 I mean you're hearing this story and but do you see a role that the government can can have as Josie was saying in terms of galvanizing in terms of facilitating this or is it something that you should be just doing anyway I mean this is something that you should do as Walmart and you don't need help you go and do it anyway or is there is there a broader alliance as was being suggested that can be formed. Yeah quickly the answer is yes and yes but we are working quite frankly in ways we've never worked before. We're working with governments not in the United States but around the world but also to working with our key suppliers and also even our competition in areas around how broadly user work sustainability but also now to an agriculture as well and so we have a network of NGOs of governments of suppliers of other retailers academics in many areas thought leaders in many areas 14 of these networks one of them is around agriculture though they're very large 800 people involved but we are working now on what are the best sciences what are the things that we can work together to develop standards to develop best practices and we're doing that specifically in the large impact areas of which obviously agriculture is one of those and happy to say that after today's events that we had and this event that we're all in today that I think will be accelerating our efforts around sustainability and agriculture and certainly the efforts that we're doing our open source anything that we learn in this area we are sharing whether what including our competition and working with a number of universities and stakeholders now to get that information out and do more research around it and they're very interesting and I think I mean I'm going to deviate the fraction from sort of pure food security to ask a question which is critical obviously to food security around issues to do with sustainability to do with the environment to do with climate change I mean I heard you mentioned sort of zero tillage and conservation farming earlier and I mean the kinds of developments that this requires you know to broaden that out to include issues of climate change mitigation issues into farming and to look at conservation farming in that does it also require a new kind of partnership you know do we need to be reaching out beyond just the traditional agriculture sector in this sense to to the environment sector and to other sectors Gabrielle I'm going to ask you Well definitely it definitely requires because telling you the situation at the European Union the European Union is now putting a lot of restrictions on the farmers in terms of adopting practices which are more environmentally friendly and but then they are very strict on the food safety at one point when we when the European Union started with that we were a bit worried because we didn't have the tools for that so some farmers we had to decide do you want to do we want to stay in business or not yes we do so we have to solve the problem many of us went into the conservation agriculture practices with to the IPM integrated past management and simultaneously in the European Union gave us a fund or subsidy to go faster into these kinds of practices the only thing is that at the same time they are giving us a funding but they are forbidding us to do some things they are retiring from the market many pesticides so now we're funding ourselves in a situation where we are asked to produce but we don't have the tools or we have too much restraints or constraints that's why I particularly and some farmers we tend to talk that the European Union if she wants it wants to go towards a more sustainable agriculture if they want us to increase no till surface if they want just to kill integrated past management is not enough to give us a fund or subsidy because many of the times it doesn't compensate for the loss you might have because you are implementing these practices so one of the things one of the ways we find we should be able to do and the European Union should permit us to do where the biotech crops you may know that we all can only grow BT corn in Europe there's an enormous opposition to the biotech crops by missing very much misinformed people the society journalists and we're getting to a sort of narrow street where if we don't have enough tools we cannot be efficient producing and being sustainable at the same time so I mean Robert I mean this I mean it's often how do you respond to this in the sense I think for like for African farmers or farmers in Asia this is even going to be more pressing as the impacts of climate change really take effect of this trade-off between food security and climate change is there a trade-off that you know do we need that that's a very pertinent question before Al Gore's movie came out an inconvenient truth I used to talk about a convenient convergence of this nexus of food security and climate change and that is basically that addressing and I think one of our speakers this morning alluded to this that when you address the the challenges that that smallholders particularly rice farmers are facing drought floods sea water intrusion etc. that are being becoming more of a concern because of climate change you also address the needs that are directly affecting or challenges that are attracting directly affecting farmers today so I think it's not an either or kind of thing and likewise when you look at the the challenge of challenges of greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the the impact of agriculture on greenhouse gas emissions managed properly their economically should be very attractive to farmers economically so I think that by applying ourselves and looking at the challenges from the perspectives both of the farmers needs today the needs of the environment tomorrow and the challenges that will be facing farmers in the future we have an opportunity to develop multiple-win solutions and multiple-win scenarios and I'm extremely sympathetic with