Why Can’t the FDA Label Drugs this Way?
Whole Foods [has] launched a new color-coded rating program. Seafood is given a green, yellow or red rating. A green rating indicates the species is relatively abundant and is caught in environmentally friendly ways. Yellow means some concerns exist with the species’ status or the methods by which it was caught. And a red rating means the species is suffering from overfishing, or the methods used to catch it harm other marine life or habitats.
Full article on Whole Food’s new seafood rating program here.
Great idea. But it’s not original with you. This was Milton Friedman’s proposal. Let government certify instead of regulating. Then let people make their own decisions.
I wish other food outlets would do what Whole Foods does.
Too bad Milton Friedman doesn’t apply in this situation. Go to any top sushi restaurant. The scarcity of toro makes it more desirable. There’s no economic reason not to eat something because it may become extinct. In fact, there’s good reason to consume a threatened species because if you don’t hurry, it may disappear. That scarcity also makes overfishing more profitable.
artk: Have you been to a Whole Foods lately? There’s no economic reason to shop there, but for whatever reason, they do.
I must agree, however, about scarcity making some shoppers want to buy more. I would say to myself, “That fish will be extinct in a few years. I better eat up now!”
BTW, am I the only one that’s sick of all the color coding that goes on in this country? Not only do we have the (incredibly useless) homeland security colors, but I noticed that the city of Dallas now offers pollution warnings that are color coded. Google shows traffic as colors. Why can’t we find better ways to describe things? And what do you do if you’re colorblind?