This June, www.ecowatch.com reported that a coalition including Community Alliance for Global Justice, fishermen, members of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 21 and concerned Costco customers rallied in front of the Costco next door to store headquarters and presented more than 300,000 petition signatures demanding that Costco Wholesale publicly commit to not sell genetically modified (GMO) salmon.

More recently, in response to this campaign led by Friends of the Earth and allies, more than 60 retailers, including Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Safeway and Kroger, representing more than 9,000 grocery stores across the country, have made commitments to not sell this genetically modified fish, should it be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Although Costco is one of the largest retailers of salmon and seafood in the U.S., and headquartered in the Northwest region, home to Pacific wild salmon, it has yet to make a similar public commitment.

“We are asking Costco to stand behind the science, be a true leader in seafood sustainability and listen to the majority of consumers who do not want to eat genetically engineered fish,” Dana Perls, Friends of the Earth’s food and technology policy campaigner, said in a news release. “More than 60 of Costco’s competitors have committed to not sell GMO salmon – Costco needs to catch up and provide its customers with what they want: natural, sustainable seafood that isn’t genetically engineered in a lab.”

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