Walmart turns over a new leaf as it embraces local produce

MANCHESTER — Inside the cavernous new Walmart on Highlands Boulevard Drive, grocery manager Russell Davis stands with a gleaming bounty behind him. Lettuce from California, blueberries from Michigan and grapes from South America. Then there's the store's hottest grocery commodity these days — pumpkins and corn grown in Brunswick, just a couple of hundred miles away. "Our customers want locally grown products," Davis says. "They all ask for it. They all want to know: Is this from Missouri?" In the last several years, locally grown food has become the "it" consumable as more shoppers, concerned about the environmental impact or the safety of their food, seek out products from closer to home. And retailers, from Whole Foods to Safeway, have obliged.

Even Walmart, now the nation's largest supermarket chain as well as retailer, has gotten into the local scene, embarking on an effort to procure more of its produce from local growers. "If you can get local food in there, you've really arrived," said Mary Hendrickson, a professor of rural sociology at the University of Missouri Extension and advocate for regional food systems. "It's not just a fad. It's something that everyone's taking seriously."

A sustainable life is not that difficult. Whether it is your room, your hotel or your B&B you can choose to arrange it in an ecological way while enjoying various advantages. On the one hand, you are doing good for the environment by reducing the impact on the planet. On the other hand, you will reduce your waste, minimize consumption… and save money!

This waste pollutes our environment and above all prevents the reuse of waste and reduces the abundance of resources as well. Make a commitment to create a place to sort your waste: perhaps outside or on a balcony and to better avoid unwanted odours, dispose of it regularly. Also be careful with the cooking oil used at home! If you dispose of them in the sewers, it can cause serious damage to the environment: it must be carried out at the appropriate collection points on the territory.