It’s Time for an Annual Attempt at Ineffective Corporate Blackmail

July 12, 2017 – WASHINGTON, DC – What is shaping up to be an annual, and almost entirely ignored tradition from Greenpeace is about to arrive; the ranking of food service companies based on what Greenpeace thinks of their seafood sustainability efforts.

The list, like last year’s, will judge companies based on a system for which the scoring methodology is totally subjective and hidden, then Greenpeace will try to promote those rankings in the media. It’s an ancient and thoroughly ineffective tactic Greenpeace has tried to use on all sorts of products and industries. It’s called the rank’n’spank.

Last year only 3 of 15 food service companies targeted even bothered to answer Greenpeace’s survey. With no demonstrably negative impact.

Greenpeace is not and has never been in the market to create more business opportunities for food service operations. In fact, the goal of their rank’n’spank effort is always to raise funds for themselves. Reporters and editors will notice that regardless of the commodity or industry Greenpeace rankings all come with a fundraising pitch. Accepting Greenpeace’s rules and conceding to their demands does not change their fundraising goals.

This year, like last, the effort will be largely dismissed as an ineffective sideshow, with an actual target audience of donors and institutional Greenpeace supporters. Even Greenpeace knows the impact on consumers of food service seafood sustainability rankings is just slightly above zero. But it gives them an opportunity to go back to the well one more time and ask for more financial support from benefactors.

Foodservice companies are among the most dedicated not just to seafood sustainability but supply chain sustainability. To target them, rather than laud them, illustrates how out of touch Greenpeace is with real sustainability efforts. In reality, Greenpeace is a multinational behemoth with a $300-million a year operating budget fed by these sorts of scams.

The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) is the leading trade association for the commercial seafood industry whose members represent a variety of businesses ranging from the water to the table. For more information visit our website at www.aboutseafood.com.

Contact Information

Lynsee Fowler
(703) 752-8899
lfowler@nfi.org