Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
the effort by the National Environmental Trust (now part of the Pew Environment
Group) to wean the industry off farmed salmon. But it was not until the events
of early 2006 that Sysco and others realised they could not avoid coming to grips
with sustainable seafood. Sysco officials realised that many of their largest clients,
such as the food service giant Aramark, were developing their own commitments
to sustainable seafood. Sooner or later, food distributors would have to join their
retail and food service cousins in supporting the movement. Sysco executives began
exploring potential business/environment partnerships and attended the Monterey
Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Advisory Board meeting in 2006 as well as
Cook-
ing for Solutions
, the organisation's annual gala celebration of sustainable seafood,
in 2007.
Meanwhile, the announcements by Wal-Mart and the Compass Group erased
any remaining doubt among leaders of the seafood industry that sustainability had
become a mainstream business concern. The industry that had for so long eschewed
the sustainable seafood movement was finally compelled to embrace it. After a
decade of focusing on raising the salience of sustainable seafood, the movement
had captured the attention not only of individual seafood lovers but also of the
nation's biggest seafood buyers themselves.
20.5
The future of sustainable seafood
The developments of 2006-2007 presented the sustainable seafood movement with
a new challenge. Because the 'tipping point' represented by Wal-Mart's commit-
ment was rather unexpected, demand for sustainable seafood quickly threatened
to outstrip supply. At the time of the Wal-Mart announcement in early 2006, the
MSC could only claim to have certified 16 fisheries worldwide, hardly sufficient
to match the growing demand for sustainable seafood even though this number
included high-volume/low-value fisheries such as Alaska pollock and Pacific cod.
However, 19 fisheries were then in full assessment and 20 others were thought
to be in confidential pre-assessment. One of the lessons learned over the years in
the sustainable forest products industry was the critical importance of balancing
demand with supply. An imbalance in either direction can spell real trouble for a
nascent programme like the MSC.
For their part, the leading proponents of sustainable seafood found themselves
poorly prepared to cope with the demand for information among the retail and
food service sectors. Most of these organisations had focused chiefly on educating
seafood buyers on the need to exercise wise choices and winning new commitments
from such buyers, the bigger the better. However, once a large-volume seafood buyer
makes such a commitment and becomes an ally of the movement, they expect to rely
on those who solicited their commitment to help them deliver results. But most of
the organisations involved in the seafood movement actually have relatively limited
understanding of the details of industry practices and needs.
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