Signs on Seattle-area buses this week began promoting one of the latest "salmon-safe" products: eggs. Andy Wilcox, a fourth-generation egg and dairy farmer in Pierce County, is among the farmers counting on consumers to look for the salmon-safe label.
"Salmon-safe lets us communicate to customers that we are doing things that are good for salmon and the local waterways," said Wilcox, 34.
It's a 45-minute drive from the downtown bus signs to the Snoqualmie River Valley in eastern King County, where a nonprofit group called Stewardship Partners has enlisted 15 farms in the "salmon-safe" program. Elsewhere in the Puget Sound region, Wilcox and 16 other farmers and winemakers have allowed inspectors to verify that they take precautions to keep streams healthy for salmon.
A fall promotional campaign at PCC stores was well received by consumers once it was explained, said Laurie Lombard, PCC's director of marketing. At first, she said, customers wondered how lettuce could be salmon-safe. "When you explain it's the farm and their practices, they're into it. It's so Washington," Lombard said.
Source: Spokesman Review