Supermarkets rank on sustainable seafood
Want to know where to find the most reliably sustainable seafood for sale? Shop at Wegmans, says Greenpeace. But Giant isn't far behind.
The environmental group says that New York-based Wegmans, with a store in Hunt Valley, dislodged Whole Foods for top honors in its ranking of national supermarket chains by the sustainability of their seafood operations. Whole Foods, which had been No. 1 in the last ranking in December, fell to third, while Ahold, the international food empire which owns the local Giant chain and Stop & Shop, retained 2nd place.
Greenpeace scores the supermarket chains on what, if any, policies they have on selling sustainable seafood, on how easy it is for consumers to tell where their seafood came from, and on how much of the seafood sold is on the environmental group's "red list" of 22 species that are either overfished or unsustainably farmed through aquaculture.
Whole Foods, with two stores in Baltimore and one in Annapolis, slipped from its top spot in the ranking despite its otherwise "green" image mainly because the food chain sells 18 of the 22 "red list" species, says Casson Trenor, Greenpeace's senior markets campaigner.
And if Whole Foods doesn't get religion soon, Trenor warns, it may be overtaken by none other than Target, which is in fourth place. (While you might wonder how the two could possibly compare, Greenpeace rates canned and frozen as well as fresh seafood for sustainability.)
In the third ranking since last June, Greenpeace said 11 of the supermarket chains have made efforts to improve the sustainability of their seafood. Nine, however, have not. And for all the progress, Greenpeace says that none - not even top-scoring Wegmans - guarantees it won't sell any seafood from fisheries that are harming sea turtles, dolphins or other marine mammals.
To read the full report, go here.
Here is the complete ranking:
1) Wegmans
2) Ahold USA (Giant, Stop & Shop)
3) Whole Foods
4) Target
5) Safeway
6) Harris Teeter
7) Wal-mart
8) Delhaize (Bloom, Food Lion, Hannaford Brothers, Sweetbay)
9) Kroger
10) Costco
11) Aldi
12) A&P (Pathmark, Superfresh & others)
13) Supervalue (including Acme and Save-a-Lot)
14) Giant Eagle
15) Publix
16) Winn-Dixie
17) Trader Joe's
18) Meijer
19) Price Chopper
20) H.E. Butt
Comments
wow, TJ's is 17? Hmmm, I expected better but then again, I'm not familiar with some of the stores on the list. I'm not surprised Wegman's is #1. You can just about ANYTHING in that place. Of course, their products are just as (if not more) expensive as Whole Paycheck so go figure...
Posted by: locallady | June 30, 2009 4:34 PM
Can we be sure there is no other game being played here??http://mercuryfacts.com/dietician.cfm
Posted by: sue | June 30, 2009 7:32 PM
H.E. Butt.
Ha.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 1, 2009 8:24 AM
H.E. Butt
Seriously, they may not be the greenest but they are now the best supermarket name, supassing piggly wiggly.
I dont know if you can really lump Food Lion and Hannaford together...I know its the same company, but Food Lion is the absolute worst. Then again, Ive never shopped at the Butt.
Posted by: agreed | July 1, 2009 4:42 PM
For freshness and choice Wegmans is the best seafood department I have ever shopped. There prices relative to Whole Foods are always lower usually by a couple of bucks a pound for the same species. The never frozen Carolina Shrimp are incredible. Bay rockfish tasted like I had just caught it myself. plus the people who work there are consistently wonderful. Judging by the way they seem to treat their employees, I've asked clerks and cashiers many times and the employees always say they love working there I tend to believe what they say about other corporate policies. Wegmans is wonderful in my opinion.
Posted by: Ted Getzel | July 1, 2009 5:25 PM
Trader Joe's frozen seafood section is like an example of everything you should avoid in seafood - frozen chunks of fish imported from places like the Phillipines with no fisheries management that use longlines which catch and kill all kinds of sealife.
Posted by: jim | July 2, 2009 12:08 PM