September 6, 2023 — Chris Ninnes is CEO of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council. Brad Spear is global policy director at Sustainable Fisheries Partnership. ASC and SFP are members of the Certification and Ratings Collaboration.
Around the world, seafood production supports more than 600 million livelihoods and feeds more than 3 billion people. Yet significant social responsibility challenges exist in the supply chains of wild-caught and farmed seafood products from around the world.
January 16, 2023 — The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) announced that, as of 14 January, feed mills can apply for its ASC feed standard certification.
The certification constitutes several legal, social, and environmental requirements for both mills’ operations, and for the suppliers of ingredients used in feed production.
January 4, 2022 — The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has released its first report on how it is contriuting to the responsible aquaculture portion of the United Nations Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The 17 SDGs make up the overall sustainability goals adopted by 193 U.N. member-states in 2015. Within each overarching goal, there are specific targets to achieve the 17 SDGs by 2030. The new report found more than 80 percent of the targets within all 17 SDGs are addressed by ASC.
October 13, 2022 — The largest trout producers in the U.S. – Riverence Provisions LLC and Riverence Farms LLC – have achieved the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification.
Boise, Idaho-based Riverence Farms operates six grow-out farms primarily raising steelhead and golden rainbow trout, while Riverence Provisions is made up of eight grow-out farms raising rainbow trout. The eggs for these trout come directly from Riverence’s recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facilities in Washington state. Collectively, these companies produce more than 22 million pounds (10,000 metric tons) of fish annually and employ over 300 team members.
June 1, 2022 — IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, is a public-private partnership convener that has a history of driving sustainability initiatives in the seafood sector, including partnering with WWF to establish the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) in 2010. It also organized and continues to operate a program in China’s Hainan province to improve tilapia farmers’ incomes and make the sector more attractive to investors and insurers, in part by transferring knowledge and technology to farmers.
The IDH Aquaculture Program dates back to 2009, and more recently, the group created the IDH Aquaculture Working Group on Environmental Footprint, an initiative to investigate the environmental footprint of aquaculture globally. The initiative now includes Tesco, Thai Union, Wegmans, Hilton Seafood, and Marks and Spencer, among others.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
March 21, 2022 — Along with a new marketing campaign that will be the largest in its history, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council is also developing new technology to help it combat seafood fraud.
The new tech is under the umbrella of the ASC’s new campaign “The New Way to Seafood.” As part of the campaign, the ASC said, it is developing new “trace element fingerprinting,” digital tagging and tracing technology, and the implementation of chain of custody protocols.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
March 16, 2022 — The Aquaculture Stewardship Council is launching its largest public-facing marketing campaign ever as the organization seeks to tell the story of sustainable aquaculture to consumers.
The new marketing campaign will have a heavy U.S. emphasis, with an emphasis on local-market promotions. The “New Way to Seafood” campaign will aim to dispel falsehoods and public misconceptions about seafood and showcase the work that the ASC has been performing since the program’s inception.
March 1, 2022 — The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has launched one of its largest-ever rounds of public consultation starting 1 March and running to 30 April, 2022, seeking comments on the new ASC farm standard that will align all ASC-certified species under one standard.
The new single standard will benefit farmers and auditors through greater efficiency, and make it easier for stakeholders, such as NGOs, to assess and compare the ASC’s requirements for public consultation, the ASC said. Additionally, with this single, comprehensive standard, the ASC will be able to respond to changes in markets and the industry quicker than before.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource
June 15, 2021 — After years of development, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) launched a new feed standard on Tuesday, 15 June, seeking to “tackle one of biggest threats to aquaculture’s reputation.”
Recognizing that “unsustainable and irresponsible practices across the aquaculture feed-supply chain risk undoing the positive impact of the farming industry,” ASC’s new standards requires feed mills to meet a series of “strict environmental and social requirements; source ingredients from socially responsible suppliers; and use environmentally responsible raw materials.”
March 8, 2021 — The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) on Monday, 8 March announced the launch of its largest-ever public consultations, seeking feedback on two separate changes to its standards.
The public consultation, which seeks input from stakeholders, is looking for feedback on the council’s proposed environmental requirements on the aligned farm standards, which according to the ASC will cover all certified species “bringing efficiencies and improvements without compromising on quality.”