Grading Grocers: Greenpeace Issues Report on Seafood

As a link between the oceans and consumers, supermarkets play a pivotal role in the destruction of our oceans and have big opportunities to help protect them. Greenpeace evaluates major U.S. retailers for seafood sustainability in four key areas.

Policies examine the systems in place that govern a company’s purchasing decisions and how it avoids supporting destructive practices. They encourage retailers to enforce strong standards for both the wild-caught and farm-raised seafood in their stores. They also evaluate retailers’ participation in coalitions and initiatives that promote seafood sustainability and ocean conservation such as supporting sustainable fishing, calling for protection of vital marine habitat and working to stop human rights abuses in the seafood industry. Finally, the need for labeling and transparency takes into account retailers’ levels of truthfulness about where and how they source their seafood and how clearly this is communicated to customers. The group’s Red List Inventory, a scientifically compiled list of 22 marine species that don’t belong in supermarkets, is at Tinyurl.com/GreenpeaceRedList.

View the store ratings at Seafood.GreenpeaceUSA.org/grocery-store-scorecard.