Wal-Mart to Sell "Sustainable Shrimp"
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 05.29.07
At the end of our review of the Wal-Mart Effect we said "all of the green pronouncements in the world do not speak to their core customer, who is after always low prices, always." -When push came to shove, we thought Wal-Mart would not compromise it's traditional goal of delivering at the lowest possible price. Yet Wal-Mart sells fifty million pounds of shrimp per year, 40% of all the seafood it handles, and is now demanding it be harvested sustainably. According to SF Gate, "Under the company's new rules, the shrimp farms must be certified by Global Aquaculture Alliance or Aquaculture Certification Council as being farmed in environmentally sound ways."
Wal-Mart is also going to be selling more wild, domestic shrimp, even though it's more expensive, said Seafood VP Peter Redmond.
We earlier took shrimp off the menu, saying that there were few sustainable sources of shrimp, and have also noted that wild caught shrimp was not much better because of the issue of bycatch. Where is Wal-Mart going to find find fifty million pounds? ::SF Gate via ::Sustainable is Good
I find it ironic that after an article about greenwashing, we're calling GAA certified shrimp "sustinable." There are very few farms certified, mostly just processing plants (which is not where the envrionmental problems lie), and the standards for the farms that are certified aren't even that strong. Nevermind that the GAA is an industry group! Treehugger fails again when it comes to seafood.
LA: I think you are misreading treehugger. I still say that there are few sources of sustainable shrimp and that bycatch is still a problem, and that shrimp is still off the menu, and that we question where they will find 50 million pounds. I admit that I do not call it greenwashing and will look more closely at the GAA.
The GAA appears to be an industry lobby rather than a standard that ethical consumers should take seriously
http://oldsite.icsf.net//jsp/english/externalnews/newsDetails.jsp?id=26388
Frankly if it swims or crawls along the sea bed it should have an Marine Stewardship Council cert before it ends on your plate. http://www.msc.org/
With all due respect to Cargil (A GAA Founding member) I think I will look somewhere else for a sustianable perspective