Institute For The Future

Urban Farms, Wal-Mart, and Hybrid Futures

A few months ago, we kicked off this year's Global Food Outlook research with an expert workshop generating working scenarios of how people will make food choices in the future.  Notably, when discussing drivers of change, Wal-Mart appeared, by name, as an independent driver in every single scenario.  

So I could not ignore an editorial posted last Friday by an esteemed commentator on global affairs, pitting the giant against one of my favorite topics of writing and speaking about food issues.  In GOOD magazine, Richard Longsworth argues that we should "forget urban farms" as a distracting palliative measure, and embrace Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers as a cornerstone of urban recovery.  

 But Richard Longsworth is presenting a false dichotomy--between the nutrition, empowerment and hope provided by urban farming initiatives, and the logistical and economic might of a successful global corporation.  Commenters demonizing Wal-Mart and extolling urban farms are buying in to the same limited either/or proposition.  (I appreciate the commenters who chimed in to point out the independently owned markets and affordable farmers markets that take the edge off Longsworth's all-or-nothing portrayal.)

What makes this ideological spat ironic is that for all its deplorable HR decisions over the years, Wal-mart doesn't buy into this division either.  While I acknowledge concerns about implementation, their initiative supporting local produce in their expanding grocery aisles offers a real opportunity of busting the gab between sprawling commodity producers and small diversified farms.  They can—and increasingly are—providing an affordable outlet for mid-sized farms to connect with average urban eaters.  

Why must farms within contracting city limits "feed a global population"?  This dismissal is tangential to Longsworth's argument at best.  The point is not to feed the world.  The point is to feed a city the world has screwed over.  

Urban farming may not be a cure on its own.  But neither is Wal-Mart.  I think that ultimately, the most effective efforts to achieve urban resilience will come from building respectful synergies between small, diversified, locally relevant solutions with the resources and global perspectives of multinational corporations and non-governmental organizations. No doubt this is one of many possible relationships.  But perpetuating each dismissing the other is a mistake.  I'm thankful to live in an era when a hybrid future is imaginable, I hope more people will join me.