How will Walmart's sustainability index rate food?

When Walmart released plans for developing its sustainability index for every product it sells, I couldn't help but think of milk.

Why milk?

Well, a little over year ago, Walmart took a giant leap backwards in sustainability when it said it would no longer allow technology to be used in dairy cows that supply its store brand milk. The result of that decision is that it will take more cows consuming more feed and water and producing more manure to produce the same quantity (and quality!) of milk.

A dairy farmer I spoke two said he had to add cows to keep total farm production levels on target. That cost him more money on the feed and manure management side. It made his operation less efficient, increased his environmental foot print and made him less sustainable overall.

The technology, of course, is recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST).

Just the mention of rbST drives some people's blood pressure up - either because they know the benefits of the technology and are frustrated by those who don't, or because they believe one of the many myths surrounding rbST. (Such myths are often promoted and repeated by people with something to sell - like books or movies. The realty is milk is milk - organic, conventional or whatever - it all has he same good nutrition. Just the prices are different.)

One farmer told Walmart that the use of rbST in 1 million cows would:

• Save 6.6 billion gallons of water every year
• Reduce the amount of animal feed needed by over 3 billion pounds per year
• Decrease the land area required for raising cows and growing feed by over 417 square miles
• Save more than 5.5 million gallons of gas and diesel fuel every year
• Lower greenhouse gas emissions by 30,000 metric tons per year
• Reduce the manure generated by approximately 3.6 million tons every year

So by removing rbST from the cows supplying Walmart, dairy farmers get to produce the same amount of milk with more inputs.

That's exactly the opposite of what Walmart is driving towards with its sustainability index.

It makes me wonder how it will judge other foods - will 'organic' apples be rated better than 'conventional'? What about cereal? What about meats? Will the use of technology be considered a negative for foods on Walmart's shelves?