Greenpeace Supermarket Seafood Sustainability Scorecard

July 02, 2009

For years now, researchers have been warning about the collapse of our marine ecosystems. In particular, global fish populations are declining, and as startling as it sounds, by some estimates, we’ve already pushed as much as 75% of the world's fisheries beyond the limits of sustainability.

In the U.S., consumers buy half of their seafood at supermarkets –ringing in a total of about $16 billion in annual seafood sales –and so, a few years ago, Greenpeace initiated a scorecard that ranks supermarkets on the sustainability of their seafood operations. The third edition of this seafood sustainability scorecard, titled “Carting Away the Oceans,” was released this week, and it contains a glimmer of good news: more than half of the leading supermarket chains in the U.S. have made at least some progress in helping the oceans and meeting meet consumer demand for sustainable products.

What can supermarkets do to improve the sustainability of their seafood operations? According to Greenpeace, they can refuse to sell seafood from fisheries that:

exploit endangered, vulnerable and/or protected species, or species with poor stock status;

cause habitat destruction and/or lead to ecosystem alterations;

cause negative impacts on other, non-target species;

are unregulated, unreported, illegal or managed poorly, and

cause negative impacts on local, fishing dependent communities.

In other words, supermarkets need to step up and look deeply into all components of their seafood supply chains to ensure that what they sell is from suppliers who act as responsibly as possible.

While most of the nation’s 20 largest supermarket chains in the United States showed progress in the latest Greenpeace scorecard, the bottom nine on the list below made no visible effort to increase the sustainability of their seafood operations. Wegman’s received top ranking. Whole Foods dropped to third (down from its December 2008 first place ranking), and once again, Trader Joe's placed at # 17, the worst ranking of the national supermarket chains surveyed. Three regional chains ranked at the bottom.

Here are the rankings:

1.    Wegmans
2.    Ahold USA (Stop & Shop, Giant)
3.    Whole Foods
4.    Target
5.    Safeway (Dominicks, Genuardi's, Pavilions, Randall's, Vons)
6.    Harris Teeter
7.    Walmart
8.    Delhaize (Bloom, Food Lion, Hannaford Bros., Sweetbay)
9.    Kroger (Baker's, City Market, Dillon's, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, King Soopers, Ralph's,Smith's, Quality Food Center – QFC)
10. Costco
11.   Aldi
12.   A&P (Food Emporium, Pathmark, Super Fresh, Waldbaum's)
13.   Supervalu (Acme, Albertson's, Bristol Farms, Jewel-Osco, Save-A-Lot, Shaw's)
14.   Giant Eagle
15.   Publix
16.   Winn-Dixie
17.   Trader Joe’s
18.   Meijer
19.   Price Chopper
20.   H.E. Butt (H.E.B., Central Market)