Sustainable Seafood

Whole Foods' Earth Day Action

Environment – Whole Foods Market is taking its contribution to Earth Day to a new level by doing away with unsustainable seafood. As of April 22nd, the grocer will no longer carry wild-caught seafood that may be considered over-fished or caught in a way that harms other species.

The “red-rated” seafood, as determined by Blue Ocean Institute and Monterey Bay Aquarium, that Whole Foods will discontinue includes octopus, gray sole, skate, Atlantic halibut, and Atlantic cod caught by trawls. However, they will begin to stock sustainable Atlantic halibut and cod that are caught on lines or in the Pacific.

“In the long term, what we’re really looking to do is help reverse trends of overfishing and bi-catch, so that really we can move the industry as a whole toward greater sustainability,” Carrie Brownstein, seafood quality standards coordinator at Whole Foods, told the Associated Press.

Whole Foods is just another retailer who has jumped on board to bring their customers food from better sources. BJ’s Wholesale club plans to meet sustainability standards by 2014. Supervalu, which owns Albertsons, Shop n’ Save, and 7 other retailers, also stopped selling some wild-caught meats and seafood due to sustainability concerns.

These changes came swiftly after Greenpeace published its 2008 seafood sustainability scorecards, which failed 20 major supermarket chains; only 20 were tested. Three years later 15 out of 20 had passing scorecards. Greenpeace is making strides with the tuna industry as well; six of the tuna brands rated this year passed the sustainability test, compared to two last year. Let’s hope the trend continues.

Last year, a petition at Change.org was also making its rounds asking Whole Foods to stop selling endangered seafood; it seems like those who signed the petition have won the battle despite not reaching the 5,000 signature goal.

See where your supermarket falls here.

Watch the video below. Warning. May be NSFW.

To read more visit the Associated Press.