While tilapia is generally considered one of the more environmentally friendly fish, (since it has a reputation of being farmed in a manner that is not destructive and is not an overexploited wild caught fish,) tilapia can nevertheless come with a social price tag that would be enough to put off anyone from eating it.
A recent story in the Evening Standard on tilapia from Zimbabwe underlines the need to look at fish through more than simply an environmental lens.
Zimbabwe is a country in crisis – with violent political suppression, well-documented human rights abuses, an unnerving 85% unemployment, the world’s highest inflation rate, persistent cash shortages, and most notably chronic food shortages.
And it is precisely because of this severe food shortage that activists are angry at the UK-based Waitrose supermarket chain which has flown tilapia 5,000 miles from Zimbabwe to the UK to fill its seafood counter. Activists are upset that food that could be feeding starving people is winding up half a world a way and being marketed as environmentally friendly.
According to the article, Wilf Mbanga, editor of The Zimbabwean, a UK-based newspaper, said:
“People are starving in Zimbabwe. There is no food in the shops, there is no fish to be had there for the ordinary people.
“It’s incredibly cruel taking food out of the mouths of starving people. It is very ill-advised of Waitrose. It is morally wrong.
“I find it very disturbing that they are taking fish from Zimbabwe at a time when millions are starving and surviving purely on international aid.”
The tilapia from Zimbabwe underscores two key issues:
First, environmental standards alone on seafood fall far short of allowing consumers to understand and evaluate the real costs of the fish that they eat. Consumers must also be aware of the human rights and economic issues related to the food that they eat. And, in fact, if environmental standards do not broaden , they will soon become irrelevant and serve as a source of conflict between the rich and the poor.
Second, fish, whether caught on coastal waters or farmed in local lakes, needs to supply the protein needs of the local populations first. This situation in Zimbabwe strongly underscores the mantra of local production for local consumption.
