Traitor Joe’s

I’m concerned about your continuing purchase and sale of fish on the Monterey Aquarium’s Red List.

The comment on your bulletin board responding to customer concerns about this is so vague it sounds like a brushoff: “When we do offer seafood species on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch “red” or “avoid” list, we undertake additional steps to fully understand the ways in which those items come to market to be sure they fit with our customers’ needs and concerns. We’re also evaluating alternatives to those red list species.”

I appreciate being able to shop regularly for most of my groceries at Trader Joes, partly because I have confidence your products come from healthy and sustainable sources. A response like this undermines that confidence.

I believe that many of your customers share a concern for saving what’s left of fragile ocean fisheries. Abiding by the Red List recommendations now is the only way to allay those concerns. However if you find it inconvenient to do that, I believe you owe it to your customers to at least label the fish that are on that list accordingly.

I would appreciate a response to this inquiry. I tend to be sceptical of the Greenpeace campaigns like “Traitor Joe’s,” so I am asking you to please provide information that will prove them wrong.

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