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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: September 2007

How does Wal-Mart reconcile selling live turtles in China with "sustainable" policy?

 

BENTONVILLE, Arkansas--In October 2005, Wal-Mart chief executive officer Lee Scott declared that as the world's largest retail store chain, Wal-Mart has a special responsibility to be a "good steward for the environment." In October 2006, Newsweek published a gruesome account of how live turtles, fish, crabs, and clams are sold and killed to order "in the grocery section of a Wal-Mart in north Beijing."

In January 2007, Care for the Wild International chief executive Barbara Maas suggested to Clifford Coonan, Beijing correspondent for The Independent, that Wal-Mart and other retail chains including Carrefour of France, Metro of Germany, and Tesco of Britain should set better examples in China by not stocking turtles and frogs.

"Tesco told us that it has commissioned research into the stunning of turtles, with the Chinese Institute of Science and Technology," Maas said. "But our research has found dozens of scientific publications that demonstrate that turtles cannot be killed humanely for food."

While Carrefour, Metro, and Tesco make little pretense of being anything other than giant retailers, the Wal-Mart web site--while saying nothing of humane values--continues to emphasize "sustainable procurement," including with a page about how "Wal-Mart shoppers can now find the Marine Stewardship Council's independent blue eco-label on ten fish products." Wal-Mart Seafood & Deli vice president Peter Redmond calls the labeling "an easy way for consumers to identify seafood from fisheries that meet the MSC's strict environmental standard."

"How does Wal-Mart reconcile selling turtles (and frogs?) for human consumption in your stores in China with your policy of sustainability?", ANIMAL PEOPLE asked, not just once but multiple times in August and September 2007.

"Surely you are aware," ANIMAL PEOPLE continued, "that both turtles and frogs of all species are in global decline, due to a combination of environmental factors and heavy human exploitation. Surely you are also aware that turtle 'farming'," cited by Tesco as their turtle source, "actually consists chiefly of raising turtles to market weight in captivity after taking them from the wild, since raising them to market weight from hatching would typically take from five to 10 years (depending on species.)

"Surely you also know," ANIMAL PEOPLE continued, "that the overwhelming majority of herpetological conservationists believe that the continuing existence of any legal trade in either turtles or frogs will tend to keep eating them socially acceptable until many species (especially those native to Asia) have declined past the point of no return."

Corporate flacks usually can give glib answers to questions such as these, whether or not they square with reality or make sense. But not Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart in repeated tries could not even manage to dispatch a form letter that so much as mentioned the company's sustainability policy.

Networking with other veteran reporters, ANIMAL PEOPLE learned that this seems to be routine.

Former corporate ladder-climber turned environmentalist and adventurer Peter Bray had more to say in web postings about Wal-Mart turtle-selling in China that Wal-Mart itself did. "To the point of Wal-Mart's decision to sell turtle meat," Bray opined, "one has to be concerned that legalizing these products and distributing them far and wide will only increase consumer demand. In central China, where turtle meat is not traditionally served, most consumers now prod and poke and look curiously at the turtles, perhaps not sure what to make of them. But, with Wal-Mart's discounting and marketing and sales, we're sure to have plenty of new turtle eaters. And that's a bad thing for wild and highly endangered turtles."

But ANIMAL PEOPLE did discover at the Wal-Mart web site a declaration that among the company's top three environmental goals is to "Design and support Green Company Program in China."

And CEO Lee Scott's personal page offered one relevant thought about, "What are the biggest challenges for Wal-Mart as far as environmental sustainability is concerned?"

"We've got a very long way to go," Scott said. "Our biggest challenge is achieving our own potential."