The truth behind 'sustainably fished' and 'organic' labels

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The truth backside 'sustainably fished' and 'organic' labels

Organic veggies, certified sustainable seafood and farm-to-table dining are all the light-green rage in Singapore – but are they as earth-friendly equally they are cracked up to be? The new serial Coming Make clean Near Greenish investigates.

The truth behind 'sustainably fished' and 'organic' labels — Consumers can play a part in saving the planet by choosing sustainably sourced food, but how much can they trust what the labels say?

xv Sep 2022 06:15AM (Updated: 03 Jul 2022 12:54PM)

SINGAPORE & THAILAND: Information technology is in demand every Chinese New Year and is believed to bring proficient luck. Simply the red grouper is besides overexploited or from unsustainable sources, co-ordinate to the Globe Broad Fund for Nature (WWF).

Information technology is among the three in four pop seafood species consumed here that WWF Singapore considers overfished or not well-managed, a list that includes swordtip squid and stingray.

In a country where people beloved to eat seafood – on average, 21kg per person in a year, compared to the global boilerplate of 20kg – one solution to the depletion of fish stocks is to swallow responsibly.

READ & WATCH: Saving our ocean's fish stocks, i plate of nasi lemak at a time

To this end, a growing number of businesses, similar Marina Bay Sands, are starting to use more than certified sustainable products in their kitchens. But are such measures really benefiting the environment?

In Jan, nearly seventy organisations and individuals criticised the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the dominant seafood sustainability certifier, for failing to uphold standards to reduce overfishing.

In a joint letter, they said "an increasing number of controversial fisheries" had been certified despite destroying the environment and having unsustainable practices.

At a time when efforts like eco-dining – eating nutrient harvested in a responsible way – ditching plastic straws and switching to electric cars are growing trends, a new Channel NewsAsia series is questioning things that green advocates might take for granted.

Coming Clean About Green looks at how impactful some of these greenish solutions, from cycling to clean coal, really are. And in the case of eating sustainably, it will take much more than that to brand a world of difference. (Watch the episode here.)

Fishing FOR SOME ANSWERS

When it comes to sustainable seafood labels, at that place are few options. The Aquaculture Stewardship Council is one, and the Global Aquaculture Alliance'due south Best Aquaculture Practice is another.

Equally for the MSC, its Asia-Pacific director Patrick Caleo disputed that his system is not doing enough. "If it'due south MSC-certified, it's sustainable," he said.

Conservation groups would rather the bar be raised much higher, and the industry would rather come across information technology lower.

"MSC'southward bar is set up at a very high level: 50 per cent of fisheries that initially become for a pre-assessment don't become on to achieve MSC certification. We've got to be careful that we don't ready the bar too high," he added.

There are annual surveillance audits of fisheries, he said, and "every point in the supply chain has taken ownership" of products with the MSC label. "The wholesale processes, right back to the fishery, have a chain of custody in place."

Still, seafood is a fast-moving industry. Things tin go incorrect, and 1 of the risks is mislabelling. In 2016, advancement group Oceana reported that one in five seafood samples it tested worldwide was mislabelled.

In Singapore, this would establish food fraud under the Wholesome Meat and Fish Act, punishable by a fine of up to S$50,000 and/or a maximum jail term of ii years for a get-go conviction, said the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority.

But it nonetheless happens. When the CNA team sent eight samples of certified sustainable fish to a laboratory, the results showed that i product did not friction match its packaging characterization, which had stated Pacific cod.

The product labelled Pacific cod (to a higher place) was found to be Alaskan pollock, which is non on WWF'south Singapore Seafood Guide's green listing, although it is a fish of the cod family and its wild stock is certified sustainable by the MSC.

When the supplier and the MSC were alerted to this finding, they said they would investigate the thing.

Ownership ORGANICS

Sustainable fish is not the only food that might not be what it seems. People may take a jump of faith when information technology comes to organic farm products also.

