The Wal-Mart Effect

Four words: Organic cotton yoga outfits.

Seems Wal-Mart sold a gazillion of 'em and has now become the world's largest buyer of organic cotton. That fact jumped out at me while listening to this Marketplace report about Al Gore's screening of An Inconvenient Truth at Wal-Mart HQ. For many environmentalists and progressives, of course, Wal-Mart is something like the devil incarnate, but now that the retailer has jumped on the organic bandwagon (scratch that: it's more like it grabbed the reins) and is now apparently fixing to become carbon-conscious, what are we to think? Charles Fishman wrote the book on Wal-Mart (The Wal-Mart Effect). He tells Marketplace:

Regardless of how you think about Wal-Mart or former Vice President Al Gore, understanding the science behind what's happening with global warming and enlisting the brains at one of the most influential corporations in the history of the world...That's good news.

While Fishman allows there's cause for skepticism, he also insists that, "If the only appropriate reaction is cynicism, then Wal-Mart won't actually behave better."

For more news from inside the devil's lair, see Grist's Amanda Griscom Little's reports here and here.