(Can you say "shibboleth"?)

How ironic. Ivy is the bastion of future organic farming. I passed on my UPenn acceptance to go to a traditional State U ag college. Sustainable farming was discussed 30 years ago. The problem is the bottom line. BTW, I sell locally raised sustainable crops to my local Ivy neighbors. They are the ones who can afford it.

So they go exclusively to Ivy League schools to "promote" organic farming?

And you wonder why organic food is considered "elitist" by many.

Beware Walmart. They are predatory and will pressure the farmers to keep lowering their prices. They have repeatedly done this with many vendors, some having been forced out of business.

It's more like Monsanto is controlling our food.

Well let's see: As the previous republican guest asked, why would you want to be dependent on a huge, centralized, unaccountable, and powerful enterprise (ie government) to control your health?

I would ask the same question about Wallmart in control of our food.

In other words, i'm being consistent.

Yes, it is getting harder to hate Wal Mart they are doing well but if they could only get their "stuff" together with regard to treatment of their employees regarding salary and benefits they'd be perfect. They'd become god!