Fishy Things
So, I'm back from the wilds of New England. I'm not sure if I'll have a chance to catch up on the last four days of LJ, so if there is anything that was posted that you think I should know about, please drop me an email.
A few little things I've been meaning to post about:
A while back I found Raincoast Trading brand tuna and salmon at Loblaws. Of course, they don't keep it with their normal canned tuna and salmon; it's a special section that only tree-hugging-bleeding-heart-hippies and vitamin-popping-everything-organic-yuppies probably visit. (This is one of my pet peeves with grocery store organization. Have a special section, sure; but why not also keep some stock shelved with the 'regular' stock.) Anyway, Raincoast Trading is a Canadian company that uses sustainable fishing practices (ie, barbless hook-and-line fishing methods for catching tuna) that are also species-selective. Their pacific salmon is caught in Oregon, Washington and BC regions, which is not ideal (wild-caught alaska is best), but they claim sustainable management and wild-caught salmon from the pacific northwest is still a far better choice, ecologically, than farmed-pacific and atlantic salmon.
I also found Life Choices brand frozen, breaded fish fillets. Their products claim to be from certified sustainable fisheries, however they don't bear the blue eco-label from the marine stewardship council (MSC), which is the only body I know of that certifies sustainable fisheries.
Apparently Wal-Mart is moving towards selling only MSC-certified fish in North America. Talk about not making shopping choices any easier! I'd like to believe the move is motivated by their hearts instead of their wallets, but somehow I suspect not. The MSC website lists a lot of sustainable fishery products available is US Walmart stores, but none in Canada. I wonder what's up with that? Are they not available here yet?
A few little things I've been meaning to post about:
A while back I found Raincoast Trading brand tuna and salmon at Loblaws. Of course, they don't keep it with their normal canned tuna and salmon; it's a special section that only tree-hugging-bleeding-heart-hippies and vitamin-popping-everything-organic-yuppies probably visit. (This is one of my pet peeves with grocery store organization. Have a special section, sure; but why not also keep some stock shelved with the 'regular' stock.) Anyway, Raincoast Trading is a Canadian company that uses sustainable fishing practices (ie, barbless hook-and-line fishing methods for catching tuna) that are also species-selective. Their pacific salmon is caught in Oregon, Washington and BC regions, which is not ideal (wild-caught alaska is best), but they claim sustainable management and wild-caught salmon from the pacific northwest is still a far better choice, ecologically, than farmed-pacific and atlantic salmon.
I also found Life Choices brand frozen, breaded fish fillets. Their products claim to be from certified sustainable fisheries, however they don't bear the blue eco-label from the marine stewardship council (MSC), which is the only body I know of that certifies sustainable fisheries.
Apparently Wal-Mart is moving towards selling only MSC-certified fish in North America. Talk about not making shopping choices any easier! I'd like to believe the move is motivated by their hearts instead of their wallets, but somehow I suspect not. The MSC website lists a lot of sustainable fishery products available is US Walmart stores, but none in Canada. I wonder what's up with that? Are they not available here yet?