Greenwashing in the seafood industry

Impact of greenwashing in seafood brand image and consumer purchasing decisions 9-10 pages

According to Investopedia, “greenwashing is the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company's products are more environmentally sound.” Especially during our remote world we live in now, the impact of digital advertising is even more important, and social media gives brands even more space to play with their image, which can be good or bad. I want to see how greenwashing is being investigated and analyzed in the seafood industry and how they use it to their benefit.

Research the biggest seafood companies in the world and answer questions such as: How many fish do they catch each year? Are their boats and factories powered by fossil fuels? Your focus can be on large-scale fishing operations? Have a particular region/country you are focusing on and that is eating seafood? What was the knowledge you were expecting to find? Are you going to cover alternatives to ocean farming (like aquaculture)? Analyze how "health" is used as a tool for greenwashing? As a sushi lover myself, I think it could be great to maybe talk about how seafood has become very Americanized and that could have assisted in its popularity.

Suggested structure: You want to organize an intro, your body themes (between 2-5) that you will be addressing and then your conclusion that will wrap up all your thoughts in your paper. you will give a general background in the introduction, have a clear thesis statement (which will develop after working through a set of literature and identify key messages, themes, findings, gaps, and/or future needs), present the key points, and suggest where the research needs to go next. Intro Body: Theme 1: Theme 2: Theme 3: Short Interpretive Viewpoint: Short Conclusion:

What are researchers writing about in this field? What are their findings? And where is their work coming up short, in terms of methods, where the research is being done, who is doing the research or being included in it, what theories are informing it or frameworks that are holding it? You need at least 2 papers that are at least 25 years old (please find these and include them). Both of these should be peer-reviewed or grey literature. you need at least 15 papers (including the 2 old papers)

Note: you are not trying to solve the environmental problem at hand, but demonstrating how greenwashing has played its role in developing the seafood market. Describing what researchers already know about the sustainable labeling, and what future research needs to be done on that subject. Please include 1-3 images or figures, although they do not count as part of the 9-10 pages

Use this abstract to guide you towards a standing point, but please do not use in the paper:

Abstract:

Sustainable eating has become more popular as technology advances and studies about healthy living have arisen. Meanwhile, people have become more aware of the harmful environmental effects all the food industries have caused leading to people wanting to eat in an eco-friendly manner. This becomes more difficult as the associations, one is led to trust by high authorities, have essentially been lying to us the entire time. With that being said, I will be discussing the few methods large and small fisheries uses for catching fish and the environmental effects caused by them. Along with the dominant non-profit organizations that governments have allowed to grant sustainable, ocean-friendly, or green labeling to fisheries that have caused more damage to the ocean and keystone animals living within it. Most fishing companies do a terrible job at cleaning up after themselves leaving behind giant fishnets, killing dolphins, sharks, whales of all species to reduce the fishing competition, and a substantial carbon footprint larger than any oil spill has ever done. Finding solutions to these problems is extremely challenging as the world population grows, overfishing occurs, climate change and pollution worsen, and government regulations and funds do little to support the cause. With all of this begins the most harmful and influential greenwash in human history.

Please use some of these links below in the paper with full citations (could count as one of the papers).

Cites:

https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/press-release/mscs-deliberate-deceit-report-reveals-stag gering-scale-of-their-fishing-industry-greenwash/

https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/story/what-is-bottom-trawling-and-why-is-it-bad-for-the-en vironment/

https://www.seachoice.org/is-the-seafood-sold-in-canadas-retailers-immune-to-greenwashing/

https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1475&context=thesis

https://search-proquest-com.oca.ucsc.edu/docview/213826251?pq-origsite=primo&rfr_id=info% 3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo

https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1985&context=lawfaculty

https://www.npr.org/2013/02/11/171376509/is-sustainable-labeled-seafood-really-sustainable

https://sustainablefisheries-uw.org/seafood-101/commercial-fishing-methods/

Non Seafood greenwashing advice:

https://thesustainabilitycooperative.net/2017/02/09/greenwashing-the-secret-of-the-food-industry /

https://www.leafscore.com/eco-friendly-kitchen-products/most-important-eco-friendly-seafood-ce rtifications/

https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/farmed-seafood