Barramundi and wild shrimp are among the new seafood products offered on Thrive Market, a membership-based natural online grocer based in Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
On Tuesday, 3 March, Thrive launched Thrive Market Meat and Seafood, a line of sustainable seafood boxes, along with grass-fed beef, free-roaming chicken, and other natural meats.
"Thrive Market set out to create the most ethical and highest quality meat and seafood program in the country offered at our affordable member pricing," CEO Nick Green said in a press release. "We have created a path for consumers to move away from toxic, conventional, factory-farmed meats and back towards the small and mid-size family farmers that can more realistically maintain the highest standards of raising practices."
While Thrive did not reveal seafood suppliers for the new line, the retailer says it is working with “innovative small and midsize fishermen to buy sustainable seafood species — either wild-caught or sustainably farmed,” the company said.
Thrive Market did not respond to SeafoodSource’s request for comment, but Thrive Market co-founder Gunnar Lovelace said in the company’s release that he hopes to give a bigger, more visible platform sustainability-focused seafood producers.
"Our hope is, by sharing these offerings with our members, we’ll not only deliver a truly differentiated product at a competitive price, we will also enable our producer partners to grow their operations, inspire others to transition away from unsustainable techniques and eventually change America's food system for the better,” Lovelace said.
Among Thrive’s new seafood offerings is a Wild and Sustainable Seafood Box for USD 119.99 (EUR 97.81). The package includes peeled and deveined wild shrimp (16 ounces, 31 to 40 pieces per pack), wild sea scallops (12 ounces, 20 to 30 piece per pack), barramundi (24 ounces, four to five pieces per pack), wild-caught cod (24 ounces four to five pieces per pack), and wild-caught sockeye salmon (24 ounces, four to five pieces per pack).
Thrive also sells a Surf and Turf Beef and Seafood Combo Box for USD 109.99 (EUR 89.66). In addition to ground beef and steaks, the box includes wild shrimp and wild sockeye salmon.
Thrive Market's goal in sourcing from natural and sustainable meat and seafood suppliers is “to begin building a scalable alternative to industrial factory farming,” the retailer said in the press release. “Today, 50 percent of American land is used for conventional agriculture, with over 70 percent of that land going to produce feed for livestock. As a result, conventional agriculture is now the second-largest contributor of greenhouse gases on the planet, with animal farming responsible for the majority of that.”
