Wal-Mart to Announce Major Healthy Food Push

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CBS News /AP

Wal-Mart is expected to announce that it will reformulate thousands of products to make them healthier and push its suppliers to do the same.

Two people familiar with the announcement say first lady Michelle Obama is scheduled to join Wal-Mart executives at an event Thursday to begin the effort. The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about it publicly.

The company plans to reduce sodium and sugars in some items, build stores in poor areas that don't already have grocery stores, reduce prices on produce and develop a logo for healthier items.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/20/health/main7264919.shtml?tag=stack

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On edit:

The initiative came out of discussions the company has been having with Michelle Obama, the first lady, who will attend the announcement in Washington and has made healthy eating and reducing childhood obesity the centerpiece of her agenda. Aides say it is the first time Mrs. Obama has thrown her support behind the work of a single company.

In interviews previewing the announcement, Wal-Mart and White House officials said the company was also pledging to press its major food suppliers, like Kraft, to follow its example. Wal-Mart does not disclose how much of its sales come from its house brand. But Kraft says about 16 percent of its global sales are through Wal-Mart.

In addition, Wal-Mart will work to eliminate any extra cost to customers for healthy foods made with whole grains, said Leslie Dach, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president for corporate affairs. By lowering prices on fresh fruits and vegetables, Wal-Mart says it will cut into its own profits but hopes to make up for it in sales volume. “This is not about asking the farmers to accept less for their crops,” he said.

Over the last year, Mr. Kass and other aides to the first lady have spent countless hours in meetings with company officials; both Mr. Kass and Mr. Dach said Mrs. Obama pushed the company to hold itself accountable by issuing public progress reports. The Partnership for a Healthier America, a nonprofit organization that works with the first lady on her Let’s Move initiative to reduce childhood obesity, will monitor the company’s progress.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/business/20walmart.html?_r=1&hp

[54anickel]

1. Good, now will they announce a living wage push so their employees and others can afford to eat? n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

5. A question that needs to be asked....and answered...

It would be difficult for me to imagine ANYTHING WAL MART could do that would change my negative attitude toward them.
They have already done so much damage to this country, there is no way they could possibly rectify all that they have done.

I hope that NYC continues to deny them access to build a store here.

[54anickel]

19. Sorry,I was being facetious - I should have used the sarcasm tag.

I agree, there is no turning back the clock and no way to rectify the damage they have done to local economies and the country in general.

[MedicalAdmin]

8. Of course they won't

What they are doing is going after the last of the family farms by moving into the local food markets (food that is consumed within 50 miles or so of where it is grown) which is primarily smaller family farms. Also they are directly targetting organic and permaculture farms.

Make no mistake, they are looking to take over another market segment and make it theirs.

I can't wait for the Walmart fanboi base to comment on this.

[katnapped]

2. No doubt the logo will be

"Made in China with Pride!"

And Walmart be loving building stores in places with NO competition!

[KurtNYC]

25. I think 'food deserts' are created when no chain store can make

a profit in a certain area. I doubt that WalMart is in any hurry to open in food deserts but god bless them if they do. It won't be for the money.

[hlthe2b]

3. I'd love to see that...even though I will never shop at walmart

But, I periodically do a comprehensive run through our two leading grocery store chains, Safeway and King Soopers to see if any of the lines of healthy frozen foods have actually taken the sodium and sugars out. (most took the transfat out long ago). While you can see more fiber (slightly) and many of the supposedly "healthy choices" no longer load up as much sugar, they are all universally loaded with sodium--even those marked lower sodium. And, that is before I even mention preservatives.

Of course cooking from scratch is the best way to ensure getting some modicum of nutrition, but sometimes I need to rely on a frozen entree. Life is like that. And, damn there are no really good choices.

[FirstLight]

4. well i can think of worse things...

my mom always says "why don't you go to wally-world?...they're so much cheaper, you could stock up for the month.."

But i prefer my local grocery outlet because they carry the organic stuff at good prices. The last time i tried to go to walmart for food, I was so disgusted by the ingredients i ended up not buying much at all..

but really, even if they change their evil ways of food production, the walmart is 30 miles away, I doubt I will go out of my way to go there...

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Their food production problems are the least of the damage that corporate pig has done.

They have not only forced the closing of innumerable small businesses, they have shut down entire towns. They pay crap wages and provide no health benefits by keeping people on a part-time basis so they can get away with it. They have employees who cannot even afford to shop in their own stores...and have to go to the local food banks and to ERs when they need care. The only concern for WalMart is their own bottom line. PERIOD. END OF STORY.

They have almost single-handedly turned our economy over to China.

If WalMart was a country, it would be China's biggest importer.

