"U.S. grocery chains flunk sustainability, human rights tests for tuna sourcing", 21 February 2021

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[...] [A] new report by environmental NGO Greenpeace says that despite considerable progress, U.S. grocery chains still have a long way to go on addressing serious environmental and human rights concerns in their sourcing of tuna products.

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On human rights, none of the retailers received a passing (60%) grade. “This is a testament to the glacial pace of progress in the tuna retailer industry when it comes to taking decisive action to address human rights and labor issues in their supply chain,” Mallika Talwar, a senior oceans campaigner at Greenpeace and a co-author of the report, told Mongabay by email.

German grocery giant ALDI came closest to a passing human rights grade, at 56%, and the report praised its “comprehensive, publicly available seafood and human rights policies” and explicit advocacy “for a living wage for workers in its supply chain.” Its score was reduced by the limited scope of its grievance mechanisms and the fact that its corporate responsibility supplier evaluation program is still in development.

Scoring worst on human rights was Southeastern Grocers, the parent company of Fresco y Más, Harveys Supermarket, and Winn-Dixie. [...]

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On sustainability, Amazon-owned Whole Foods Market, the largest U.S. chain specializing in “natural” and organic foods, scored highest, at 75%. ALDI came in second at 70%, bringing up its combined overall score to 62%, the first and only overall passing grade since the addition of human rights factors to the rankings last year. The authors praised Whole Foods’ strong traceability and sourcing requirements, including its commitment to selling only pole-and-line and hand-line-caught canned tuna. [...]

At the other end of the scale, Michigan-based chain Meijer scored last on sustainability with a grade of 20%, earning it the lowest overall grade of 16%. [...] Costco came second-to-last with a sustainability score of 32%. Critiques centered on its “vague” sourcing and seafood sustainability policies and its lack of a policy on transshipment.

Mongabay reached out to eight of the 16 grocers the report ranked for comment: ALDI, Ahold Delhaize, Whole Foods, Meijer, Wegmans, Albertsons, Costco, and Kroger. None responded.

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