Safeway Now Stocking “Environmentally Preferable” Canned Tuna Without The Hefty Price Tag

Attention, fish fans — no, not Phish, the other kind — good news for those of you who want to eat canned tuna but don’t like the possible guilt of eating an animal that wasn’t sustainably caught. Safeway says it’s started stocking “environmentally preferable” tuna with the extra benefit of that product not costing consumers any more cash than the other kind. Score!

So what makes it better than other kinds of tuna, according to proponents? Environmental advocates like Greenpeace have long railed against fishing vessles that use Fish Aggregating Devices — essentially large lures that end up scooping up animals other than the tuna they’re supposed to catch.

Mark Bittman, an expert in all things food-related,  reports for the New York Times on the introduction of the “Responsibly Caught” skipjack debuting on Safeway’s shelves. He quotes Greenpeace’s senior markets campaigner who is pretty darn impressed with the move by Safeway.

“The truly surprising aspect of this development, though, is the price,” says the campaigner, as the tuna is priced the same as conventional tuna or even lower.  Therefore, “promoting more sustainable options rather than supporting the damaging and greedy behavior of the conventional tuna companies will actually save people 51 cents per 12-ounce can.”

Many consumers are put off earth-friendly or organic products because of often higher prices on those items, so this could be the turning of that tide. After all, when faced with two equally priced products, plenty of people will choose the one that’s friendlier to this big blue and green marble we live on.

F.A.D.-Free Tuna Comes to Safeway – Affordably [New York Times]

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