Swedish private consumers as well as municipalities have decided to stop buying cod. A recent survey reveals that out of 1000 persons asked, one third does not buy cod at all.
Eight municipalities on the Swedish west coast have decided to stop including cod in their contract for central purchase of food products to public facilities such as schools, kinder gardens and elderly homes. “We have to contribute to saving the cod for the future and for our children”, says Lisbeth Sandblom, of Tanum municipality situated on the Swedish west coast to the Swedish daily “Dagens Nyheter”.
Other Swedish municipalities are also discussing the issue. In southern Sweden, the municipality of Laholm has decided not to serve cod in schools, according to Radio Halland.
In the capital however, there are currently no plans to take any central decisions to stop serving fish threatened of extinction at public facilities. “Considering the vulnerable situation of the cod stocks, public procurement of cod should be stopped immediately, not only from the Baltic Sea but cod from the whole world. We have been talking to suppliers, and the city of Stockholm is currently purchasing fish, not listed as green in the WWF consumer guide, to public facilities”, says Yvonne Ruwaida of the Swedish Green party to Dagens Nyheter. “The municipality of Stockholm is such a big player, making it possible to put pressure on distributors to only supply fish listed as green”.
Yvonne Ruwaida yesterday left a communication regarding the discontinuation of public procurement of cod to the Stockholm municipality council. The communication demands a new fisheries policy for Stockholm, where the first step is to remove cod as well as all other fish from the Stockholm procurement not having the green light in the WWF consumer guide.
Yvonne Ruwaida hopes that the communication will contribute to a more environmentally friendly thinking in general. However, the municipality of Stockholm does not have any plans to implement any stops similar to those in the municipalities on the Swedish west coast.
“We establish goals, for example a guarantee that 15 percent of the food products purchased for public establishments are environmentally certified. The city of Stockholm leaves the responsibility to each establishment, practically down to the chef, to decide if they want to go above the 15 percent limit”, says Staffan Ingvarsson, of the conservative party and Stockholm council director to the daily “Svenska Dagbladet”.