Walanthropy

Walmart and the Waltons Wield Unprecedented Influence Over Food, Policy, and the Planet.

In this ongoing investigative series, we take a detailed look at Walmart and its founding family’s influence over the American food system, over the producers and policymakers who shape it, and how its would-be critics are also its bedfellows.

a gritty image of a produce section with dollar bills mixed in, showing the intertwined financial and food focuses of Walmart and the Walton Family

The Long Reach of the Walmart-Walton Empire

By The Civil Eats Editors

November 1, 2023

Walmart’s annual revenues are larger than the GDP of Sweden; its founding family are prolific philanthropists. Their nexus is poorly understood.

Walmart’s ‘Regenerative Foodscape’

By Lisa Held

November 1, 2023

a case of meat at a walmart store with some products replaced with dollar bills

Op-ed: Walmart’s Outsized Catch

By Aaron Van Neste

November 21, 2023

Photo of a shark swimming through a school of fish, with a gritty overlay including walmart's yellow and blue colors. (Photo credit: Scott Carr, Getty Images, illustration by Civil Eats)

Diving—and Dying—for Red Gold: The Human Cost of Honduran Lobster

By Alice Driver

December 6, 2023

Injured divers work on various exercises in a small rehabilitation room at the hospital. Dr. Henzel Roberto Pérez, the deputy director of information management at the hospital, said that one of the many problems with the lobster diving industry is “Children are working for these companies. At least one of the companies is from the United States.” (Photo credit: Jacky Muniello)

Walmart and EDF Forged an Unlikely Partnership. 17 Years Later, What’s Changed?

By Lisa Held

November 15, 2023