Focus on plants first

Wal-Mart has made great strides sustainability-wise in healthier choices food-wise. Many of these choices are plant-derived options in the fruit and vegetable/produce department. They have an icon for foods: “great for you.” Many of these are considered “great for you” because they are grown organically and not chemically. Many also are considered “great for you” because they are minimally processed and thus contain fewer additives, color, chemicals and artificialness. Fresh produce, and many “great for you” organic or minimally processed foods are prominently displayed in the food department at Wal-Mart.

In contrast, in the lawn and garden department (which needs the icon “great for the planet”), what is most prominently featured are towers of Round-Up or pesticides.

Actual garden plants, themselves, are deeper in the store. What would the impression be if Wal-Mart had chips, beer and Tylenol at the front of the store and fruit and vegetables tucked further away?

Fresh produce, “or clean food” as Panera Bread calls it, at the entrance of the food department, contrasted with towers of plastic spray bottles of toxic chemicals in the lawn and garden section, is not consistent or holistic. Chemicals enter our bodies through our skin and through our breathing. The benefits of a healthier diet are lost on us when we are routinely using most of the products that are sold in lawn and garden.

It’s time for Wal-Mart to take an integrated approach to all they sell, and “plants first” in both the food departments and lawn and garden departments is a good way to start. The kinds of plants—that’s another story! SUSAN PANG

Garfield