Blanche Lincoln, Senator of Wal-Mart

LOL! (4.00 / 2)

WalMart now has an Organic Food section (or so I am told).  Maybe that's the connection?

Or maybe she's just taking money from her corporate sponsors.

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. -- Calvin Trillin

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by: Youffraita @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 08:51:21 AM UTC

Wal-Mart has been charged (4.00 / 1)

with selling conventional food as organic food.

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by: count @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 20:18:33 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Arkansas (4.00 / 2)

Jill, do you think other, broader hearings will be scheduled?

Odd that the hearing won't be held in Little Rock.

I looked for evidence that Wal-Mart is a supplier to a school nutrition program somewhere, but didn't find anything.

Is it odd that nobody from the Arkansas Department of Education will appear, or is that SOP?

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by: count @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 09:39:46 AM UTC

what % of Walmarts profits are related to food? (4.00 / 2)

disclaimer..I buy dog food there. Its 5 dollars a bag cheaper than the market. This Walmart doesn't sell meat or produce just an awful lot of really shitty food.I swear Everytime I stand in line I keep thinking we (meaning all Americans) pay for what my daughter metaphorically calls "crap in a can". really cheap food thats bad for you.

and now that can contains BPA...

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by: LeeN @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 12:18:46 PM UTC

I think they don't say. (4.00 / 1)

I looked at the 2009 annual report last night. I don't remember seeing that, athough I might be wrong.

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by: count @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 20:20:25 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Probably pretty significant... (4.00 / 1)

They're now the largest food retailer in America, and have been for a few years now I think...

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed Nov 11, 2009 at 02:14:36 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Largest in the world (4.00 / 1)

I'm still listening to Deconstructing Dinner podcasts. I just now listened to one in which the speaker said Wal-Mart is the largest food retailer in the world. Wal-Mart is #1 in North America, Costco fairly close behind in #2.

I was surprised Costco is so big, but gosh - I remember thinking last time I was in one: that particular store had 12 lines, 10 of which were operating that day. Each line processes a customer in 4-5 minutes, I don't think it takes as much as 6 minutes. Say 5 minutes. 120 customers check out per hout, average customer spends a few hundred dollars. Arbitrarily say $300. That one store easily could do a million dollars per weekend, and I'm only talking about food, TV sets, jewelry, etc. I don't know what it's like on a weekday.

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by: count @ Wed Nov 11, 2009 at 13:12:10 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I meant (4.00 / 1)

only food, NOT TV sets, jewelry, etc.

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by: count @ Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 04:27:24 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Was implicit... (4.00 / 1)

I think we got that.

:)

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by: JayinPortland @ Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 10:28:12 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Actuall Wal-Mart has found it's self (4.00 / 3)

on the front lines of the hunger issue.  

...""There are families not eating at the end of the month," said Stephen Quinn, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Wal-Mart Stores, and "literally lining up at midnight" at Wal-Mart stores waiting to buy food when paychecks or government checks land in their accounts."..NYT
 

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by: OrganicGeorge @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 13:30:16 PM UTC

didn't know that (4.00 / 2)

and that compounds the problems because cheap food begets diseases. Michael Pollan is right..
http://tinyurl.com/lu6pgl

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by: LeeN @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 16:58:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

tinyurl (4.00 / 1)

How do you get a tinyurl link? I'm not going to use the information, I'm just curious.

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by: count @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 20:16:40 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Just go to the site... (4.00 / 1)

Punch your link into the box at their site, and it generates one for you automatically.  Copy & paste the link provided, just like this -

http://tinyurl.com/y9cgotp

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed Nov 11, 2009 at 02:17:19 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I use a tiny url addon for firefox (4.00 / 2)

when you download it it adds it under tools...

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by: LeeN @ Wed Nov 11, 2009 at 20:32:26 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Wal-Mart has been criticized (4.00 / 1)

because American taxpayers spend more than a billion dollars a year to pay for school meals for the children of low-paid Wal-Mart employees that can't afford them.

