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Wal-Mart practically had us at hello with their sustainability announcement yesterday, and we weren't alone. News that the retailing behemoth was launching a new global commitment to sustainable agriculture, with a focus on small and medium-sized farmers had blogs and Twitter feeds ablaze.

The announcement wasn't vague. It outlined specific goals that Wal-Mart is committed to reach by 2015. Among them:

* Selling $1 billion in food sourced from 1 million small and medium farmers.
* Asking suppliers about the water, energy, fertilizer and pesticide used per unit of food produced.
* Implementing a requirement for sustainably sourced palm oil for all Wal-Mart private-brand products.
* Sourcing only beef that does not contribute to the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon.

"Grocery is more than half of Wal-Mart's business," Michael T. Duke, president and chief executive was quoted as saying in The New York Times. "Yet only four of our 39 public sustainability goals address food.

Fred Kirschenmann, distinguished fellow for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and president of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture told Slashfood he met with Mike Duke in Iowa last month while the executive was visiting a farm committed to sustainable practices.

Just because you're on the road doesn't mean you can't enjoy the bounty of local farmers' markets, even if you can't exactly pick up a few grass-fed steaks to throw on the grill.

But where are the best farmers' markets in America for travelers? CNN asked food writers and chefs to pick their favorite farmers' markets for experiencing local food culture while on the road.

"You can still get a wonderful sense of what's grown in that community, and what you can find in restaurants when you dine there," Janet Fletcher, author of Fresh From the Farmers' Market, told CNN.

Coleslaw. Photo: jasonlam, Flickr

• Slaws are getting a whole new life, making cameos alongside ingredients like daikon and curried cantaloupe.
  
• The Santa Monica Farmers' Market welcomes fancy produce like pimientos de Padrón and Elegant Lady peaches.
• Writer Russ Parsons writes about the surprisingly positive response to his "I don't believe in organics" piece.
  
• 2007 Pali Pinot Noir "Bluffs" is a well-priced bottle of "beauty."
• While some programs suffer in this economic climate, school gardening is on the rise.
• Even more on Nora Ephron and "Julie & Julia."
• Restaurants: Brentwood's Tavern offers great starters but disappointing mains, Lazy Ox is heading to Little Tokyo and San Gabriel's Ning Jie serves comfort-style bachelor food.
• Recipe: Red and Green Caesar Salad
  

Genoa, the culinary capital of the region of Liguria in Italy, has one of the most colorful indoor food markets that I have ever been to - Mercato Orientale. Some of the narrow cobblestone streets surrounding the market are permeated by a smell of fresh focaccia bread. As you enter the market, you'll notice various cheese stalls, meat stalls, and bakeries that border the market. In the center, there are produce stalls with some of the brightest fruits and vegetables that I have ever seen.

The produce display is gorgeous and informative. Each item has a sign explaining where in Italy it's from. The vendors are more than willing to explain what makes their produce unique and the best way to eat it. If you speak even minimal Italian, I encourage you to interact with these friendly vendors. For me the highlight of the market was the produce.

If you live in a large city in the U.S., you can find nearly any kind of produce, but often it's in questionable condition. Either it's way too under ripe or the quality is just horrendous. At the Mercato Orientale, I was overwhelmed by the incredible quality of nearly every vegetable and fruit. If you're going to be in Genoa, I highly suggest you visit this market located at the corner of Via 20 Settembre and Via Galata.

"Unfortunate-looking" fruits and vegetables will no longer face discrimination in Europe, where a ban on the sale of misshapen produce was repealed on Wednesday.

Shape standards, which prohibited curved, knobby or otherwise different-looking fruits vegetables from going to market, will no longer be enforced come next July. The unpopular law had meant that oddly curved bananas and bulbous carrots would simply be thrown away by vendors looking to avoid fines. As food prices have risen in recent months, it became hard to avoid acknowledging the, uh, complete stupidity of these laws.

"It makes no sense to throw perfectly good products away, just because they are the 'wrong' shape," said Mariann Fischer Boel, European Commissioner of Agriculture. Amen to that.

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