what does that label mean?
TRANSCRIPT
What does that label mean?How ecolabels inform where our food comes from
Credit: Wikipedia2
What is an Ecolabel?•Eco-labels and Green Stickers are labeling systems for food and consumer products. •Ecolabels are voluntary, but green stickers are mandated by law•They are a form of sustainability measurement directed at consumers (you), intended to make it easy to take environmental concerns into account when shopping.
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So what does any of that really
mean?
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Let’s see how much we know.
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There are a lot of labels.
Does this ‘make it easy to take environmental concerns into account when shopping’?
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Spoilers: It doesn’t.
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Why are mangroves important?• Sequester up to 5x as much carbon as
terrestrial counterparts
• 70-80% of commercially important tropical marine fish spend their juvenile lives in mangroves
• Mitigate storm surge damage
• Biofilters
• Unique habitat home to hundreds of species
• Provide fuel, food, and fiber to mangrove communities
• Feed and provide income to over 600 million people
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Shrimp is the most popular seafood in the United States
Almost 4lbs a year
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Shrimp farming is the #1 cause of mangrove deforestation
A 1 pound bag of frozen shrimp has a land use carbon footprint equivalent to
as much as 1 ton of CO2Shrimp are raised using antibiotics and a variety of other toxic chemicals,
some identified as carcinogenicPonds burn out after 2-10 years
Mangrove communities lose livelihoods
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Question Your
Shrimp
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Certification systems like the ASC are trying to address these and other
problems, but what you see on paper isn’t necessarily what is happening
on the ground.
It’s a good first step, but we need to keep demanding better standards
and better accountability if we want these labels to mean making real
change with our purchasing decisions.
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What can you do?
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Ask questions.
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• What product or service does the claim cover?
• What type of claim is being made?
• What sustainability attributes does the claim cover?
• How is the claim verified?
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“There are five universal truths to sustainability claims
Credible sustainability claims are:• clear • accurate• relevant, and are backed up by systems that are:• transparent, and • robust.”
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