Top Tips for ethical eating

With all the recent news about eating food that is sustainable and ethical, many of us are feeling the need to do more. But with all the myriad of choices out there, where does one start?

Here’s one.

Shrimp and prawns are a tasty treat that these days seem to be in everything. But before you buy them from your local store it’s worth asking where they have come from. Unfortunately the seemingly innocuous prawn is often produced on shrimp farms, perpetuators of one of the worst environmental disasters of the past 25 years. Thousands of hectares of mangrove forests have been destroyed in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and Bangladesh to make way for industrial operations that feed our desire for a cheap source of this once luxury food. Often only in operation for a few years before being abandoned, shrimp farms have had catastrophic impacts on local marine ecosystems and the fishing communities that rely on them.

Unfortunately wild-caught prawns are usually not much better, many being caught by trawlers that can catch as much as 40kg of other marine animals that are discarded for every 1kg of shrimp that is kept. This massive, unnecessary wastage is taking place at a time when over 70% of the world’s fisheries are either over exploited, fully exploited or in decline; when 90% of each of the worlds large ocean species have been lost since the 1950’s; and when around 450 million people around the world depend directly on fisheries for food and employment, especially in poorer countries. Shrimp trawlers kill an estimated 150,000 turtles annually; the damage caused by their nets dragging the sea bed has been compared to that of clear-cutting forests, destroying reefs and fragile marine environments that are already under pressure from over-fishing, pollution and climate change.

So what is the consumer to do? You can make a difference. To start, look on the package to see where your shrimp is coming from. Look for the fine print – retailers are by law required to list where the product is from, but often ‘fudge’ the information by marketing misinformation in big letters (for instance one retailer is currently advertising Tiger Prawns Caught in the Warm Waters of Madagascar when in reality the small print reveals that they have been farmed).

NEVER buy trawled shrimp. Instead look for northern coldwater prawns that have been sustainably caught, particularly pot-caught. Alternatively look for the small but growing number of prawns being produced by ethical tropical producers. To be able to farm shrimp responsibly farms must not be sited in the intertidal zone, have not involved any clearing of mangrove, operate entirely closed systems and ensure fair, and have transparent practices for labour and local communities. They should not use antibiotics and chemical inputs, nor should they use wild-caught shrimp fry to stock their ponds.

For these products there is often a premium, but an increased demand will convince retailers to switch over to these sustainable alternatives - which in turn will force producers to switch to sustainable farming and catch methods. Retailers know of the problems – and solutions – to the devastation caused by shrimp. Make sure they act on this knowledge now: ask them to prove their shrimp are produced without causing environmental or human rights abuses.If your local supplier is not carrying these choices, then ask them to.Tell them you will not buy their products until they can give you the answers you need.

TAKE ACTION

To learn more about prawns, EJF’s campaign and what you can do, go to http://www.ejfoundation.org/shrimp .

READ

To learn more about making a choice about the shrimp you buy, check out EJF’s Consumer Guide to Prawns at http://www.ejfoundation.org/pdf/ejf_prawn_consumer_guide.pdf

WATCH

EJF is currently working with partners in Brazil to expose and oppose the expansion of shrimp farms and their enormous environmental and social in that country. Watch EJF’s latest film It’s All a Lie to learn more http://www.ejfoundation.org/page480.html .

LISTEN

to BBC Radio 4 – You and Yours programme (11th Jan 08) where Steve Trent, EJF Executive Director talks about the issues click here http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/listenagain/friday.shtml