the European farmer who is instead of being allowed to to take the best of technology and aggressively meet the demands of society that same society is placing constraints on the farmers and I hope that that doesn't happen in developing countries let me just add a couple of things and some of these points first of all I think we cannot allow our food security effort to be seen as a Trojan horse for ag biotech I think that's that's important at the same time I do think we've got to bring ag biotech to the forefront of the discussion and not as a silver bullet but as a way of addressing climate issues of addressing hunger and addressing some of the needs of some of the countries that have the most need one of the things that we're trying to do in the State Department is to partner with companies to partner with government and partners and actually I've had some success in the couple of countries of trying to work with the regulators to create alliances to have them come to the US to have them to engage in capacity building with a lot of land grant universities to try to build some of the alliances and basically to try and get the regulators comfortable with the technology part of what's going on here as I go around the world is a desire to look at the issue but a real insecurity and an unwillingness to take that step as a regulator that creates a risk so so the need to to build alliances and then also with regulators also from a government point of view to try and work with industry to anticipate some of these problems some of these problems in biotech we know are coming we know that but oftentimes the people in our in our bureau support supposed to deal with this issue just learn about that fact that when it's too late and so one of the things that we've got to get better at is anticipating roadblocks as well as building alliances I mean I think as we see more volatility you you're going to see that that need for more understanding risk and the complex nature of risk and the kinds of solutions and technologies and you know the balance that you have in terms of either transferring that risk mitigating that risk reducing that risk and you know how that stuff but I mean you know back from the private sector side this whole issue of trying to enhance food security balance that with the growing you know perceived needs of climate change the impact mitigation that's going to be required there but also the adaptation and you know how that stuff how do you deal with that from from a company that's a large question a couple different things I guess the one thing is you don't come to the world food price and you know get small question questions but you know we look at it now I guess for a very oldestic sense as the world's largest retailer we want to grow our business we want to serve more people we want to sell more products to them and so food security assuring the supply selling quality products that they at a very affordable price is core to our our business sustainability and so we are working in ways we ever worked before developing from literally from a farm up products increasing heritage agriculture in the United States but also working abroad in sourcing as a means of development so that we can have those products on our store shelves and provide those customers who do shop in our stores so it's a very broad and very big issue but you know we oftentimes get stuck on unintended consequences of what some of the things we do ultimately cause and I'd say though the one the one real benefit that we have had as a company over the last several years is that we're starting to see what I'll call I attended benefits of what we are doing in other areas and we mentioned our you mentioned greenhouse gases we made well I'll say not a simple change but a goal set to only source or only use the standard source palm oil in our prior brand products products that Walmart designs and works with manufacturers to create for us that one small move is going to remove about five million metric tons of greenhouse gases permanently from the environment and so looking at the major impact areas the major issues and doing all cause relatively small things that have big impacts is what our focus is on we can all work on small thanks and they will create momentum they will create change but I think the key is is to really focus on a couple of the really big issues work together collaboratively which I think is a company we are doing and then start making progress against some of the big things that we are trying as a global group of people here to make a difference around and I think that's the key can I ask though I mean well you've got the microphone do you think let us take palm oil you know it's a fairly challenging area and I was with the Minister of Environment from Malaysia recently and he was talking about the establishment of the round table on sustainable palm oil that's the name of these and what what he was saying was you know before that there weren't really the institutional resources at a country level to deal with these kinds of complex partnerships that are being required which which deal with small holder farming issues you know bringing you know sort of climate change related issues and all of that and so for them they've actually had to go through a whole learning curve to create the kind of institutional frameworks in this case the round table on sustainable palm oil which is a merger between you know WWF and Oxfam and the companies and all of that a very different kind of framework so do you think there's a need for a new kind of type of brokerage facilitation institution that will allow small holder farmers to engage in these big discussion topics that are going to impact on them significantly and I'll ask you and then I'll pass this over here maybe to their very well be in the future I think today some of the groups you mentioned and certainly WWF their CEO Carter Roberts was actually in our meeting today and has helped