I was reading earlier this week about some “enviro-ranchers” in southern Utah who have purchased land with the agreement that they will ranch 800 head of cattle. These ranchers are out of state wealthy environmentalists who use their (and others) capital to raise livestock in an environmentally responsible way – i.e., no grazing all over public lands, etc.
I asked my Green colleague Julian Hatch about this and he said that this is a common trend. But what surprised me the most was that Julian told me about some of the funding of efforts like this……hold onto your cowboy hats:
Walmart.
Yes, Walmart.
Apparently the giant coporation is amongst those that are funding environmental initiatives like environmental ranching. I had heard some time ago that Walmart was stepping up their efforts to be involved in environmentals issues, creating an environmental “division”.
Well, I don’t buy it. I think it’s all a PR ploy to get people to overlook the evils of this corporation such as:
and so on.
I’m wondering what Walmart’s recycling/reusing/reducing practices are? Should I go look in a Walmart dumpsters behind one of its stores? Does it sell recycled paper products? Does it only sell biodegradable household products?
Walmart needs to put its money where its mouth is. If it is going to start being environmentally responsible, at least on the surface, it needs to look at the whole picture and not just paint a pretty scene to get consumers to say “ooo….ah”.
If we keep pressing this and other issues surrounding Walmart, Davey will eventually be winning all the time.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 