I saw the commercial about the CFLs last night, and I thought it was wonderful. It's mind-boggling to me to hear the actual impact of every person making even one small change. EVERYBODY can take baby steps - because one leads to another, and pretty soon, sustainablity can just be a natural way of life for us all!

I actually sent a comment to WM through the main website a few weeks ago after I found BioBag brand biodegradeable trash bags in my local WM. I'd been ordering those online, and was tickled to see them in my store! I got a nice reply quickly, btw.

Now, if I can just find a Wii in my store...I'm dying to try out the WiiFit next month!!

I think it's wonderful and it's made me less ashamed of shopping at Walmart. My friends are, by and large, well-heeled lefties and they have nothing good to say about Walmart. This new campaign may help. Keep it up!

     Dear Rand

I'm a dairy farmer and a long time Wal Mart customer. We buy many of our dairy supplies sure as towels for cleaning and drying our cows teats before we attach the milking machines plus soaps to wash our milking equipment. And many other suppiles we need to run our farm.

I belong to many mainstream farm organizations such as American Farm Bureau, American Farmers Union, National Corn Growers Association, Soybean Growers association, Minnesota Milk Producers Association, Forage Growers Association, and most resently American Farmer for the Conservation and Advancement of Technology.

In your latest blog you said that for the past 3 years Wal Mart has been talking with many groups about sustainability which is a good thing. We as farmers are leaning every day how to be more sustainable. What is troubling and concrening is that I don't recall hearing from any of these organization that I belong to that they were at the table when Wal Mart was having these discussion.

Maybe it was by design or maybe it was a decission you made not to include mainstream AG people, but by doing so Wal Mart has missed a tremendous oppertunity to meet some of the most sustianable minded people in the country. It is not only Wal Marts loss by not engaging these farmers in your talks but it could also be a loss for Wal Mart Customers.

In order to provide best value for the Wal Mart customer I would think that you want want to embrace the best of all technologies and food production practices.

In your sustainability blog you seem to beleive that Mainstream Agriculture is less sustainable than organic or other alternative form of food production. I wonder if you could provide for me your definition of sustainable.

This is my definition of sustainablity and I believe that this would hold true for the majority of Famers producing the Nation food. (Agriculture that is turly sustainable utilizes technologies to produce safe, nutritious and affordable foods with minimal environmental impact and maximum consumer value.)

The Nations farmer want to work with Wal Mart so we can provide consumers with the products they want and need. As you have continuing discussions on how the be more sustaiable and reduce your carbon footprint please include representative from all the farm organization. Wal Mart will better serve their customers by including all.

Thank You

Bill Rowekamp Lewiston MN.

I just want to thank Wal-mart again for bringing on more new organic items in their stores, and the news that GV milk will now be rbst-free is just wonderful.   Not every one can afford to shop only at health food stores, or buy pricey organic cotton for all clothing needs. That I can pick up some of my organic items at your stores, just means my family, and our environment, is a bit healthier without our having to pick up another job to do so. Thanks again!   Heidi Clay  

Rand, A couple months ago after reading one of your blogs I began looking more closely for organic products. I was pleasantly surprised by how many Wal*Mart actually stocks.  I would have sworn stores like Kroger and Publix actually offered more. The only reason is that WMT has such a small section of over-priced organic produce. That's the category that makes a store appear to be in the earth friendly business. As an example Wal*Mart could reduce the varieties of apples available from 10-6 to get the additional space for organics. Also consider using easily recognizable green shelf strips to identify TRUE earth friendly products.

When WMT first introduced 3X All Detergent from Lever Brothers I immediately switched to it. That's a great concept that I'm disappointed you haven't demanded from other vendors, especially those in processed foods. Those manufacturers remind me of the US auto industry who began to take the US consumer for granted at the expense of quality. I'm sick and tired of finding the same size package with fewer ounces of product inside. It's time for you to demand that vendors ship a maximum amount of product in as small a package as possible. A prime example is cereal. Each box is about a third empty in a failing attempt to fool the consumer. Rand, you know this empty space requires more trees, diesel fuel and Wal*Mart labor.

Cheating, illusion, or misrepresentation isn't confined to food products. Each profit cahallenged manufacturer finds a way to cheat Wal*Mart  everday of the week. Shampoo manufacturers know that WMT won't give them a price increase so they just increase the size of the dispensing orifice and decrease the density of the liquid. I'll never buy another Puritan undershirt from Wal*Mart. The vendor, reduced the size of the sleeve under-arms by 50%.

Keep up the great work Rand.

Is there a good resource to find out what kinds of plastics are used in the kids cups and plates you make? Is it on a case by case basis or do you have some sort of central product information site?

I am glad to see Wal-Mart become greener, but as many consumers as it supplies and as many products as it supplies them with, I feel that Wal-Mart’s current efforts are only the tip of the ice burg. 

There are many stores such as Best Buy and Ikea that have recycling centers for such things as batteries, electronics, and plastic bottles.  While I have noticed a small, obscure place in my local Wal-Mart to recycle plastic bags, I wish they made it as convenient to recycle all other consumer waste such as paper, cardboard, glass, electronics, batteries, and plastic other than just bags (just to name a few). 

Sure, consumers could take their recyclables down to their city’s recycling center themselves (providing that their city has a recycling center), but many consumers don’t do this because it is out of their way or because they are charged a fee.  Wal-Mart could probably arrange with the city governments to become a pickup site for government-run recycling centers so that shoppers could just drop off their recyclables on their way in to purchase more. 

Since Wal-Mart sometimes gets a bad rap for being so big, it would give its critics a reason to keep their mouths shut if Wal-Mart used its size to influence the amount of garbage that ISN’T being dumped into our landfills and destroying our environment.  Just an idea...

Speaking of sustainability, we were wondering when the Susanville Walmart will finally have a full fledged grocery store?

As it is, there is a small, but loyal group, who always starts at Walmart at about 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning. From there we go to the other stores in town to purchase what we can't get at Walmart. It is my dream to ,ultimately, make Walmart my one stop grocery shopping experience. This would save on fuel expenditures for me and my friends.

I had stopped shopping at Walmart completely because of their issues with labor.  However, after listening to Gary Hirshberg on a C-Span panel I learned about some of the changes that are being made--especially regarding the amount of organic produce and the lack of rBST--I am considering shopping there again.  Would like to see a continuation of fair labor practices, and am encouraged by the changes I see with regard to environmental responsibility.