This is an excellent article, written by Sam Burns of Ever Widening Circles, that features the Dolphin Safe tuna label program established by the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute. It is a good example of how each and every one of us can make decisions daily that protect the environment, our oceans and wildlife.
What if you could have a huge impact on the world without making a drastic change to what you’re already doing? Here’s a simple trick you can bring to your already established routines that’ll make a huge global impact.
Everything that we do has an impact on the world, whether that’s smiling at a stranger, planting some flowers, or, as we’re going to talk about in this piece, making a purchase at the grocery store.
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Thankfully for all of us, there are organizations out there who have really done the leg work when it comes to identifying the brands that have a positive impact.
To find products that help keep dolphins safe, protect the rights of humans around the world, that have a minimal impact on the environment, and any of the other factors that are important to us, all we need to do is look for symbols called ecolabels.
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Let’s look at the impact the Dolphin Safe labels have had. According to an article from Huffington Post, “prior to 1990, it’s estimated that more than 7 million dolphins were killed in tuna purse seine nets.” And that “in the late 1980s, as many as 80,000 to 100,000 dolphins were dying in tuna nets every year.” But after the Dolphin Safe program was established in 1990, “reported dolphin deaths have declined to less than 2,000 per year.”
This is amazing progress! Not only credited to those behind the Dolphin Safe program but each and every person making the conscious choice to check the labels of their food. When companies see what the consumers (us) want, they shift their practices to accommodate. So as consumers shifted towards purchasing products with the Dolphin Safe label, surely companies began seeing that in order to continue competing in this market, they’d have to begin changing their ways.
To Read the Full Article: https://everwideningcircles.com/2019/09/17/ecolabels-health-groceries/