The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has rejected calls by campaigners for more emphasis on labor standards in its certification process.
MSC spokesperson Sarah Grainger said there is no social claim associated with the MSC eco-label.
“Consumers understand this,” Grainger told SeafoodSource.
A global survey of more than 20,000 people, carried out in 2024 by the research organization GlobeScan on behalf of MSC, found that 99 percent of consumers “do not associate the MSC eco-label with working conditions and social responsibility,” Grainger said.
Valery Alzaga, the deputy director of Global Labor Justice which campaigns against labor abuse in fishing fleets, said consumers purchasing MSC-labeled seafood “reasonably expect that the product is free from human and labor rights abuses.”
“There are MSC-certified fisheries where the fishers are subjected to forced labor and unacceptable working conditions,” Alzaga told SeafoodSource. “It is absurd to imagine that consumers would actively seek out environmentally sustainable seafood but be unconcerned if it is produced using forced labor.”
The MSC label is misleading, according to Alzaga, because it ...
