The decision of the Walton Family Foundation to invest $36,341,561 in Environmental Defense Fund and other nonprofits helping the Obama administration re-engineer U.S. fisheries though catch share programs has produced a nascent campaign to boycott Wal-Mart stores.
The push back against the world's largest retailer began on North Carolina's Outer Banks, by North Carolina Watermen United, a group of perhaps 200 commercial, recreational, longliner and charter fishermen, and has been joined by the Recreational Fishing Alliance, with members in every coastal state, including Massachusetts.
The $2.2 billion Walton Family Foundation is led by descendents of Sam Walton, who founded Wal-Mart in Bentonville, Arkansas. A grandson, Sam R. Walton, was in 2008-2009 an EDF board member.
"We object to your sponsorship of catch shares," Britton Shackleford, president of Watermen United, wrote to members of Wal-Mart's Global Ethics Committee on Wednesday.
The organization said it "would like to inform both Wal-Mart Stores and the Walton Family Foundation that it has encouraged its members to begin a boycott of your stores immediately."
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