Seafood Eco-Labels: Ensuring Sustainability or Profit?
Certifying products is all the rage these days. We see it with timber, bananas, coffee and even diamonds. In most cases, these certification schemes are designed to assuage consumer concerns about the environmental or social origins of the product, and of course, to encourage them to buy.
Increasingly, Americans are concerned about where their seafood comes from, how it’s harvested and whether the fish is a safe and healthy source of protein. For this reason, new eco-labels for seafood are popping up on grocery shelves across the country.
However, there is a lot of debate about how this labeling should come to pass. The problems arise when companies with a direct stake in the sale of the product determine the labeling criteria and even decide which products receive a label - a clear conflict of interest.
So what are the alternatives? The safeguarding of our oceans and food sources should not be left to private industry. The certifier must be a third party with no stake in the sale of the product. Otherwise, it’s awfully hard to know if that label really promises a more sustainable product or simply greater profits for a clever company.
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