Trying to rehabilitate their image is not the same as changing their corporate philosophy.
Sam Walton is probably pulling his hair out as he spins in his grave, watching what he heirs have done to his business.

[Selena Harris]

7. Timing of announcement is questionable

considering Chinese kingpin Hu's visit.

Interesting that Chinese WalMart workers have unions,but US workers do not.

[BrklynLiberal]

10. Their advertizing campaign here in the city is becoming ridiculous

They are insane to open a store here in NY city, and their ads say that "special interests" are keeping them out...Yeah. Special interests...like all the small business owners in the the city who know they will be ruined.

[katnapped]

12. Yup, and now they're going to claim

"The president and First Lady are trying to help, so you NUTCASES need to cool off on your 'slander campaign' to keep us out!"

[Selena Harris]

15. I thought that the Prez was to help with EFCA,too

WHAT happened to that?

I am particularly curious as to the progress Dukes vs, WalMart class action lawsuit. (You know, the largest ever filed in the US.)

All about paying women LESS than men at WalMart, for decades now.

Saving money and living better..IF your last name happens to be Walton.

[MedicalAdmin]

9. "Sam Walton is probably pulling his hair out" Puhlease.

His reputation has been as white washed in some circles as Reagans has.

He was a cheap, antagonistic, and greedy man. His children are cut from the same cloth and trained in his way of thinking and exploiting. His legacy is Walmart.

Spinning in his grave. Snort. It is to laugh. He's smiling up from hell where him, Milton Friedman, Raygun and the rest of the demons from hell are watching their work in great satisfaction.

[BrklynLiberal]

11. Guess I was among those who were taken in by the whitewash

Thanks for the correction...

[MedicalAdmin]

22. Sorry for the snark . Walmart is a trigger for me.

Check you library. There are tons of great books about how evil the company is.

I didn't mean to jump on you but I lost control and hit the post button before my brain kicked in. Walton was an ass. I've talked to an old retire air traffic controller who told me that Walton loved flying wherewvwr he felt like it no matter who he endangered. Sociopathic and egotistical.

And yah, his kids pay big bucks to whitewash his rep.

[BrklynLiberal]

29. I despise the corporation as well. I hope they NEVER get into NYC.

[denverbill]

13. Maybe they should start by removing the lead paint from toys and melamine from foods from China 1st.

[katnapped]

14. No, that adds to the flavor, silly!

They did a biased Rasmussen push poll in-store and found that most Americans want MORE lead and melamine in their food, not less!

:sarcasm:

[FirstLight]

16. +100!

exactly

[leveymg]

17. Michelle is diluting her moral and political capital by this implicit endorsement of Wal*Mart

Of course, she and her White House handlers realize what Wal*Mart symbolizes: China, Inc.; the corporate destruction of Main Street; a giant anti-union shop moving in on the unionized grocery industry.

This is just another step in the disintegration of the Obama Presidency and sell-out of the Right-wing of the Democratic Party to global corporations.

Extremely unappetitizing, no matter the "health-conscious" spin they put on it.

[katnapped]

18. Just trying to be less "anti-business", y'know!

This is more about Walmart getting the "POTUS push" to set up shop in more communities that have been trying to keep them out than anything else.

[BrklynLiberal]

20. You are right. Association with WalMart does her no good in the eyes of many.

[Still a Democrat]

21. K&R

Plenty of folks get their food at Wal-Mart and this certainly sets the tone for improving what's on the shelves.

A step in the right direction.

[Lucinda]

24. Agreed

:hi:

[underpants]

23. Any bit less is good

Thanks Michelle

[lonestarnot]

26. I don't like the First Lady's involvement with fucking Walmart.

It smells funkie.

[KurtNYC]

27. I don't think cost is the major reason that Americans don't eat healthier

but pushing the idea that you can shop at WalMart and still eat healthy has potential.

Food is cheaper than ever and is a fraction of most families' real expenses: rent, gasoline/insurance/etc., health care, etc. Food expenses can be more discretionary in some ways but I don't see cost as the thing that is holding people back. My roommate works in a food pantry and they get lots of vegetables that none of the clients will take. The clients prefer hot dogs, sliced bread, bags of chips to pretty much anything else the pantry has to offer. They had to stop forcing the clients to take vegetables as part of the weekly batch because neighbors were complaining that the clients would leave the vegetables on their lawns and in the gutters of the neighborhood. My point is if it is that hard to GIVE it away then cost isn't the problem.

The problem is habits have developed which are unhealthy. Marketing had something to do with those habits developing so marketing can change them. WalMart can have impact here. And it is in their financial interest to improve the health of their customers.

So they will.

[DeSwiss]

28. GM crappola. No thanks. n/t