us tremendously in giving us the information and educating us on what we cannot do so certainly I think over time and hopefully of our signal our statement our commitment today around the sourcing of palm oil for our private brands that is the Stanley source will create a larger demand but also to then hopefully the equal supply and move more markets towards being harvested in that matter but I think over time you're going to get beyond the capabilities of what's in place today and so what the future holds I'm not sure but I think certainly bikes game the the right direction started is some that we started today and I hope others do and certainly I think the momentum is starting to build just anyone I mean from your side you see I mean I I've seen this very much you know in terms of developing things like the agricultural growth corridor in Tanzania and in Mozambique the children yet the role or the non-existence or the existence of these times of new facilitating broker in partnership platforms at a country level have been critical but they they don't exist terribly much you know as such today so we're having to rethink this a bit do you do you share that or is that how do you see that I share that I I in fact one of the things that I think we need to do is to create some leverage some of these institutions to try and work with them either on a regional basis or on a product basis for example in East Africa why can't we work rather than asking our companies to work with specific countries individually why can't we work with the East Africa community only much more regional much more general approach that's going to make it worse it for for our companies and companies around the world that may not particularly want to go into one one country to work with them regionally and that's if you take that approach you can do that on the climate change side you can do that on the on the regulatory side you can do it in Central America there are a number of places but I do think we've got to wrap it up because if we do it individually maybe your grandchildren will see it and it'll take too long Gabriella I mean do you think these these from where you were doing when you were trying to put this partnership together say I'm sugar beet with Italian and Spanish you know farmers coming in with their technologies I mean is the institutional framework there to support you to do this well this sugar beet some experience we didn't have any support so the industry and the farmers paid for that and we paid and Spanish Institute to give us all the know-how and the varieties but in other sectors like in the cereal sector and in no till we have been able to apply to some programs of the European Union and be supported for some of the institutes who had done that research Robert you can come in if you want otherwise I thought we've gone about 10 or 12 minutes left I'm sure there's a couple of questions out there I've got a couple more I'd like to find out more about cell phone technology and financing and some of this alternative expanding the partnership model even further but I will hold my thoughts and I will see if anyone if you come to the microphone which people already are that's great give your name where you're from and ask keep your questions very concise or I will cut you off because we've only got the 10 minutes so very sure Angela Warnicki I work at General Mills originally I'm Canyon I love that format is now in Africa because I know that you know how to market to people of all socio-economic status so what is your vision for Africa because our farmers need a market? so your vision for Africa well I think you're commenting on our recent initial movement to acquire a retailer named Massmart in Africa that's not been finalized yet so I would obviously be a little premature in saying a plan that we have ready to roll out in in that country but suffice to say having as a company spend a great deal of time in your country or in Africa that it is a market that we're very interested in that we see tremendous opportunity for growth but also to from supplying products that we also sell in our stores globally so hopefully if everything goes well time will tell we will be a new corporation in Africa shortly this is Patrick Benz from Seattle Washington my question is particularly to Matt Kisler an important element of sustainability is the social equity component in which the small farmer in this case has some greater participation in the value added of their product sometimes this is seen as fair trade product but generally the idea is that the producer of the agricultural product gets somewhat greater return for their effort when you have large market power forces in the purchasing side it's very difficult to come to an equation where there is greater equity at the producer level what is Walmart's thinking about how to incorporate more of a fair trade a more of social equity participation for the small farmer in agricultural products that you sell thank you are two parts that questions I'll try to address both hopefully that takes care of it number one is we are the world's largest purchaser of fair trade product whether it be bananas coffee roses we are a very large purchaser of all those goods personally I've been to Brazil I've seen the efforts that fair trade has done with the coffee growers in Brazil and elsewhere and we continue to do that and we are also marking that product to our customer and hopefully if any of you do shop at Walmart you'll see those products on the shelf and you can help move us all in that direction because certainly I'm a big supporter of it work very closely with TransFair and Paul Rice and others and it's certainly a market we see growing not only domestically but also globally with regard to farmers globally we are working in all the markets that we're in to increase our direct relationships with farmers and by doing so actually increasing their income in developing countries by 10 to 15 percent because