Wednesday 31 August 2011

Greenpeace targets the US with "Grotesque Anti-Tuna Fishing Video"


Even sympathetic environmentalists criticize the Greenpeace propaganda video:

Greenpeace Misses the Boat with Grotesque Anti-Tuna Fishing Video
"the video is violent and gross, without actually telling us why tuna fishing is so bad"

Greenpeace has launched a huge propaganda campaign with lavish videos and urgent fundraising letters against canned tuna in the US. This comes at a time when all scientific and medical experts - including the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture - say that people eat far too little seafood. Besides, the species used in canned tuna are in no danger of extinction, according to a leading expert, Ray Hilborn, professor of aquatic and fishery sciences at the University of Washington.

But, as John Connelly, President of the National Fisheries Institute, writes, "encouraging consumers to eat for optimum health is not on the Greenpeace agenda":

After campaigning against canned tuna in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada, Greenpeace is targeting the United States — the biggest tuna market of them all. As it has done in all its previous efforts Greenpeace has launched a national campaign that vilifies tuna companies through lavish videos, accompanied by urgent fundraising letters.
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Consumption for the most widely available, inexpensive and nutritional fish like tuna is dropping. Although two servings of fish per week is optimal for a healthy diet, most Americans get nowhere near that amount — which is having a measurable, negative impact on public health.
A recent Harvard University study found that some 84,000 deaths could be avoided each year simply by eating the recommended amount of fish. Another long-term study showed that children whose mothers cut back on seafood during pregnancy had lowered developmental and IQ outcomes

Encouraging consumers to eat for optimum health is not on the Greenpeace agenda. What is, however, is a campaign to coerce retailers to stock only canned tuna caught one fish at a time with poles and lines or with methods that abandon other modern fishing technologies. Perhaps next Greenpeace will suggest America's farmers till their fields only with yoke and oxen. Should retailers comply, shoppers' access to — and choice of — affordable canned tuna would all but disappear. And as any shopper knows, limited supply comes at an exorbitant price.
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Ray Hilborn, professor of aquatic and fishery sciences at the University of Washington and former member of the President's Commission on Ocean Policy, declared that the species used in canned tuna are nearly as plentiful as they were 60 years ago. The hard facts prove that with responsible fisheries management, ecosystems will continue to thrive and produce huge economic benefits, not to mention healthier diets.

Connelly also tells us what Greenpeace actually is:

Environmental activism is big business. Organizations like Greenpeace are no longer run by naïve college kids; they are global operations as big and as complex as many of the corporations they target. Today, Greenpeace is an anti-business business. It is a global enterprise overseen by a board of directors, run by vice presidents and attorneys, and functionally organized by marketing, media experts and a sales force.
And like a business, it has operating expenses. Keeping Greenpeace flush costs more than $700,000 every day. Keep in mind that Greenpeace doesn't manufacture or sell anything — save fear, perhaps.
The most successful fundraising campaigns promote a provocative claim about an easily recognizable product, like canned tuna. Such an attack is guaranteed to get publicity — and more publicity equates to bigger donations. Thus, Greenpeace isn't so much concerned with what's on Americans' plates as what's in its coffers.
Greenpeace has nothing to lose, but Americans certainly do. Tuna is popular, affordable and healthy — one of the few bright spots in the typical high-fat, high-sodium American diet. Fortunately, there are plenty of these fish in the sea. And with ongoing smart management, there will continue to be.

Read the entire article here

PS

People should realize that Greenpeace - together with such doomsday prophets as NASA´s James Hansen and the Earth Policy Institute´s Lester Brown - is  part of the global enviro-fundamentalist movement, with a clear anti-business and anti-democratic agenda. These people do not shy away from anything in order to promote their doomsday propaganda for a world totally controlled by environmental extremists.

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