Saving Seafood

Grocery chain calls attention to seafood via new sustainability ranking

November 4, 2019 — Natural Grocers, a large natural grocery chain operated by Vitamin Cottage, is drawing attention to the traceability and sustainability of its fresh and frozen seafood with its new sustainability ranking system for shoppers.

In a massive overhaul, the Lakewood, Colorado-based operator of 153 stores is calling attention to its meat and seafood departments by more effectively communicating the sustainability and other benefits – such as “Certified Organic” and “Dolphin Safe” – of its current offerings.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Senate and House Republicans Announce Formation of the Roosevelt Conservation Caucus

July 10, 2019 — The following was released by The Office of Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC):

Republicans in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives today announced the formation of the bicameral Roosevelt Conservation Caucus (RCC).

The RCC will embrace and promote constructive efforts to address environmental problems, responsibly plan for all market factors, and base policy decisions on science and quantifiable facts.

The United States has made great strides to advance technology that both spurs economic development and improves our environment.  To build off this success, we believe we must use our tradition of American ingenuity, innovation, and exceptionalism to create and support economically viable and broadly supported solutions that improve our environment.

“Thanks to capitalism and technological advancements, millions of Americans enjoy one of the cleanest environments and highest standards of living,” said Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), the co-chair of the Senate Caucus.  “Unleashing solutions that enhance and protect our environment are essential to ensuring economic growth, energy independence, and national security.”

“In Colorado we are blessed with abundant and diverse natural resources, and we take pride in being responsible stewards of the environment,” said Senator Cory Gardner (R-Colorado), co-chair of the Senate Caucus. “Every American should want to protect the environment and pass our beautiful country on to the next generation better and cleaner than it was given to us. I’m proud to stand with my colleagues today to officially launch the Roosevelt Conservation Caucus, a platform that will help shine more light on Republican efforts on innovative, economically viable policies which will both improve the environment and make sure the American people continue to have the highest quality of life possible.”

“After enacting a historic win for conservation with the bipartisan public lands package, there’s lots left to do,” said Senator Steve Daines (R-Montana), co-chair of the Senate Caucus. “From increasing outdoor recreation to fixing our national park maintenance backlog to continuing to protect our public lands – I look forward to working with my colleagues in this caucus to accomplish more wins for conservation in Montana and across our country.”

“In Florida, we know all too well what happens when the environment is neglected.  As a result of decades of abuse, toxic algal blooms are now causing a massive public health crisis,” said Congressman Brian Mast (R-Florida). “This issue doesn’t discriminate based on demographics or ideology—it impacts every single one of us.  We need to move past the partisan rhetoric and face our environmental challenges head on by working together to strengthen conservation programs, promote public health, defend our environment, keep our air clean and protect our waterways.”

“The American spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation has powered our nation’s economic development, while advancing our capabilities to ensure wise stewardship of our natural resources,” said Congresswoman Stefanik (R-New York). “As new challenges emerge, it is incumbent on our generation to think boldly and foster the next wave of solutions to protect and improve our environment. I’m looking forward to doing this important work with my colleagues to address environmental issues through market-oriented solutions.”

“The Roosevelt Conservation Caucus will give a platform to effective and common-sense solutions to environmental and conservation issues that affect all Americans,” said Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio).  “I look forward to working with my colleagues to ensure that we promote conservation and protect our environment for generations to come.”

“Our nation offers a vast variety of natural landscapes, and it’s our responsibility to preserve these treasures for generations to come,” said Senator Richard Burr (R-North Carolina). “That’s why I’ve been a strong advocate of commonsense conservation programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which was made permanent earlier this year. It’s programs like the LWCF that will help further the goals of the newly-formed Roosevelt Caucus, and I look forward to working on them with my colleagues.”

“The United States is blessed with a treasure trove of precious parks and natural resources, and Congress and the federal government have an important role to play in maintaining these wonders,” said U.S. Representative Will Hurd (TX-23). “We cannot forget that conservation is conservative, and I am proud to continue that legacy with my colleagues as Vice-Chair of the bicameral Roosevelt Conservation Caucus.”

Read the full release here

Bristol Bay sockeye campaign moves into Hy-Vee, QFC, and Pavilions

February 22, 2019 — The Bristol Bay Regional Development Association (BBRSDA) is expanding a marketing campaign it believes will make Bristol Bay sockeye salmon a nationally recognized brand.

In 2016, the association launched a pilot marketing program in nine grocery stores in Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.. The association put its new eye-catching, salmon-hued logo on aprons, printed fish wrap, and stickers, and handed out recipe cards and branded mugs while their representatives touted wild-caught sockeye from the pristine water of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Point-of-sale promotions were bolstered by a social media push, which included vivid photographs of Bristol Bay and interviews with the men and women who fish there.

Fast forward two years, and that same program that started in a handful of stores in Boulder has expanded to more than 1,000 across the country, forming partnerships with major chains like Hy-Vee, QFC, and Pavilions.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New Tool Makes Sustainability Choices Better and Easier for Seafood Industry

October 26, 2016 — The following was released by The Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions:

Fort Collins, Colorado – The Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions and FishChoice today released a first-of-its-kind resource aimed at helping seafood buyers make better and easier sustainable sourcing choices. Industry and conservation organizations hail FisheryProgress.org (www.fisheryprogress.org) as a one-stop-shop for reliable information on the progress of fishery improvement projects (“FIPs”) worldwide.

