Carting Away the Oceans: April 2011
Greenpeace ranks 20 major grocery chains and retailers on their sustainable seafood policies, initiatives and transparency.
From the report’s introduction:
This is the fifth iteration of Greenpeace’s Carting Away the Oceans (CATO) project, and there can be no doubt that over the past four years, this report has tracked a current of progress and innovation emanating throughout the seafood sector. Through progressive policy development, public support for conservation measures, and the elimination of unsustainable seafood inventory items, a conventional mega-grocer—Safeway—has captured the top spot from the previous standard-bearer, the Target Corporation. In doing so, Safeway has underscored the reality that supermarkets from all sectors can and must incorporate sustainability into their seafood operations as the industry evolves. Indeed, we have now seen the CATO pole position held by companies representing all three grocery sectors included in this report: specialty (Whole Foods twice in 2008 and Wegmans in 2009), big-box (Target in 2010), and conventional (Safeway in 2011).
It is clear that certain markets have become deeply invested in making better decisions and providing safer, more sustainable seafood options for their customers. At the same time, an opposite, dismal truth has become impossible to ignore: there are still numerous seafood retailers that have yet to take any responsibility for the seafood they sell, or for the damage they are doing to our oceans.
