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Just got some very interesting data on the costs of sustainable fishing & why the price per pound of fish can vary so much. Sitka Salmon, our monthly subscription sustainable fishery, shared some detailed numbers on the cost differences between their fish & market fish THREAD
As I add it up, their fish costs ~$8/lb more than it could (a big difference! clear reason many people can't afford sustainable fish) but the details of where that $8 go are telling. ~$1.80/lb is the cost of using eco-friendly fishing gear minimizing bycatch & habitat damage 2/?
Between $0.65 and $1.65 goes to paying fishermen their promised price EVEN IF there are market swings or harvests are extra high so the market price of fish goes down. It's an investment in making sure fishing communities have a reliable living. 3/?
$2.17 (the biggest single cost increase) is having the fish processed in the USA instead of sending the fish to China for processing. 2/3 of Alaska's fish is processed in China where there are few labor, safety, or environmental regulations, so the process is cheaper. 4/?
$0.55 is the added cost of demanding seafood traceability, tracking the fish at every step so we know it is the fish it's claimed to be. DNA testing reveals as much as 40% of fish in grocery stores isn't what it says on the label. The motive for substituting fish is complex. 5/?
Sometimes it's illegally harvested fish (unlicensed, illegal methods or waters). Sometimes an unpopular fish is substituted for a popular fish, often (fascinatingly) resulting in a less overfished, more sustainable species being passed off for an overfished unsustainable one 6/?
Many conservation groups agree improving our global tracing of fish is key to battling poaching, species depletion, & also the exploitative labor practices & unsafe harvesting & processing methods common in illegal fishing. Fascinating that Sitka's cost is as low as $0.55/lb. 7/?
Finally Sitka spends $1.35/lb on eco-friendly packaging, eco-friendly delivery transport, carbon offsets for their distribution impact, and investing 1% of revenue in wilderness conservation. Sum total roughly $8/lb.
Now, LOTS of people can't afford an extra $8/lb for fish, which makes this a great example of the need for gov't level regulation. Requiring traceability for the whole industry would let people buy safe, uncontaminated fish that is what it claims to be at practical prices. 9/?
Gov't investment in fishing tech that doesn't destroy habitat would guarantee the future of fisheries instead of risking fishery collapse which creates local recessions. & fair price laws or UBI would let fisher(wo)men earn enough to live on w/o living in fear of market flux 10/?
COVID has sparked a lot of discussion of how individual responsibility isn't enough: even with personal driving & flying almost at a standstill greenhouse gas output hasn't declined enough to meet targets, showing we *need* industry regulation, not just consumer action 11/?
+$8/lb for safe seafood shows the same: gov't action can make seafood safer to eat AND more humane to workers, but customers *cannot* afford the costs, we need global & national action or the majority of people will remain stuck in the current bind: unsafe fish or no fish. 12/12
