Buying Canadian Seafood Should Be As Easy As Reading The Label. But It Isn't.

Recently, to support our local fishers and farmers during the pandemic, Prime Minister Trudeau encouraged us all to “buy Canadian”. Sadly, this is easier said than done because retailers and companies aren’t required to label where their seafood was caught or farmed. Often Canadian-produced seafood is labelled with another country because it was processed there.

Back in 2017, Living Oceans and our SeaChoice partners found Canadians are eating in the dark in comparison to our European and American peers who have much stronger labelling laws in place – meaning they know more about seafood from Canada than we do.

The good news is the federal government made the promise to implement a boat-to-plate traceability program for seafood in Canada. This means the critical information necessary to make informed choices - geographic origin, scientific name and method of production – would travel with the product and, in turn, can be listed on the seafood label.

But we needed to make sure this promise is fulfilled, and you all helped!

5671 Canadians signed the SeaChoice petition, telling the federal government to keep its traceability promise. Follow our progress as we work with government leaders to turn the boat-to-plate promise into reality—because only then will supporting and ‘buying Canadian’ sustainable seafood be as easy as reading the label.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDWL4k0nAr4