“For industry’s conservation leaders, the question is no longer whether you’re sourcing from a FIP, it’s whether the FIP you’re sourcing from is making progress,” said John Silva of Lusamerica Fish. “For the first time, FisheryProgress.org makes it easy to find a reliable answer.”

Dozens of FIPs throughout the world bring suppliers, retailers, and food-service companies together with conservation groups and scientific experts to address environmental challenges in a fishery. Along with clear sustainability standards, public policy upgrades, and other interventions, FIPs make fisheries more sustainable by harnessing the private sector’s power to incentivize positive change.

Previously, access to detailed information about FIPs’ progress required searching dozens of websites. And even then, prospective buyers or conservation advocates faced inconsistent documentation and questions about the data’s reliability. FisheryProgress.org brings all of that data together on one site, using standard metrics to assess progress, and ensuring that data is independently verified.

FisheryProgress.org uses the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fisheries Standard as a tool for measuring fishery performance and the progress fishery improvement projects make over time. Each project can choose whether to pursue MSC certification, or other alternative end goals, but using the same credible standard for measuring progress allows businesses to make better-informed decisions about participating in or sourcing from these fishery improvement projects.

“We work closely with our partners to transition their supply chains to sustainable resources, and fishery improvement projects are vital to this transition,” said Stephanie Bradley, Manager of Fishery Improvement Projects for the World Wildlife Fund – U.S., a Conservation Alliance member organization. “The value of a platform like FisheryProgress.org is that it collects important details about these projects and provides third-party verification of that information all in one place. This has the potential to build an easily accessible global profile of work, which in turn can provide more opportunities for seafood buyers to engage in transitioning fisheries and their supply chains.”

The Conservation Alliance released updated FIP guidelines in 2015. Noting that access to reliable FIP progress information remained a barrier to conservation groups considering recommendations and retail and food service buyers considering sourcing decisions, the Conservation Alliance commissioned the creation of FisheryProgress.org. FishChoice, a Conservation Alliance member organization with experience developing online tools for seafood businesses, will operate the site and verify data. FishChoice led the site’s development, informed by an advisory committee that also included other Conservation Alliance member organizations and industry representatives.

“FishChoice and the Conservation Alliance are all about bringing industry and conservation leaders together to overcome sustainability challenges,” said Richard Boot, founder and president of FishChoice. “FisheryProgress.org works for conservation and industry because it was designed in partnership with both.”

CDC: Highest suicide rates found among fishermen, farmers, foresters

July 11, 2016 — Greg Marley has lived on the coast of Maine for 35 years, and in that time the licensed clinical social worker has seen a lot of sad things, including the death by suicide of too many of his hard-working neighbors.

“This is a field I’ve worked in for a long time,” Marley, the clinical director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Maine, said recently. “I know fishermen, I know foresters, I certainly know people in the construction industry who have died by suicide.”

That’s why a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the suicide rates among people working in different occupationswasn’t surprising to the social worker, who’s part of the Maine Suicide Prevention Program. In the CDC’s weekly morbidity and mortality report on July 1, the agency found that persons working in the farming, fishing and forestry fields had the highest rate of suicide overall, with 84.5 deaths by suicide among 100,000 people. The second highest suicide rate was found among people who work in the field of construction and extraction, with 53.3 deaths by suicide per 100,000 people.

In sharp contrast, the lowest suicide rate was found in the education, training and library occupational group, with 7.5 deaths by suicide per 100,000 people — more than a tenfold decrease from the farming, fishing and forestry group.

“The study is interesting, and it’s useful,” Marley said. “But for me, heavily steeped in this field, I found little of surprise. It does tell me that, hey, maybe we need to do better or more active outreach in those areas.”

The CDC’s suicide rate report used data provided by 17 states in 2012. Maine wasn’t one of those states, because the state didn’t start participating in the CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System until 2014. Still, Maine has some commonalities with some of the states that were included in the report, Marley said, especially Alaska, Oregon, Colorado, Wisconsin and North Carolina. Those are all places with a large rural population and where many farmers, fishermen or lumbermen work. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Maine is the most rural state.

Suicide is an important topic in Maine, where the suicide rate of people ages 10 and older is higher than the overall rate in the nation — 17.7 suicide deaths per 100,000 people in Maine compared to 14.6 deaths per 100,000 nationwide. Suicide also is the second leading cause of death among Mainers ages 15 to 34, and the fourth leading cause of death among Mainers ages 35 to 54. Men in Maine are four times more likely to die by suicide than women are, with firearms the most common suicide method used by men.

For the Pine Tree State, which has a rich and storied tradition of people — mostly men — working on the farm, on fishing boats and in the forests, the new study may highlight some old problems.

“I think there are a number of factors operating here,” Emily Haight, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Maine, said. “Farmers, fishermen and foresters — they are largely male-dominated professions, and we know that males are more likely to complete suicide. Farmers, fishermen and foresters also probably have more access to firearms. And my other guess is that we’re dealing with factors related to isolation.”

Among those factors is the way many parts of rural Maine are underserved, with respect to mental health care, she said, and the stigma about seeking help that still exists in many places.

“Suicide is a very striking and disturbing occurrence,” Haight said. “We still regard it as not common. But as researchers we want to be very aware of risk factors.”

According to Marley, additional factors that likely play a role in the higher suicide rate among farmers, fishermen and those in the forestry industry include substance abuse and higher accident risks in those fields.

Agriculture, for instance, is one of the nation’s most dangerous industries, with the injury rate in 2011 over 40 percent higher than the rate for all workers, according to the United States Department of Labor. The fatality rate for agricultural workers was seven times higher than the fatality rate for all workers in private industry.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News