Three years ago, Walmart realized that there was an opportunity to cut costs and carbon emissions and empower more small farmers by sourcing more peppers closer to our stores. We realized that in almost every state where we have distribution centers—regional warehouses that take in shipments from around the world and distribute them to individual stores—there is a growing season that is right for jalapeños. In some cases, the farms were practically right down the street! We went to farmers who were already growing produce for us and encouraged them to try growing jalapeño peppers.