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    What's this?
Traitor Joe's devours endangered fish
Greenpeace launches a spoof website to go after Trader Joe's unsustainable seafood selection,.
Mon, Jul 06 2009 at 12:39 PM
 7

Related Topics:

Oceans, Sustainability

 

Greenpeace activists dressed up as Orange Roughy in front of Trader Joe's for a Traitor Joe's protest
 
Remember how Trader Joe’s got an F on Greenpeace’s Sustainable Seafood Guide? The bad news for the popular retailer doesn’t stop there. Apparently, scoring even lower than Target and Wal-Mart when it comes to sustainable seafood has made Trader Joe’s a target for Greenpeace’s latest campaign: Traitor Joe’s.
 
Greenpeace activists with customer in front of Trader Joe's for a Traitor Joe's protest
 
Greenpeace activists are protesting Trader Joe’s fishy policies both on land and line. San Francisco stores were treated to a fishy show — two activists dressed up as the endangered orange roughy, plus more activists in Hawaiian shirts like those worn by Trader Joe’s employees asking customers to vote for sustainable seafood.
 
traitorjoes by you.
 
I think the funnier part of the protest’s on Twitter though. @TraitorJoes tweets snarkily, defending his right to deplete the oceans of fish. The Traitor Joe’s spoof website welcomes visitors to its “one-stop-shop for ocean destruction”: “My favorite fish to devour are Chilean sea bass and orange roughy.”
 
Even before Traitor Joe’s launched, enviro foodies oft complained of Trader Joe’s fishy practices — the chain actually comes in dead last in Greenpeace’s rankings of any national store — which makes me think that at this point, Trader Joe’s has a simple profit motive for adopting better seafood policies. We’ll see what new fishy stories emerge as the Traitor Joe’s campaign hooks more Twitter followers.
 
Photos: Kim White / Greenpeace

The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.

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anonymous
Guest Jul 13 2009 at 8:24 AM
You better check your "facts" before you write such a disparaging, snarky article. Trader Joe's doesn't contribute to any interrogation put forth by Greenpeace, and therefore Greenpeace has to resort to the usual environmental FUD tactics that many "goodwill" organizations have exhibited in the past. What's worse, is that every arbitrary hippie blogger under the sun is willing to bend towards their every word -- further demonstrated by this post here. It doesn't help that Trader Joe's is a privately-held
.... More
company, and therefore is outside the realm of the majority of many "watchdog" groups such as Greenpeace. Trader Joe's doesn't even answer to shareholders -- because there are none.
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anonymous
Randolf Jul 07 2009 at 8:01 PM

I might as well get your name right, I suppose.

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anonymous
Randolf Jul 07 2009 at 7:35 PM
Oh come on Cassen, please stop insulting our intelligence! And Greenpeace just “happened” to have created a spoof “Tratior Joe’s” site with hours of releasing your report, but completely ignored Costco and everyone else? You at Greenpeace know you will get the most results by targeting TJ’s, similar to what happened a few years back when you SPECIFICALLY appealed to their customers to ask them to stop selling cruelty-free eggs. (which TJ’s eventually did) I mean, what percentage
.... More
of Safeway and Supervalu customers have read your sustainable sushi book (or can even read, for that matter) compared to those that shop at TJ’s! For example, your rating system is supposedly at least partially based on number of “species currently sold at stake,” so how can a retailer that sells the fewest Red List species be at the bottom of your list? So you deem Trader Joe’s to be callous to sustainability issues because they have the POTENTAL to be evil, or, in other words, didn’t go out of their way to pinky-promise YOU that they won’t? Please explain to me how your assessment putting TJ’s near the bottom of your list isn’t mostly subjective since you’re pretty much assuming that they are in some underground bunker engaged in dubious action without any direct knowledge of their operation. Trader Joe’s has as little to gain by deceiving the public as Greenpeace, so you can go ahead and get off your high horse on Mt. Pious about TJ’s disseminating misinformation and not taking them at their word! You may find this hard to believe after two paragraphs of mild to moderate vitriol from me, but I actually agree with you on this issue overall and I recognize that you and Greenpeace will conduct yourselves in a manner that you feel will garner the best results for your cause. It’s just that Trader Joe’s is completely uninterested in partnering with any outside group or lobbyists, (yes, you are a lobbyist group) be them left, right, or center, and can not make an exception for Greenpeace regardless of how passionate or assured of you own benevolence you happen to be. More so than most with retailers, customers will dictate what Trader Joe’s sells and I am confident that their management will make decisions that will make ultimately make Greenpeace, TJ’s, and our oceans happy. (but not simply because you told them to)
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anonymous
Casson Jul 07 2009 at 3:42 PM

And by "above", I meant "below". Sorry.

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anonymous
Casson Jul 07 2009 at 3:39 PM
It's important to consider that there is more than number of species currently sold at stake here. Trader Joe's, unlike many of the other retailers examined under our report, has no sustainable seafood policy whatsoever. As such, there is no barrier preventing them from bringing in any number of endangered fish tomorrow, even if they don't sell them today. Trader Joe's also does not participate in any sort of sustainability initiatives, industry-led or otherwise. Even many conventional operations,
.... More
such as Safeway and Supervalu, are involved in sustainability think tanks and industry fora. Some even work directly with NGOs. Trader Joe's does nothing of the sort. As for transparency, Trader Joe's actually disseminates misinformation, which is even worse than saying nothing at all. A sign above a seafood case at a Trader Joe's in Virginia reads: “Our seafood comes from sustainable legal sources that have minimal impact on the environment.” This seafood case contains orange roughy, Atlantic salmon, and many other environmentally unfriendly items. Moreover, we would encourage you not to take Trader Joe's at their word when they deny the sales of certain items. Greenpeace has nothing to gain by deceiving the public. If Trader Joe's were not engaged in dubious action, we would be supporting them rather than protesting their operation.
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anonymous
Guest Jul 07 2009 at 2:43 AM

Trader Joe's DOESN'T EVEN SELL monkfish, chilean sea bass, and several others on the list. Might want to check your facts before you get in the fish costume and embarrass yourselves.

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anonymous
Guest Jul 06 2009 at 4:39 PM
Trader Joe's doesn't actually sell several of the types of fish that greenpeace claims they do. Trader Joe's doesnt like to give out detailed information to outside orginizations like greenpeace and because of that, greenpeace created false information and lowered their score for refusing to cooperate with them. it's true they sell orange roughy, but look at the entire report on all the other grocery stores they ranked highly and look at how much banned seafood they actually sell. if you take out
.... More
the 5 kinds of red listed fish greenpeace claims trader joe's sells, which they actually dont, trader joes sells fewer kinds of red listed fish then the top ranked grocery store in their report.
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