Omnivore Atlanta

ROUGHY RIOT: Greenpeace volunteers go all out for sustainability at a "Traitor Joe's" event earlier this month in San Francisco.

Greenpeace volunteers from the Atlanta area gathered at Trader Joe’s in Midtown this morning to petition the store to stop selling unsustainable seafood. The activist group collected signatures as part of a push to encourage the national supermarket chain to make changes to its seafood policies. Greenpeace recently released a scorecard ranking the 20 most prominent grocery chains on their commitment to selling sustainable seafood. Trader Joe’s was ranked 17^th.

In response, Greenpeace has launched an initiative known as “Traitor Joe’s” to pressure the store to stop selling exploited species.

The group originally planned to wear “brightly colored” orange roughy fish costumes to the event, according to a press release from last week. Orange roughy is a species that is both overfished and collected using methods that destruct marine habitats. The group wore the costumes at an event in San Francisco earlier this month.

However, “We had logistical problems with the orange roughy costumes,” said Greenpeace Climate Rescue Field Organizer Sierra Barnes.

“But we’ll be there with petitions,” she said.

“Nationally, we are using these petitions, and they have started to respond,” she said. But Trader Joe’s has “not responded to the full extent we would like them to.”

Greenpeace left the property this morning after the Midtown Trader Joe’s managers said they were calling the police.

(Photo courtesy Greenpeace, with permission, via Flickr)

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NPR’s “Morning Edition” reported today that more than 50 percent of consumers are cutting back restaurant dining, according to a recent Nielsen survey.

At the same time, increasing numbers of people are buying prepared meals from grocery stores. These include meals to heat at home but many stores, like Whole Foods, have installed tables and are serving food on the premises. That’s not new for Whole Foods but other grocery chains are following suit. And convenience stores are getting in on the action too.

As it happens, I’ve been sampling prepared food at grocery stores for a Grazing column. My longtime favorites have been the fried chicken at Publix and the Indian-style chicken at Whole Foods. Many of the prepared foods at Trader Joe’s have surprised me with their quality. The Ansley Kroger has recently expanded its own selection of ready-to-eat dishes. I’ve eaten at taquerias inside Mexican groceries for years.

Do any of you readers have your own favorite grocery-store choices? Clue me in.

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