Hannaford to sell only sustainably-sourced seafood
Hannaford's parent company announced today that all of the seafood carried in its supermarkets will be "coming from sources managed for sustainability" by the end of next March.
The chain has worked with a nonprofit org, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, to develop the guidelines for the program, which also cover farmed seafood. It'll be interesting to see if the switch to sustainable sources has an effect on price.
Fish stocks around the world failing due in large part to the fact that people are catching the fish faster than they can reproduce. Climate change also seems to be putting pressure on the stocks. By one estimate, cited in the recent book Four Fish, we would need "four or five oceans" to keep up with the current demand from the world's population.
Hannaford's parent company isn't the only one to take to notice. The corporations behind McDonald's, Long John Silver's and Red Lobster recently announced they're looking to buy more sustainable seafood (it seems the Filet of Fish had quite the impact on cod stocks).
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a well established "pocket guide" for buying "ocean-friendly seafood" -- it's even broken down by region.
[via @greenwatchdogNY and TU]
Say Something!
We'd really like you to take part in the conversation here at All Over Albany. But we do have a few rules here. Don't worry, they're easy. The first: be kind. The second: treat everyone else with the same respect you'd like to see in return. Cool? Great, post away. Comments are moderated so it might take a little while for your comment to show up. Thanks for being patient.
Comments
This is great news. Whereas I've felt that Price Chopper is well out in front on the quality of the beef, the two have been neck and neck on seafood. This puts Hannaford ahead in my opinion and I'll definitely look first for my fish there in future.
... said Otis Maxwell on Jul 15, 2010 at 9:18 PM | link
Thank you Hannaford.
... said biodiva on Jul 15, 2010 at 9:46 PM | link
Rock on! This is great (and ironic) because I went into Hannaford with my pocket guide from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Hannaford had ZERO options in the good or acceptable list. The fish monger even said to me, "yeah, that isn't really a priority for us." I am very hopeful this will actually come to fruition!
... said Sara on Jul 15, 2010 at 10:20 PM | link