Recent news: on July 4, Canada Safeway has announced that by 2015, it plans to only sell sustainably-farmed seafood. I must confess that the news, when I first heard it, made me feel something like this:
Safeway’s promise puts it in the company of many other major supermarket chains that have committed to selling nothing but sustainable seafood. These include (alphabetically) Costco, Overwaitea Foods (a B.C. chain), Real Canadian Superstores and other Loblaw stores, Sobeys and Walmart. The effort of each chain varies slightly, of course, but no matter what the current level, all of these initiatives will only grow in the future. This is an excellent first step!
Many of these companies, including Safeway, are working on their sustainability in collaboration with SeaChoice, a joint project of five environmental Canadian organizations. SeaChoice exists to make sustainable seafood selection easy for everyone: their Resources page contains a variety of materials, from pocket-sized seafood selection guides to more detailed documents that demystify seafood consumption.
SeaChoice’s creators are the following agencies:
- CPAWS (Canadian Parks And Wilderness) Association
- The David Suzuki Foundation
- The Ecology Action Centre
- Living Oceans Society
- Sierra Club B.C.
While initiatives like SeaChoice and Safeway’s decision to join the movement are definite successes, don’t get me wrong – there is a serious problem out there, concerning overfishing and the changing ocean environment, which must be met. If this issue interests you, I strongly recommend reading these two recent articles:
- BBC News: World’s oceans in ‘shocking’ decline – A fantastic overview of the current ocean crisis, focusing on overfishing, ocean temperature rises, pollution, and acidification.
- Times: The end of the line – An in-depth analysis of the merits, consequences, and future of aquaculture (commercial fish farming), as equally comprehensive as the BBC’s.
The oceans story has victories and setbacks – both often occurring at the same time – and it’s difficult to predict where we’ll end up at the end of all this. But I, for one, am optimistic: if more major corporations like Safeway choose to act as it has, there’s a good chance that we’ll be able to pull through. Change is possible, once everyone is engaged in these issues. Let’s celebrate our successes, and keep working together to create more of them.
