Michelle Obama‘s handshake with Walmart is center stage news today. The whole emphasis is on price as if the organic and natural food movement is responsible for low income people not being able to eat right and Walmart is ready to save the day by making good food affordable.
That of course will solve all the problems, as if price is everything. Interesting that all this new promotion is happening just when the price of good food is going up. No one is pointing to industrial agriculture, federal subsidies, and corporations like Walmart as causing the problems.
It shows how far corporations will go now that the good food alliance has threatened them–of course, they will try to make us to blame any way they can. It’s their business style.
In response, if we are smart, we should uncover ALL the disparities that exist with price and mirror the problem back where it belongs: to Industrial Agriculture, Corporations, and the Corrupt Food Policy in Washington.
In the long run, it will be shown that 1) bad health is not simply a problem of the price of food, 2) corporations will not be able to compete with price once all the true costs (including energy costs and fair wages) are internalized, and 3) the public becomes more aware of the corruption in government which supports Industrial Agriculture and Corporations to the detriment of conscientious, ecosystem-based small farmers, independent processors, and neighborhood groceries and cooperatives.
Read the rest of the story here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jan/20/michelle-obama-walmart-healthy-eating
Photo source: Walmart