Saving Seafood

Tyson closes $2.16bn deal to buy McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish processor

December 4, 2018 — US chicken processing giant Tyson Foods has closed a deal to buy the Keystone Foods business from Marfrig Global Foods, for $2.16 billion in cash, which takes the company into fish processing in a major way.

The acquisition of Keystone, a major supplier to the growing global foodservice industry, furthers Tyson Foods’ domestic and international sales growth goals, the company said in a statement.

“Our biggest growth opportunities are in value-added foods and international markets. Our acquisition of Keystone helps us achieve both,” Noel White, Tyson’s president and CEO said. “The addition of Keystone’s team, industry expertise and international operations strengthens our capabilities. I’m pleased to welcome our newest team members to the Tyson Foods family.”

Headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Keystone supplies chicken, beef, fish and pork to quick-service restaurant chains, as well as retail and convenience store channels. Its value-added product portfolio includes chicken nuggets, wings and tenders; beef patties; and breaded fish fillets.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

McDonald’s Came Out With A Card Game Based On The Filet-O-Fish

June 13, 2018 — Love it or hate it, the Filet-O-Fish is one of McDonald’s most recognizable items. Kanye West raps about it, President Trump eats two of them at a time, and now, there’s a card game devoted to it. McDonald’s released ‘Reel It In’ online this week, and the purpose is way more noble than you might think.

The kids’ game was created to teach kids about sustainable fishing practices, as well as highlight McDonald’s environmental efforts. According to the company, every single Filet-O-Fish sandwich is made with Marine Stewardship Council-certified wild-caught Alaska pollock.

What that means is that during the catch process, the fishery McDonald’s sources from avoids catching fish that aren’t the desired type (this is called bycatch). The fishery also makes use of the entire fish for other purposes so that there is zero waste.

Read the full story at Delish

BREN SMITH, SEAN BARRETT, AND PAUL GREENBERG: What Trump’s Budget Means for the Filet-O-Fish

April 25, 2017 — Consider the pollock.

It is the most voluminously caught fish in the United States, accounting for a quarter of everything Americans catch. As such it is the major bulwark against the United States’ multibillion-dollar seafood trade deficit — the second-largest deficit in our trade portfolio, after crude oil. And it is, today, the main component in the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish, or the “fish delight,” as Donald Trump likes to call it.

Now consider the president’s budget for the people who make his preferred sandwich possible.

If Congress seriously entertains the White House’s suggestions, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — a popular target for conservatives, who see it primarily as a source of pesky climate-change research — and the National Marine Fisheries Service it oversees will lose 17 percent of its funding. This despite Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross’s desire to “try to figure how we can become much more self-sufficient in fishing and perhaps even a net exporter.”

As the three of us consider this statement, a common wry fisherman’s response comes to our lips: Yeah, good luck with that, buddy.

Because of repeated sacrifices made by American fishermen working with NOAA over the past 40 years, the United States now has the most robust and well-managed wild fisheries in the world. Federal observers oversee 80 percent of the large trawlers fishing for pollock, ensuring that this largest of fisheries maintains an impeccable set of management tools.

But in spite of all of our success, only around 9 percent of the seafood available in American markets comes from American fishermen. In fact, the last traditional fishing communities in the United States are fighting for their very existence. Fair-trade local fishermen remain unable to compete in our domestic marketplace, which is overwhelmed and flooded with cheap, untraceable imported seafood.

Read the full opinion piece at the New York Times