Wal-Mart comes home
by Brian Egeston
be@brianwrites.com
 Say goodbye to the $7 watermelon. Wal-Mart is decreasing the distance some food travels from farm to fork, which will result in lower costs of some produce sold in Wal-Mart stores. The retailer also reported that partnerships with local farmers have grown by 50 percent over the past two years. The move is a continued effort to support local economies and cut shipping costs.
Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest purchaser of local produce. According to a press release, hundreds of growers across the United States provide produce sold in Wal-Mart stores. Signs touting the home-grown produce are visible throughout the produce sections.
 Wal-Mart estimates that it purchases more than 70 percent of its produce from America -based suppliers, making the company the biggest customer of American agriculture. This year, Wal-Mart expects to source about $400 million in locally grown produce from farmers across the country.
In the United States, produce travels approximately 1,500 miles from farms to the homes of consumers. With advances in logistical planning, better truck loading and local sourcing, Wal-Mart anticipates the company will save millions of food miles each year.
Georgia onion farmer Delbert Bland has been farming since 1974. “I got out of high school, and it was all I could do really,” Bland quipped. The occupation has served him and the family well. Bland Farms has been growing Georgia produce since 1940 and currently has 2,000 acres of onions in south Georgia. Approximately 25 percent of those onions are slated for Wal-Mart stores. Bland has been a produce provider with Wal-Mart for 20 years.
Kenny Bennet, a grower for L & M Farms specializes in the rarely found yellow-meat watermelon. “We grow 107 acres strictly for Wal-Mart,” he explained. Bennet said the hard-to-find variety lost it popularity over the years, but Wal-Mart customers requested the fruit.
Whatever Wal-Mart wants, they get. Bennet is from a breed of farmers who grew tobacco for Phillip Morris and then flipped his fields to grow produce. He turned 300 acres of tobacco into 200 acres of sweet potatoes. Twelve years ago, he began shipping peppers to Wal-Mart. As the company expanded, so did Bennet’s farm. At the Avondale Wal-Mart, the watermelon farmer gave a quick class on selecting a good melon. “You want it to have a ring to it,” he said, tapping the fruit. “You don’t want a hollow heart [watermelon]. I talked to a Ph.D. from the University of Florida. He was a doctor of watermelon and said hollow hearts come from the toos. Too hot, too cold. Too wet, too dry.”
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