Saving Seafood

Whole Foods expands sustainability efforts to include the labor supply chain

February 6, 2025 — Austin, Texas, U.S.A.-based Whole Foods Market has a new set of expectations for the labor practices and human rights standards of its seafood suppliers.

The company’s new Seafood Code of Conduct, announced 28 January 2025, sets policies that are in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Buiness and Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Work in Fishing Convention, mandating maximum work and time at sea hours, ethical recruitment policies, gauranteed communication access for crew members, and health and safety policies on vessels.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Whole Foods Market Introduces New Seafood Code of Conduct

January 29, 2025 — Whole Foods Market has launched a new Seafood Code of Conduct, reinforcing the company’s commitment to safeguard the human rights and welfare of workers throughout its global seafood supply chain. Building on the company’s Quality Standards, the new policy strengthens protections for fishers and vessel crew and sets a higher bar for ethical labor practices and supply chain transparency.

Whole Foods’ Seafood Code of Conduct draws from globally recognized principles, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Work in Fishing Convention. The code establishes clear standards that all seafood suppliers — from vessel owners to processors and distributors — are expected to follow. These new standards build on the broader Whole Foods Supplier Code of Conduct and are part of the company’s long-term mission to promote social responsibility and continuous improvement in its supply chain.

Read the full article at the Progressive Grocer

Whole Foods Vice President of Seafood Elliott Myers dishes on sustainability plan

August 7, 2023 — Austin, Texas, U.S.A.-based Whole Foods Market, an Amazon-owned retailer, has long had a commitment to sourcing sustainable seafood. 

Keeping its focus on sustainable initiatives, Whole Foods, which operates more than 530 stores across the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, recently released its annual impact report summing up its efforts to source more sustainable products, lower food waste, and reduce its carbon footprint. The report details how Whole Foods sourced 250 million pounds of Fair Trade-certified ingredients in 2022 and awarded nearly USD 1.7 million (EUR 1.5 million) to local suppliers through its Local Producer Loan Program. It also inducted nine new participants into its Local and Emerging Accelerator Program (LEAP) cohort.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Lobster Fishermen Are Fighting Back Against Whole Foods’ Lobster Ban

December 3, 2022 — With a strong focus on sustainability and how our food is sourced, especially seafood, there was bound to be a moment of conflict between those whose job it is to catch the food and those who protect the environment.

The Maine lobster industry has been downgraded by two seafood-monitoring groups that certify the sustainability of certain seafood products. Seafood Watch, which is operated by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, labeled Maine lobster “red” in September. Citing the potential entanglement risk lobstermen’s gear caused to the endangered North Atlantic right whale, the group recommended that consumers avoid Maine lobster (via Monterey Bay Aquarium). In November, the Marine Stewardship Council said they would suspend the sustainability certificate for the Gulf of Maine lobster industry. The group acknowledged that there’s no substantial evidence that the industry has harmed right whales but revoked the certification because “the fishery is no longer in compliance with all relevant laws [and] does not meet the MSC Fisheries Standard.” The fishing gear in question is fixed-gear, meaning vertical ropes are continuously in the water (via Marine Stewardship Council). The ban has affected Whole Foods and now fishermen are speaking up.

Read the full article at Mashed

MAINE: Maine lobsterman urges Whole Foods to ‘do more homework’ before pulling lobsters from stores over rare whale

November 30, 2022 — A Maine fisherman slammed Whole Foods’ decision to stop selling Maine lobsters in its stores on Monday, calling on the grocery chain executives to do their “homework” before writing off the livelihoods of hundreds of lobstermen.

Whole Foods announced that it would stop carrying lobsters caught off the coast from the Gulf of Maine at hundreds of its stores around the country earlier this month in response to environmentalist concerns that the lobster gear allegedly threatens a rare species known as the right whale, only 340 of which exist today.

In an appearance on “Jesse Watters Primetime” Monday, Maine lobsterman Jason Lorde denounced the decision, arguing that no right whale has died due to Maine lobster gear and that the fishing community in the state has long complied with laws and regulations to protect right whales.

Read the full article at Fox News 

Whole Foods to ‘pause’ sales of Maine lobster after sustainable label downgrades

November 22, 2022 — The grocery chain Whole Foods will stop purchasing Gulf of Maine lobster after the Marine Stewardship Council suspended the fishery’s certification last week.

The Marine Stewardship Council suspended the fishery’s certification last week, only months after the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program red-listed the lobster because of risks to endangered North Atlantic right whales. The MSC says its decision was based on an independent audit of the fishery’s risk to the whales.

Read the full article at Maine Public

Whole Foods, Wegmans, Weis participating in National Seafood Month campaign

September 24, 2022 — The Seafood Nutrition Partnership, the National Fisheries Institute, and other organizations and companies are going all out to educate consumers about the benefits of eating seafood during National Seafood Month and Pescatarian Month, both celebrated in October.

As the highlight of the campaign, SNP, along with the National Seafood Council Task Force and the Seafood4Health Action Coalition, are launching a pilot campaign, “Celebrate Seafood.”

Read the full article SeafoodSource

Salmon have shrunk so much that Whole Foods redid its guidelines

May 5, 2021 — At OBI Seafoods, a sprawling operation with outposts throughout Alaska, there’s all sorts of extra machinery for workers to master. At Whole Foods Market, there are new guidelines for purchasing salmon from wholesalers. And at Ivar’s, a fixture on Seattle’s waterfront for eight decades, the chef is sending back skimpy salmon delivered to his kitchen.

Behind all these changes is an alarming trend that’s been building for years: The giant schools of wild Pacific salmon that can turn southeast Alaska’s ice-cold waters into a brilliant orange blur are thinning out, and those that do survive are shrinking in size.

It’s the shrinking part that’s causing the biggest logistical snarl right now. Many salmon are so small they’ve thrown off OBI’s fish-sorting process and no longer meet the purchasing specifications at Whole Foods and culinary demands at Ivar’s. There, head chef Craig Breeden snaps photos of the fish next to his knife to illustrate their diminutive size before shipping them back.

Read the full story at The Oregonian

Whole Foods Market launches new responsible sourcing program

April 8, 2021 — Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market has launched its Sourced for Good program, an exclusive third-party certification program to support responsible sourcing of foods, including seafood.

The certification program includes making tangible improvements in farmworkers’ lives, strengthening worker communities where products are sourced, and promoting environmental stewardship where crops are grown, the retailer said in a press release.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NGOs, businesses urge US Labor Department include distant-water fishing in forced labor list

December 17, 2019 — Greenpeace USA, AFL-CIO, Human Rights Watch, Environmental Justice Foundation, Whole Foods Market, and 19 other groups have sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor requesting the organization end its practice of only considering a country’s territorial waters when creating its List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.

The letter, sent to Marcia Eugenio – the director of the Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking for the Bureau of International Affairs with the Department of Labor – comes in the wake of a damning report by Greenpeace identifying forced labor issues in Southeast Asia. The new report includes accusations of forced labor against 13 distant-water fishing vessels registered in China, Taiwan, Vanuatu, and Fiji.

Read the full story at Seafood Source