Giant's Seafood Makeover

Last week, we reported on Whole Foods and other supermarkets' new sustainable seafood initiatives. Yesterday, Giant Food announced support for the principles of the Conservation Alliance for Seafood Solutions, a coalition of nonprofit groups that works with retailers to change the way they buy seafood.

Giant said it is committing to work toward buying environmentally responsible products, making information on seafood products readily available and supporting policy changes that have positive environmental impact. The company's seafood buyers are now also ranking their purchases on how plentiful the species is, how it is caught and what effect fishing has on the species' natural habitat. As part of this effort, Giant said it has recently started selling Pacific long-line cod, which is relatively abundant, and that it will stop selling shark, orange roughy and Chilean sea bass until their populations rebound. The chain was ranked second by Greenpeace in a recent report on the sustainability of supermarket seafood.

Giant is owned by Amsterdam-based Royal Ahold NV and recently has begun catering to the environmentally hip as it tries to keep customers from pushing their carts to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. It has its own private label organic line called Nature's Promise for everything from salsa to eggs. Of course, I also have to mention that Safeway has a similar line called O Organics that has been so popular it is considering selling it outside of its stores.

Original here