Greenpeace ranks Whole Foods No. 1 in seafood sustainability; Trader Joe’s falls 7 spots
Whole Foods tops Greenpeace’s 2018 ranking of groceries with the best sustainable seafood practices, with ALDI ranked third and Target coming in fourth, according the “Carting Away the Oceans” study released the evening of Tuesday, August 14.
Trader Joe’s received a passing grade, but tumbled seven spots and has gone from “leading retailer to mediocre performer.” The grocery ranked 14th and Costco came in 15th out of 22 groceries surveyed.
The seven groceries with the lowest scores do not have Southern California locations.
With most stores making a dramatic improvement since Greenpeace began the rankings in 2008 — when none received passing marks — the environmental group this year began also looking at the groceries’ policies for phasing out single-use plastics, which are a growing source of ocean pollution.
It found none of the 22 had “comprehensive plans” for eliminating those plastics, while 20 received passing grades for seafood sustainability.
“We’ve seen supermarkets take the initiative with sustainable seafood,” said Greenpeace’s David Pinsky. “They need to now take that same initiative with single-use plastics.”
Sustainability scorecard
The report is being released during a two-week Long Beach stay by Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship, which is docked at the Pine Avenue Pier and will be open for free public tours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 11-12.
The stop is part of a West Coast tour by the ship, which is also making stops in San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.
While Greenpeace is beginning to consider single-use plastics and labor issues, the seafood sustainability scorecard continues to focus primarily on issues more directly related to over-fishing certain species and to fish-farming practices that have a negative impact on farm-adjacent marine life.
Among the “red-list” fish with dwindling populations that Greenpeace gives stores demerits for stocking: orange roughy, Chilean sea bass, shark, bigeye tuna and blue fin tuna. The list is drawn from the Monterey Aquarium’s Seafood Watch report, seafoodwatch.org.
Whole Foods is praised for continuing its leadership role in terms of seafood sustainability, particularly its avoidance of red-listed fish and its promotion of responsible management of fisheries.
Trader Joe’s is criticized for a lack of transparency, which Greenpeace said made it difficult to assess the sustainability of its swordfish and its farmed salmon and shrimp.
On the other hand, Greenpeace applauds the chain for having the lowest number of “red-list species” in its inventory, with the caveat that the grocery carries fewer seafood species than others.
Costco is praised for having a public sustainability policy and for improving slightly over its scores in previous years.
However, it is dinged for not clearly marking fish so the customer can assess the sustainability of each species sold, for resuming the sale of Chilean sea bass and for no longer selling a sustainable private-label canned tuna product.
While pointing to the large amount of plastic used for packaging by Costco, Pinsky also gave the warehouse retailer a pat on the back for now developing a policy aimed at reducing single-use plastics.
Costco declined comment on the report. Trader Joe’s did not immediately respond to inquiry by the Southern California Newspaper Group.
SoCal stores
Of the 22 groceries ranked by Greenpeace, nine have stores in Southern California. Here’s how those nine fared:
1. Whole Foods
3. Aldi
4. Target
7. Albertsons
8. Sprouts
11. Kroger (parent company of Ralphs)
13. Walmart
14. Trader Joe’s
15. Costco