Consumers want to support sustainable seafood, but Big Aquaculture can’t compete with independent fishers on sustainability. This means grocery store marketing representing industrial seafood as sustainable is key to keeping the Big Aqua system growing.
Northeastern grocery chain Hannaford aggressively markets its seafood as sustainable, when in reality it “sells industrially farmed salmon whose production inflicts grave harms on pristine marine ecosystems and has caused the destruction of marine life around the world,” according to the complaint in this case. Hannaford parent company Ahold Delhaize USA is the largest grocery retail group on the East Coast. It is also the parent company of Food Lion, Giant Food, and Stop & Shop.
One major Hannaford supplier, Cooke Aquaculture, is the only farmed salmon supplier operating in the Gulf of Maine, and Hannaford sells Cooke products labeled “Gulf of Maine” or “local Gulf of Maine” across New England and New York. A global corporation headquartered outside of the state, Cooke is notorious for converting acres of Maine’s seabed into fish feedlots, fouling bays and inlets across Downeast Maine with chemicals, trash, nitrogen pollution, and fish waste, and threatening local fishing communities, economies, and ways of life.
The lawsuit alleges Hannaford’s marketing is unlawful under New York’s consumer protection laws, and exploits consumers’ clear preference for – and willingness to pay more for – seafood products they believe to be sustainable. The case is a putative class action on behalf of all New Yorkers who purchased farmed salmon products from Hannaford, within the relevant statute of limitations. The plaintiff is represented by FarmSTAND, the Center for Food Safety, Reese LLP, and Jennings & Earley PLLC.