Food & Water Watch Critical of Seafood Eco-Labels

Food & Water Watch (FWW) has published a report critical of seafood eco-labels that certify products as “environmentally friendly” or “sustainably produced.” Titled De-Coding Seafood Eco-Labels: Why We Need Public Standards, the report examines several seafood certification programs created “in response to a range of controversial issues related to the production and consumption of fish.”

According to FWW, these privately operated programs have capitalized on
the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s failure to implement an “organic” seafood
label. Moreover, FWW argues, “some of these certification programs have
additional interests beyond providing consumer guidance. Whether it’s an
interest in establishing a relationship with a fishery in order to work toward
improvement, or getting more eco-certified product on the market, these
other interests compete with label neutrality.”

The FWW report finds that the six labeling programs under review “demonstrate inadequacies with regard to some or all of the following: environmental standards, social responsibility and community relations, labor regulations, international law, and/or transparency.” It also claims that (i) “eco-labeling programs may cause increased public acceptance of products from controversial farming operations,” (ii) “eco labeling programs fail to promote local seafood options or account for the miles that imported seafood travels,” (iii) “existing eco-labels have the potential to override the authority of governments, particularly in developing countries,” (iv) “each of the examined eco-labels that certify wild fisheries fails to meet Food and Agriculture Organization criteria for eco-labeling and certification programs for wild fisheries,” (v) “financial constraints have affected the ability of some otherwise eligible fisheries to attain certification, and (vi) “eco-labels should not be permitted for forage fish,” or prey fish that form the basis of aquatic food chains.

The report particularly notes a purported conflict “between the intent to
promote change within a certain fishery and the product labeling program,
which can place a seal of approval on a product from a certified fishery before
it has made conditional improvements in ecological performance to actually
meet the standards for the label.” As FWW concludes, “In order to provide
consumers with much-needed, unbiased and well-regulated information, the
federal government should introduce and oversee standards for eco-labeled
seafood.”