In a sign that they are going after a more environmentally conscious market, Kroger supermarkets, which runs a large chain of grocers in the Midwest, announced recently that they would be eliminating marlin, shark and bluefin tuna from their menu of fresh fish. The plan comes after intense scrutiny of the company the World Wildlife Fund, which pushed the company to create a more sustainable seafood plan.
Ultimately, Kroger says they plan on offering nothing but “certified” seafood products by the year 2015. The first step for the company was to pull the severely overfished marlin, shark and bluefin tuna from their fresh seafood selection – though they do not intend to stop just with those fish. The company has announced that they plan to work with the World Wildlife Fund and with the Marine Stewardship Council to become a model of sustainable sourcing for food in the United States. Specifically, the company plans to carefully monitor the products they sell which are caught in the wild so as to minimize the chance that they will cause irrevocable damage to the world’s ecosystem.
Of course, Kroger’s plan alone, while a brilliant marketing ploy, is unlikely to have a major impact on the consumption of these products as consumers who want to eat endangered fish can easily shop at any of the Kroger rivals who have thus far ignored calls to engage in a new, sustainable policy for their seafood sourcing.
Still, the World Wildlife Fund has said that they are hopeful that other grocers will follow suit and voluntary decide to restrict the offerings made in their stores so as to ensure that these species can replenish their stocks naturally. It also worth noting that the plan by Kroger affects exclusively wild-caught fish stocks and not farmed fish, which are already carefully controlled and are thus not in any danger of falling victim to overfishing.
Jim Balis' Blog 