GrubHub: Take Shark Fin Soup Off Your Menus

Most of us have used GrubHub or one of its subsidiaries, Seamless, All Menus, and Menu Pages, at some point in our lives. Whether you’re craving pizza, Chinese food, Thai food, or a late night sub, chances are you’ll be able to find what you want on any one of the previously mentioned sites. One dish you probably never expected to find on GrubHub? Shark fin soup.

Shark fin soup, a popular dish at weddings and banquets in China, is a symbol of wealth in China and other parts of Asia. Its demand skyrocketed and illegal poaching increased by shocking numbers as China’s economic growth made this ‘delicacy’ more accessible to the middle class. Shark fin soup has been associated with a variety of benefits from increased virility to longer life. However, as the fin is purely cartilage, it has zero nutritional value. 

According to WildAid, the trade in shark fins has led to the decline in some shark populations by up to 98% in the last 15 years. An estimated 100 million sharks are killed each year with up to 73 million used for their fins. Poachers hunt sharks, cut off their fins, and having no use for their meat, throw them back into the ocean, usually still alive. Without its fins the shark simply sinks to the bottom of the ocean where it suffocates and dies.

China’s consumption of shark fin soup has been declining rapidly these past few years as young Chinese become more environmentally conscious and government campaigns pledging to ban shark fin soup from official banquets have been implemented. However, the fight to spread awareness and completely eliminate this cruel practice isn’t over.

Apparently, GrubHub doesn’t care about the exploitation of these majestic creatures as they still offer shark fin soup on their menus, despite Oceana and its supporters urging them to stop. Actress January Jones is a celebrity advocate for Oceana, the largest international organization focused entirely on ocean conservation. She wrote an article on Huffington Post, urging people to spread awareness of GrubHub’s practices by donating a Tweet, Facebook or Tumblr post on Thunderclap that tells GrubHub to remove shark fin soup from the menu.

You can sign up and join the campaign on Thunderclap till 12 p.m. EST on Wednesday, January 28, 2015. Then, on January 28 at noon, an automated post will be sent via the social media account you signed up with, urging GrubHub to take shark fins off the menu.

Reading this article after the deadline? Continue to spread awareness by sharing this article (below) or by writing a letter directly to GrubHub.

---

2015 State of the Union

On Tuesday night, President Obama delivered his 2015 State of the Union address. The State of the Union is an annual address given to a joint session of the Congress, including Supreme Court Justices (the ones who decide to show up) and almost all of the members of the president’s cabinet (minus the “designated survivor”). It contains a report on the condition of the country and outlines the president’s legislative agenda for that year. Every major news outlet and political website has been fact-checking and analyzing the President’s address, so I’ll leave sifting through the 6,000 plus word speech to them. The part of the address that really stood out to me was the President's remarks on the pay gap between men and women.

“That’s why this Congress still needs to pass a law that makes sure a woman is paid the same as a man for doing the same work. Really. It’s 2015. It’s time.”

Did you know that women make up nearly half of the workforce but they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns? And according to the National Organization for Women, the gap is even wider for women of color. In comparison to a white, non-Hispanic man’s dollar, African American women earn only 64 cents and Latinas just 55 cents. Unacceptable! Bossy gals know they deserve to make the exact same amount, if not more, than men do for the same work. Which brings me to an important rule: Bossy gals negotiate their pay.

I’m always surprised at how many smart and accomplished women around me have failed to negotiate their pay when accepting a job offer. A job offer is just that, an offer. A bossy gal knows that everything is negotiable. She does her research by diligently scouring websites such as GlassDoor and PayScale, knows her market value, and pushes for what she knows she deserves. And once she’s negotiated her salary, a bossy gal negotiates other benefits. These could include, an earlier annual review, flex-scheduling and telecommuting, professional development courses, a better title, transportation reimbursement, guaranteed severance package, and/or additional vacation time.

Bossy gals do their homework, negotiate like a boss, never take no for an answer, and know they damn well don’t deserve 77 cents, 64 cents, and especially not 55 cents for every dollar a man earns.

---