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Greenpeace Releases Supermarket Seafood Sustainability Scorecard. How Well Did Your Grocery Store Do?
Photo by Jungle Jim's International Market via Flickr
Photo by Jungle Jim's International Market via Flickr
A scorecard released today by Greenpeace examines American supermarket chains and to what extent their seafood business is practiced sustainably.
In this fourth edition of the scorecard, "Carting Away the Oceans," half of the 20 large retailers receive passing scores. Among the retailers ranking in the top half who do business in Southern California include #1 ranked Target, as well as Whole Foods (#3), Safeway (parent of Vons/Pavillions, #4), Wal-Mart (#9) and Trader Joe's (#10)
Trader Joe's was the focus of a seafood sustainability campaign run by Greenpeace over the past several months, in which they created a parody site, Traitor Joe, which successfully pressured the South Pasadena-based market chain to pledge to revamp their seafood practices. Previously, Trader Joe's had been the worst-ranking market.
Retailers familiar to SoCal shoppers who ranked below passing are Kroger (Ralphs, Food 4 Less; #13), Costco (#14) and Supervalu (Albertson's, Lucky; $15). Practices such as poor labeling, selling "red-list" seafood items, and lacking company policy regarding seafood sustainability are what placed market chains on the failing list.
As consumers, Greenpeace urges us to demand from our supermarkets that they adopt and implement sustainable seafood practices. Download the full scorecard and report from Greenpeace and learn more about each company and what consumers can do.
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