At eco-grocery chain Little Farms, its most popular products are organic. Head of operations Fred Moujalli noted, still, that "beingness organic doesn't necessarily hateful information technology's pesticide-free".

There are, for example, natural pesticides. But that is the shady side of the organic food industry because producers "may not be honest", according to Thai-Pesticide Alert Network (Thai-Pan) adviser Kingkorn Narintarakul Na Ayutdhaya.

"We can't guarantee that they'd employ only light pesticides. They might employ dangerous ones," said the activist.

Forty per cent of the world'due south organic producers are in Asia. And in Thailand, the amount of organic farmland nearly doubled between 2009 and 2016, backed by government support and growing need.

Thai-Pan's tests in 2016, notwithstanding, found that 2 in x samples of fruits and vegetables certified as organic by the Thai regime contained chemical residues.

"Nosotros'd like to suggest consumers not to believe or trust information technology (certification) 100 per cent," said Ms Kingkorn.

Ane vegetable farm that uses organic fertilisers, and more than workers than in conventional farms to get rid of pests and weeds, is Monkey Organic Farm in Chiang Mai. And owner Nives Pirarak bemoans the "fake" organic products of some farmers.

"Every bit you know, organic products are more expensive than general ones. They'd mix them upwardly and characterization them all every bit organic," he said. His farm took two years to be certified as organic, and he feels "cheated" by such mislabelling.

I've tried very hard, made a lot of endeavor and spent a lot of fourth dimension and money.

So how does a grocer like Picayune Farms back its claim that its sells produce which is expert for the surround?

"It'south trust and relationship … If you trust your supplier, and nosotros know where information technology comes from, that'southward enough for me to serve to my customers," said Mr Moujalli, 43.

"If I can ring upwardly the supplier and say, 'you're stating a 100 per cent organic ingredients – can you please ship over your certs, and that'll be fine', the minute they start to hesitate, we know in that location's something going on."

FARM-TO-Table EATING

It is not but the organic move that is gaining traction in Singapore. So too are farm-to-table restaurants, which are classified equally those using fresh locally grown food.

1 of them is Open Farm Community, in Dempsey. And head chef Oliver Truesdale-Jutras affirmed that the restaurant "tries to source locally equally much as we tin can". "Nosotros're trying to shave food miles off our food," he said.

"If y'all're using organic produce in Singapore from the Netherlands, the miles you're adding on, in terms of … how much energy gets used, pretty much equate to a standard production from nearby or even a very desperately farmed production from nearby.

"We're saving a lot of fuel for the world, I estimate."

The question of where your ingredients are from is a reminder of the environmental cost of transporting produce. But how much difference would a reduction in nutrient miles brand?

According to the study "Food-miles and the relative climate impacts of food choices in the Us", transport represents only xi per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with food, based on an average supply concatenation of vi,760 kilometres.

The product phase contributed 83 per cent of the boilerplate household's carbon footprint for food consumption, with red meat being around 150 per cent more carbon-intensive than chicken or fish.

Hence the study's authors, from Carnegie Mellon University, suggested that dietary shifts could be a more constructive means of lowering one'southward food-related climate footprint than "buying local".

In Singapore, to assist consumers when it comes to eating fish, WWF has a sustainable seafood guide, notwithstanding the arguments virtually certification. There is, however, some other question hither – virtually feasibility.

Fish on the WWF'due south cherry-red list of threatened sea species

For example, cod from Japan and Hokkaido scallops are sustainable but expensive, equally with a practiced number of the other recommended foods, like rock lobster and sea cucumber.

Nutrient vendors may besides have no idea whether their fish is sustainable and where it comes from, or fifty-fifty what is in a product such as fish balls.

Ultimately, consumers can withal play a office in eco-dining, but it likewise takes healthy scepticism and a lot more than work to make a real environmental impact.

The serial Coming Clean Almost Light-green looks at the complex realities of greenish solutions being pursued beyond Asia. Watch this episode here.