Yesterday, I mentioned that Wal-Mart will never give up its power to shape the country to its own maniacal and destructive vision (that would be a country where people flood Wal-Mart because its prices are low and that’s the only place people can afford to shop since they can’t make enough money on Wal-Mart-like low wages). I don’t see compromise or sitting down to chat with those folks as bringing about only cosmetic changes because, fundamentally, the Wal-Mart model is a cancer to any vision for a decent society.

    That’s why I found this story from Reuters kind of interesting:

Indian farmers and traders, opposed to the entry of private retail giants such as Wal-Mart, are building a chain of superstores as part of efforts to sell their produce directly and stop prices being set by a few big players.

The effort is being backed by authorities in the western state of Maharashtra, which says infrastructure costs for the project could be subsidized.

"It’s a viable idea to counter private players, and if everything goes to plan the first of the superstores can come up in a few months," Sunil Pawar, general-manager of Maharashtra’s agriculture marketing board, told Reuters.

"We are talking to the farmers’ cooperatives and traders and the government is very supportive of the idea."

    It’s just interesting to me that Wal-Mart is sparking this kind of coming together. I’m guessing that farmers in India–though I admit not knowing the industry there–are fairly small producers (as opposed to big U.S.-style agri-biz). It’s also not clear, and the article says nothing about it, what the working conditions are expected to be for the people who would be employed in this home-grown chain. But, the Beast draws yet another challenge.