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by: count @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 19:44:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yeah... (4.00 / 2)

Gotta ask ourselves how much of the problem is caused by WalMart itself?

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed Nov 11, 2009 at 02:18:33 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Someone is missing (4.00 / 2)

I'm surprised she couldn't fit in anyone from Tyson chicken, one of her most important constituents (far more important than regular people, that's for sure). Or anyone from an anti-estate tax organization (one of her pet projects, doing the bidding of the extremely wealthy, like the current members and heirs of the Wal-Mart empire).

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by: mental_masala @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 16:01:46 PM UTC

Re: Someone is missing (4.00 / 1)

Very strange that Tyson's not included. They are a vendor to many school food programs, and have a significant commitment to hunger issues - much more high profile than WalMart in this area (see http://hungerrelief.tyson.com/).

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by: jcdwyer @ Wed Nov 11, 2009 at 23:17:20 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

food suppliers (4.00 / 1)

I tried to find information about whether Wal-Mart supplies food to school meal programs. I didn't find any. What I did find is, it's damned difficult to discover who runs school meal programs and supplies the food. Because of Jill's link about the prison food riot in Kentucky, I discovered that Aramark runs school food programs in more than 400 school districts. Which ones? I don't know. USDA has prime vendors for suppliers of commodities and processors. (Processors are companies that add sugar, salt, and fat to commodities before they get to kids in the form of pizzas, corn dogs, pop tarts and cupcakes.) Again, I don't know who they are. School districts buy fruit and vegetable from DoD regional prime vendors. I don't know who they are.

In links to old documents, I found single references to the huge broadline distributors Sysco, Gordon, Reinhart, and VanEerden. I didn't check to see if these companies still exist. I know Sysco still is a going concern, but I don't know who they buy from.

Somewhere, there must exist publically available lists of contracts awarded by USDA, DoD, state agencies, and school districts. I didn't search for those.

I'm not saying the information isn't available - just that I didn't get to it.

The question of who supplies and actually runs school food programs suddenly interests me, perhaps just because it is murky.

So - the witness list also omits representatives of Aramark and Sysco.

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by: count @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 20:13:34 PM UTC

Lincoln's campaign (4.00 / 2)

In the last few days I've seen some interesting commentary on Sen. Lincoln and her 2010 election.

Steve Benen suggests that she become a progressive leader, forget about trying to placate the Right (who will attack her vicously regardless of how she votes or what she says), and do the right thing (vote for health reform. In other words, perhaps the voters will reward her for being a strong leader, instead of a wishy-washy coward, too afraid to take a position on anything. It's an interesting idea, but I doubt that Lincoln has the courage or convictions to follow it.

Matthew Yglesias is also following Lincoln, with a post on polling and a post on health care.

I'm concerned that she knows that she is going to lose in 2010 and is therefore auditioning for the role of a lobbyist for Big Ag, the health insurance companies and/or another corporate interest. Thus, the will of the public is irrelevant, it's all about getting a big pays.

If Lincoln loses in 2010, who would be next in line to head the Senate Ag Committee?  

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by: mental_masala @ Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 06:24:06 AM UTC

Debbie Stabenow... (4.00 / 1)

from Michigan, would be next in line in seniority.  But Jill mentions above that Harkin can maybe take the Chair back if he wanted?  

I really don't know whether that's the case, myself, but I have no reason to doubt it may be true, especially if it comes from a reliable source.

So, either way - Stabenow or Harkin are much better than Lincoln.  And yes, she's losing this year.  Stick a fork in her, she's done.

She's been tied (or trailing) in the polls against second or third-tier Republican candidates for months now, and for a two-term incumbent like her, that pretty much spells the end.

The only real question, is how much damage will she manage to do to our cause before she's gone?

14 months is a long time.

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by: JayinPortland @ Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 10:34:35 AM UTC

[ Parent ]