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Seafood’s lower climate impact could be used for marketing

NAPA, California — The environmental standards organization Seafood Watch is reviewing the impact that aquaculture and fishing have on climate change and believes that the lower carbon-emitting impact relative to beef and other animal husbandry could be a marketing point for the industry.

Speaking at the Napa Seafood Summit on Sept. 24, Shawn Cronin, Seafood Watch’s business program manager said the group is in the process of putting together a report about seafood’s contribution to climate change. Speaking before an audience of industry executives, Cronin presented a slide showing the carbon emissions of several food procession methods. Cattle-raising featured at the top of the chart with poultry-rearing and the farming of mussels, catfish and salmon having a much lower impact.

“I think that’s something that’s going to be a trend. Lot of these studies coming out,” he said.

He added that because greenhouse gas emissions form such a large part of environmental impact, Seafood Watch feels it’s worth monitoring.

“That’s something we’ve never included in our assessments and it’s something we want to take a look at,” he said, adding that “it’s not something that’s going to be entered into our scoring criteria immediately, if ever.”

Given the lower impact of seafood production, Cronin said he believes that the industry could  market seafood consumption as an environmentally friendly option.

“I think this really an opportunity to show how seafood use in general if you want to talk about environmental impact in comparison to other proteins has a real opportunity to stand out as something that has low environmental impact when it comes to greenhouse gases,” he said.

Courtesy of UnderCurrentNews.com

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