Greenpeace & Trader Joe’s Throw Down

In case you’ve missed the recent eco-fish controversy between Greenpeace and Trader Joe’s, here’s the scoop…

• Greenpeace recently released their latest version of their seafood sustainability scorecard, Carting Away the Oceans, and once again ranked Trader Joe’s as the worst of the national supermarket chains surveyed (three regional stores were below Trader Joe’s).
• Two days after the release of the seafood scorecard Greenpeace visited Trader Joe’s stores in San Francisco where activists protested the company’s lack of sustainable seafood policies and purchasing practices.
• Greenpeace has also launched a fake website – Traitor Joe’s in order to inform consumers about this problem.

Trader Joe’s posted a response to the fish situation at their website, which reads…

“We’ve received inquiries about the recent report and information that Greenpeace has been disseminating. Some of you have commented that is it seems so… well, “unbelievable.” That’s because much of it is not credible. We do not partner with outside organizations, nor do we participate in any surveys. As a result, information gets gleaned from sources outside of Trader Joes, and this can lead to inaccurate reporting, which can lead to confusion. That’s why we wanted to take a moment to clear up a few things.

The Greenpeace report details that Trader Joe’s sells a certain number of items on their “Red List.” But several of the items that they call out are NOT for sale in our stores. We do NOT sell Chilean Sea Bass, Monkfish, Ocean Quahog or Redfish in any of our stores. In fact, Trader Joe’s sells fewer items on that “Red List” than the #1 ranked grocery retailer in their report.

We would also like to make clear that ALL of Trader Joe’s fresh and frozen seafood is labeled with the country of origin, and whether or not it has been farmed or is wild-caught. We feel strongly that it is important to allow our customers the opportunity to make informed decisions about what they buy.

We understand the importance of sustainability and consistently strive to improve our efforts in this arena. We continue to work closely with all of our seafood suppliers to ensure that a high level of standards and practices are adhered to at all times. We have been working on our own report that we hope to publish to our customers in the near future to help clarify our processes.”

Greenpeace in turn responded to Trader Joe’s with these posts – Don’t Believe Greenpeace and Widgets are Out to Get Me! at their staff blog.

Coming up a little later – my take on this situation.

[image courtesy of ©Greenpeace]