Walmart to Double Sales of Locally Grown Produce

BENTONVILLE, Ark.Walmart unveiled its new global commitment to sustainable agriculture that will help increase farmers incomes, lead to more efficient use of pesticides, fertilizer and water, and provide fresher produce for its customers. The company also pledged to double its sale of locally sourced produce and increase its purchase of select U.S. crops.

More than 1 billion people around the world rely on farming and hundreds of millions of them live on less than $2 a day," said Mike Duke, Walmart president and CEO. Globally, with a booming population, food production must increase roughly 70 percent to feed 9 billion people in 2050."

Walmarts sustainable agriculture strategy is divided into three areas, each containing specific supporting goals to help the company track and report progress.

By the end of 2015 in emerging markets, Walmart will help many small- and mid-sized farmers gain access to markets by selling $1 billion in food sourced from 1 million small and medium farmers; provide training to 1 million farmers and farm workers in such areas as crop selection and sustainable farming practices; and increase the income of the small and medium farmers it sources by 10 percent to 15 percent.

Walmart will ask suppliers about the water, energy, fertilizer and pesticide they use per unit of food produced. The goals include accelerating the agricultural focus of the Sustainability Index, beginning with a Sustainable Produce Assessment for top producers in its Global Food Sourcing network in 2011; investing more than $1 billion in its global fresh supply chain in the next five years; and, reducing food waste in its emerging market stores and clubs by 15 percent and by 10 percent in stores and clubs in its other markets by the end of 2015.

The company also will require sustainably sourced palm oil for all Walmart private brand products globally by the end of 2015. The company also will expand the already existing practice of Walmart Brazil of only sourcing beef that does not contribute to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest to all of its companies worldwide by the end of 2015.