Love Canned Tuna? More Grocers Want To Make Sure It Was Caught Responsibly
Whole Foods this month became the latest retailer to adopt a policy to ensure the canned tuna it sells is caught with methods that don't decimate fish stocks or trap other animals.
For the last 20 years, Americans have been having a conversation about sustainable seafood that was largely focused on fish purchased at restaurants or fresh seafood counters. Armed with seafood guides, thoughtful customers were encouraged to pose questions about where their fish was caught and what type of gear was used — questions that are far trickier to pose in front of a wall of canned tuna in the middle of a supermarket.
While may be winning over American palates today, our consumption of fresh tuna is still dwarfed by our collective appetite for the canned stuff. According to the National Fisheries Institute, Americans ate more than 700 million pounds.
