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Walmart Accepts Healthy Grown as a Valid IPM Certification Program

Wisconsin’s Healthy Grown awarded access to the Walmart U.S. Pollinator Health Position

By Deana Knuteson, University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Plant Pathology and Healthy Grown Coordinator

Healthy Grown certifies potatoes, onions and carrots, the latter like these freshly dug carrots by Alexandra and Rod Gumz of Gumz Farms, LLC, which participates in the high-bar program.

Wisconsin’s Healthy Grown® has recently been awarded access to the Walmart U.S. Pollinator Health Position as a valid Integrated Pest Management (IPM) certification program meeting the retailer’s requirements.

Healthy Grown documents IPM, sustainability, and ecological restoration efforts and certifies potatoes, carrots, and onions under the high-bar program.

Growers implement landscape-level restoration practices on wetlands, prairies, forests, and other natural habitats, providing certified value to non-production acreage.

Starting with the 2025 season, those certified in the Healthy Grown program can provide their documents to Walmart and will be able to sell produce into the retail giant’s stores.

In 2020, Walmart started to prioritize regenerative agriculture and identify programs that require IPM practices and promote pollinator health.

Those goals are already incorporated into the Healthy Grown standard. Since Healthy Grown has been working on sustainability goals since 2000, staff shared the program with Walmart’s sustainability experts and demonstrated what Wisconsin has already accomplished.

During the summer of 2024, the Healthy Grown standard and its corresponding certification program were reviewed by the IPM Institute that ranks the validity of external programs and ensures they are verified and maintain the rigor needed to meet Walmart’s goals.

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