Is Walmart allergic to Pollan?

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BY TWILIGHT GREENAWAY
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6 OCT 2011 3:09 PM

Like or not, Walmart is a force to be reckoned with in the food world. The biggest grocery retailer in the U.S. is now said to control between 20 and 30 percent of the American food market. Reformers looking to improve our food system increasingly understand that -- much like China in the climate debate -- Walmart is an 800-lb. gorilla that can't be ignored.

This understanding helped fill a packed auditorium for a UC Berkeley class called Edible Education 101 earlier this week, where Michael Pollan interviewed Jack Sinclair, the executive vice president of grocery merchandise for Walmart. (The class, co-taught by Pollan and People's Grocery's Nicki Henderson and organized by the Chez Panisse Foundation, is also open to the general public, though tickets are limited.)

Pollan pointed out that many in the food movement don't trust the companies that have created and profited from our industrialized food system. Can big corporations help fix something they broke themselves?


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Of course, we can see Walmart as a safety net here to catch -- and feed -- the people at the bottom of the class system. Or we can see it as a mechanism that has helped put us where we are today.



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http://www.grist.org/food/2011-10-06-walmart-allergic-to-pollan