Saving Seafood

Foodservice giants reject AquaBounty’s genetically engineered salmon

February 5, 2021 — Foodservice supplier Aramark this week confirmed its boycott of AquaBounty’s genetically engineered AquAdvantage salmon.

Citing the company’s Sustainable Sourcing Policy, Aramark joins ranks with other foodservice leaders Compass Group and Sodexo, as well as a growing list of domestic retailers, seafood companies and restaurants.

“Reiterating our previously stated opposition to genetically engineered (GE) salmon, we will not purchase it should it come to market. Avoiding potential impacts to wild salmon populations and indigenous communities, whose livelihoods are deeply connected to and often dependent upon this vital resource, is core to our company’s commitment to making a positive impact on people and the planet,” Aramark’s policy states.

AquaBounty, a Massachusetts-based biotech firm, prepares to bring its gene-spliced salmon to market from its only U.S. farm in Albany, Ind., in a shifting domestic market that increasingly values origin, health and sustainability, and wild over farmed seafood.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

US foodservice giants urged to buy local seafood

September 5, 2018 — A group of U.S. non-governmental organizations have begun a nationwide campaign urging the nation’s three largest foodservice management companies to buy more local and community-based products, including seafood.

The Community Coalition for Real Meals, which includes the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA), Friends of the Earth, and Real Food Challenge, say that Aramark, Compass Group, and Sodexo need to reorient their business models away from “a system of exclusive relationships with ‘Big Food’ corporations toward greater investments in real food that support producers, communities, and the environment,” according to one of the organization’s statements.

The coalition of farmers, fishers, farmworkers, and others kicked off the campaign with a march against Aramark at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, on 2 September. In the next few months, the Coalition will be holding a series of coordinated actions across the country to urge Aramark, Compass Group, and Sodexo to meet their “real food” targets within five years.

“The reality we’re facing is that the globalized seafood market leads to massive consolidation, where the average seafood travels thousands of miles from point of harvest to point-of-consumption, and is fraught with labor and environmental destruction,” said Julianna Fischer, a NAMA community organizer. ”We envision a different reality – where ecologically responsible, community-based food producers are able to feed their communities first, are paid a fair price, and those working across the food chain are afforded lives with dignity.”

Aramark, Compass Group, and Sodexo, which together manage over half of the country’s cafeterias at universities, hospitals, and other institutions, purchase billions of dollars worth of food from “multinational corporations that pay workers and producers unlivable wages,” the coalition said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

GSSI’s Accomplishments, Challenges Take Center Stage at SeaWeb Seafood Summit Panel

SEATTLE (Saving Seafood) – June 7, 2017 – The Global Seafood Sustainability Initiative (GSSI) was established in 2013 as a collective, non-competitive approach for industry, NGOs, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and government agencies to address growing confusion in the seafood certification landscape. Over the last four years, they have achieved considerable success in addressing this goal.

At Tuesday’s SeaWeb Seafood Summit panel, “GSSI – Benchmarking and the Certification Landscape,” members of the GSSI Steering Board (Bill DiMento, High Liner Foods; Lesley Sander, Sodexo; Ron Rogness, American Seafoods; Andrea Weber, METRO AG; and Herman Wisse, GSSI Program Director) shared their perspectives on the initiative’s importance, the extent to which the GSSI has already been recognized, and the GSSI’s future.

The GSSI’s most important achievement is the completion of the Global Benchmark Tool in October 2015. This was designed and implemented through broad participation and consultation; engaging stakeholders, NGOs, scientists, managers, harvesters, seafood suppliers, and consumers; and creating a public/private partnership with FAO. Through this unique relationship with FAO, the Benchmarking Tool has been developed in close conformance to the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.

Success to date can be measured in two ways: use of the Benchmarking Tool to recognize existing certification schemes, and adoption of the GSSI standard by producers, processors, suppliers, and consumers. Three certification schemes have already successfully completed the benchmarking process: the Marine Stewardship Council, Alaska Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM), and Iceland RFM. Additionally, two aquaculture certification schemes are currently being benchmarked. Thus, use of the Benchmarking Tool is already demonstrating noteworthy success.

Adoption and recognition of the GSSI standard is also showing considerable success. Large and small organizations in all sectors are joining the initiative with an increasing number of substantive commitments to source seafood under the GSSI hallmark. The recently announced commitment by the organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to endorse the GSSI standard for seafood served during the games is a significant endorsement.

The panel session was very well attended, as panelists communicated the GSSI concept, the remarkable amount of work that has been done to develop and implement the Benchmarking Tool, and its successful application. Panelists also shared their enthusiasm for GSSI, and the potential for GSSI to promote more sustainable seafood across the industry.