Tag: Walmart

Interesting Information: Walmart’s Campaign to Fight Hunger

Interesting Information:  October 22, 2012

Walmart’s Campaign to Fight Hunger

A Walmart insert came in our local Camden, Maine, paper last week.

I was horrified by its contents.  And, saddened.

The front page of a four-page sale flyer announced–in big capitals–“ONE IN SIX AMERICANS STRUGGLE WITH HUNGER.”

The background picture (I would try to photo it, but I’m afraid of their copyright laws) shows four children (two African Americans, one with dark hair whose face is turned away, and in the center of the page, a blond white child with big blue eyes) and a “mom” or “teacher” adult.  So, unspoken is that we really have to do something about hungry children, not just hungry Americans.  (The last time I looked, childhood hunger was one in five children–and if Walmart paid better wages, they could help that problem immensely.)

In the foreground are 2 apples, four raspberries, six oranges, and a bunch of about 6 bananas.  Behind them–and filling the rest of the pages–are boxes of horrible, fake, sugary, unhealthy foods:  Honey Nut Cheerios, Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Country Crock margarine, Jell-O Oreo Dirt Cup, Knorr Pasta with Chicken, Knoss Rice with Cheddar and Broccoli, a box of Hamburger Helper that promises seven meals, Kellogg’s Special K (really, there’s nothing in that box that’s good for you–see my Mainely Tipping Points essays), and Nature Valley cereal bars.

The other three sheets are more of the same kind of fake foods.  The only fresh foods are the token fruits on the front page–and they aren’t on sale in the flyer.

The logos of General Mills, Unilever, Kraft Foods, and ConAgra Foods are on the cover page.

Meanwhile, the government and the medical community and all the public health folks are running around screaming about the obesity epidemic.  Really, they don’t need to look any farther than this Walmart flyer.  Here’s what is massively wrong and why so many folks are obese.  They’re eating TOO MANY CARBOHYDRATES and fake foods, like the ones “on sale” in this ad.

Don’t for one minute think that Walmart cares about obesity or children.  Or, that Walmart is NOT making a huge profit on a sale like this one.  There is not one philanthropic bone in this corporation’s structure.  And, according to Tracie McMillan in THE AMERICAN WAY OF EATING (more on this book later), Walmart already controls 25 percent of the grocery market in America and is now threatening expansion that will harm inner city markets and urban farming efforts.  Don’t think Walmart will always keep prices low as they get more of a market share either.  They won’t.

So, don’t fall for this kind of appeal.

Don’t be a part of feeding hungry kids or your kids or yourself this kind of unhealthy food.  Find other ways to help feed the hungry and to eat yourself.  There’s plenty of help out there for you to learn how NOT to use these boxed fake foods.

Most of all, don’t shop at Walmart.  Yes, some things may be momentarily cheaper at Walmart, but there are huge costs in all kinds of ways in the Walmart model.  Walmart is part of why we have hungry children in America in the first place.

Interesting Information: Infant Formula Contains Genetically Engineered Foods

Interesting Information:  September 9, 2012

Infant Formula Contains Genetically Engineered Foods

I’m recopying in full for you the following piece in the September/October 2012 issue of WELL BEING JOURNAL, page 6.

GE infant Formula and Baby Food

A report by the Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT), www.responsibletechnology.org, states that nearly all of the infant formula on the market (Gerber, Abbott Nutrition Labs, Mead Johnson, Walmart, Kellogg’s), including every one of the millions of bottles distributed free by the government, contains genetically engineered corn or soy, as well as milk from cows injected by bovine growth hormone.

The IRT notes that the FDA doesn’t conduct or require a single safety study on GMOs.  They allow Monsanto and other biotech companies to do their own safety tests.  IRT suggests that readers keep in mind that the FDA also assured the public that products such as DDT, PCBs and Agent Orange were perfectly safe long before these products were found to be unsafe and banned.  Today, companies can put GMOs into baby bottles, sippy cups, and breakfast cereal, without even telling the FDA or consumers.

IRT asserts that because of their less-developed immune systems and blood brain barrier, infants and  young children are more sensitive to toxins found in GMOs.  IRT states that diseases linked to GMOs in animal-feeding studies are skyrocketing among America’s children, and this can’t be a coincidence.  The young’s disorders include the same ones identified in GMO animal feeding studies by the physicians group, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine. Consider organically produced baby foods.

The Weston A. Price Foundation folks have some excellent recipes for making your own baby formula.  And, of course, you can make your own baby food quite easily.  You don’t need to buy baby food for your baby–feed them what you are eating, but mash it up fine.  And, remember, do not give babies grains/cereals until they get their big back teeth.  They do not have the enzymes to process them until their systems get more mature.