Like it did in the environmental arena, it will begin creating an agriculture-specific index to figure out how to measure waste and efficiency among produce suppliers. It will be asking its biggest producers to answer questions about water, fertilizer and chemical use. The eventual goal is to include that information in a sustainability rating that customers would see, so they could decide whether to choose one avocado over another based on how much waste it had created. Wal-Mart would also use the information when it decides from whom to buy.

Thank you, Wal-Mart, for taking the lead. Your evilness rating has dropped slightly.

-janelane

Wal-Mart Plans Drive to Buy More Locally Grown Produce - NYTimes.com