- Author: Pat Bailey
As the global demand for seafood booms, major food retailers are promising that soon all of the fresh, frozen, farmed and wild seafood that they sell will come from sustainable sources. However, finding such sustainable sources to satisfy the global appetite for seafood is easier said than done.
While many of the sustainability standards have been met by commercial fisheries in the developed world, a major challenge exists in fisheries overseen by developing nations, which account for about half of all seafood entering the international market. Unfortunately, only 7 percent of the fisheries that have been fully certified by the Marine Stewardship Council for meeting...
- Author: Ann Brody Guy
If you buy fresh fish with any regularity you’ve likely come across tilapia. A relative newcomer to American fish markets, the mild, flakey white fish originated in Africa and was introduced to American markets about 10 years ago, sometimes accompanied by favorable sustainability ratings from markets like Whole Foods. Most farmed tilapia consumed in the U.S. currently comes from fish farms in Central America.
“It's a fast-growing fish species that seems more sustainable because it is usually a plant-eater. That is, the fish can survive on plants rather than other fish,” says Alastair...
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Fishing has resumed in the Gulf of Mexico, but the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill that began in April has dampened consumer appetites for seafood. Consumers have concerns about the effect of the oil spill on gulf seafood, and some are eating less seafood now.
In a June 2010 telephone survey of 1,076 consumers conducted by University of Minnesota’s Food Industry Center, Louisiana State University AgCenter and the National Center for Food Protection and Defense, 89 percent said they are concerned about the spill’s effects on gulf seafood, and 50 percent are “extremely concerned.” When asked about their own eating habits, 54 percent of respondents...
