Supermarkets Fail Greenpeace Test on Fish

Greenpeace rated supermarkets for the sustainability of the fish they sell.

All failed.

As Greenpeace explains:

To date, many environmentalists have asked individual consumers to shift their seafood purchases to reduce effects on overexploited species.  These have proved complicated, bewildering and often ineffective. 

By asking supermarkets to take an active role in preserving overfished species, Greenpeace is enlisting the aid of informed seafood professionals whose decisions send strong signal back through the supply chain.

The larger point -- that supermarkets and others should raise their game when it comes to fish - is incontrovertible. If we want to eat fish in the future, we've got to be smarter about the fish we eat now.

But a couple of issues: first, half of all seafood is sold in restaurants rather than at home, and secondly, as Greenpeace points out, there is massive confusion about "red list" fish. Its own list, for example, contains fish that have been certified as sustainable (such as New Zealand hoki and Alaskan pollack) by the Marine Stewardship Council. This only leads consumers to throw up their hands in confusion.

As for the ratings, Whole Foods rated the highest, but it still got a "failing" grade from Greenpeace.

- Samuel Fromartz 

Comments

[Gavin]

Samuel is dead on about the draw backs of this Greenpeace report. The fact that its own list contains fish that have been certified as sustainable only leads to confusion and undermines the whole effort. Sustainability is very important to the seafood community and responsible dialog about the subject is welcomed and encouraged but in this case Greenpeace threatened stores before this report came out – demanding they remove half of all fish sold or face a poor rating on its Retail Grocery List, that’s not responsible or constructive.
Gavin
National Fisheries Institute

[Cheryl]

I consider myself a reasonably well informed consumer when it comes to this stuff, but I'm still all tied up in knots about what's appropriate. Why isn't there a single body overseeing this issue and coming up with a comprehensive sustainability scorecard everyone can agree on? Or is that what Seafood Watch is?

[Sam Fromartz]

Cheryl,
I think Seafood Watch is quite good as is Blue Oceans Institute and Environmental Defense as a way to compare with Greenpeace. (Google them all to find their lists).

One way to go: eat farm raised domestic oysters and mussels; Alaskan salmon, halibut and cod; domestic farmed tilapia, catfish and trout. For other wild species look up the lists to check out for sustainability and toxicity.

We eat a lot of fish in my family and usually the ones I mentioned above. You can do a lot with those choices and we never tire of them.

[Organic George]

Farm raised? Is that with GMO soy meal? Chemically farmed grains add to the pollution of the ground water, streams, rivers and oceans.

Gulf Hypoxia would not be possible with out the farm chemicals and raw manure run off from conventional farms.

What is sustainable about chemcially farmed feed for fish?

[Samuel Fromartz]

George, I love your perceptive comments, even if it leaves me with a fish in my mouth. I agree but I think we get too caught up in absolutes. If you were absolutist on these issues, you would probably not eat any fish. What I'd rather do is encourage better practices, along the lines of what Mark Powell here suggests in other recent comments on the blog. And that goes for aquaculture as well.

[Ken Peterson]

From the perspective of Seafood Watch, supermarkets (and other seafood gatekeepers like restaurants and food service companies) have an important role to play in promoting sustainable seafood through the choices they offer consumers.

It’s one reason Monterey Bay Aquarium and our Seafood Watch program work with major buyers to influence their seafood purchasing decisions. (We've had successes, including partnerships with Compass Group North America and ARAMARK – the two largest food service companies in North America.)

Supermarkets must take the initiative and move away from offering non-sustainable seafood, whether it’s wild-caught or farmed.

We recommend that consumers start by avoiding the six priority red-listed species identified by Greenpeace. All NGOs agree that species such as bluefin tuna, Chilean sea bass, orange roughy and sharks are in trouble and need a break.

We haven't yet reviewed the Greenpeace seafood recommendations and the methodology behind them. We'll incorporate new scientific information into our recommendations as appropriate.

We differ from Greenpeace in one respect. We and other members of the Conservation Alliance for Sustainable Seafood recognize and support the work of the Marine Stewardship Council. We recommend that consumers look for and purchase sustainable seafood products with the Marine Stewardship Council blue ecolabel.

Ken Peterson, Communications Director
Monterey Bay Aquarium

[Sam Fromartz]

Ken, thanks for you perspective.