we are working directly with them versus going through cooperatives or other middle people in the supply chain and so not only does it make our business more sustainable but I also to the customer standpoint we're delivering much fresher much higher quality product to them and doing it in a more environmental and obviously socially sustainable manner so two big initiatives that we are very supportive of seeing tremendous opportunity and are developing as fast as we possibly can. So my question is to Director General International Research Institute, I'm Ravi Chandran, former from India, Tamil Nadu. The success story of IR8 is still vivid in my memory. The ADT-2027 developed by Audra with the support of Geery that made tremendous impact on our economic performance. Even now, IR-20 and IR-50 are still popular. In the luncheon session, the CEO of the Minister Jeff appointed about the flood-colored variety. In fact, he displayed a slide also. It is very amazing. My place is the flood-colored area. What is the research work on GM rice and kidney? Since we have a variety of problems like biotic and high-biotic stress, we need saline, blood-colored, drug-colored variety and other biotic breast disease and kidney problem. All such things we need. Is there any research work going on in IRi? Yes, in a word, yes. We have quite a bit of activity in precisely the areas you outlined. The vast majority of that work uses tools of biotechnology, particularly marker-assisted selection. Very little of it, if any, is involving the use of transgenic or GMOs. We are moving these materials with our partners across Asia, in particular in South Asia and India, through various state governments, universities, and we are seeing them actually move into farmers' fields. In Tamil Nadu, looking at the partnership with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, we expect to have these materials moving out and benefiting yourself and your colleagues in the rice fields over the next several years. Golden Rice Project? Golden Rice is in its final stages. As we speak, it is being field-tested. We have transferred the pro-vitamin A beta-carotene capacity to the background of varieties that farmers know and like. For example, IR64, that you're sure you're familiar with, that's grown by many farmers in India. Equally, popular varieties in Bangladesh, Vietnam, and the Philippines. So, up to the back, just one more question. Thank you. I'm just moving through. You can grab it as he steps off the stage to take that a bit further. Paul Castle from the San Jenta Foundation, I'm afraid it's another Walmart question. Fair trade always suggests to me that everything else on the shelf is unfair trade and it'd be nice in the markets where you have enormous power to influence consumer thinking if we got away from that idea that there's fair trade and something else. I'd be interested to hear your views on getting together with your competitors and helping consumers getting away from the idea that everything's got to be cheaper and cheaper and cheaper because that, I suspect, is not good news for the small and medium-sized farms that you now want to buy more from. Congratulations on that. Like your thoughts on getting consumers away from the low-low price idea and getting more of that, building on that previous question, back to whatever you mean by small and medium farmers. I'm not sure what you mean by that. That's a definition that varies greatly by market and certainly what we have here is the small and medium-sized farmer in the United States is different than this in the mobile countries. But to answer your question, we serve a variety of customers and our core customer in the United States, and I'll speak of that because I'll speak globally, but in the United States, is a customer who earns about $50,000 a year. And in today's economic situation, it is amazing to me the purchasing behavior we see, page of cycles and purchasing food at midnight because that is when the cash hits their bank accounts. And so while it, it would be in some ways great to have fair trade, prod, universal, and not have to market that prod, we need a variety of products on our shelves that allow everybody to eat and provide for their families. And so we provide that large portfolio products, whether it be fair trade, whether it be organic, whether it be rainforest alliance that are available to the core customer for them to make the decision. I'm happy to say that we see pickup of these more socially responsible products all the time, but to move all of our offering to them quite frankly will be financially not the right thing to do, but also to not provide for our core customer who today is struggling in the United States. And so we are working to make all of our products have the same benefits. That's one of the products that we all speak of favorably to move that direction. But today, the, the, the overrush economic system just won't allow us to do that yet. But if it can, we certainly are wanting to move that more socially more in a more responsibly way and we'll market them accordingly. Okay, very quick last question because I'm being waived at here on the front. Yeah, my name is Elissa and I'm with Oxfam Action Core. And I think that this has been a useful discussion of the collaboration between the institutions. But small holders are the ones experiencing problems firsthand. And it would seem that their voices have to travel so far to reach you or people like you. And I'm curious to know what specifically you're doing to bridge this gap and to ensure that voices are heard, giving the power they deserve, and also included in working towards solutions. Was that too warm? Or was that just general to the panel? Well, we have all worried. Can I just say because we've got two minutes on. So if we could maybe, I think it's a very important question, this one, as to how are we reaching out to small holders? If I could just ask you to just quickly, you know, making sure that