Northwest promotes 'salmon-safe' business

SEATTLE -- This is a city that takes its salmon very seriously -- as a delicacy and as a regional icon.

Now a new citywide ad campaign is asking grocery shoppers to step up and do their part to save the salmon.

Advertisements remind shoppers to look for the "salmon-safe" label, which blesses fresh locally produced eggs, milk, wine, and produce. This label assures the customer that the agricultural practices of the farm or vineyard in question does not harm the salmon habitat.

It's a message that seems tailor-made for this city, where organic coffee shops, farmers' markets, and agricultural cooperatives flourish.

Stewardship Partners, a local nonprofit that works with private landowners to restore and preserve the natural landscape, has been running the Salmon-Safe program in the Seattle area since 2004. A bus ad campaign and recent radio spots are its first large-scale promotions of the label.

"We've been scaling up," said Stewardship Partners' program director, Larry Nussbaum. "We had to have enough producers in the program to meet demand before we could run this kind of a campaign."

The Salmon-Safe program dates to 1995, when it was developed at the Pacific Rivers Council. Now the certification standards are set by Salmon-Safe Inc., a nonprofit in Portland, Ore., that looks for groups like Stewardship Partners to administer the program locally. Oregon, Washington, and California's Marin County are among its partners.

Overall, the program has certified more than 150 farms and wineries.

The certification inspection takes into account a producer's water use, erosion control, pesticide management, and maintenance of biological diversity, among other factors. A producer need not be certified organic to qualify, though many are.

Salmon-Safe's managing director, Dan Kent, says the program's growth and success in Seattle has been "phenomenal."

Thirty farms, vineyards, and dairies have been certified in the Puget Sound area.

Nussbaum attributed Seattle's interest in the program to public awareness and concern for local agriculture.

"There is a huge amount of buzz here around the whole issue of salmon. The government is spending millions of dollars on programs to restore wild salmon habitat -- and this is a program that gives private landowners a way to be a part of that effort," Nussbaum said. "We also have two big trends -- growth in the natural organic foods market and even more growth in the local sustainable agriculture movement ."

But PCC Natural Markets' merchandising director, Paul Schmidt, does acknowledge: "Our customers were a little confused in the beginning. They'd ask, 'How can lettuce be salmon-safe?' " PCC describes itself as the largest natural foods cooperative market in the United States, with eight stores in the Seattle area and more than 40,000 members.

"But now that we've explained the program -- that it is about the farmers and their practices -- we've seen a strong response," Schmidt said. PCC, which joined the Salmon-Safe campaign two years ago, has used its membership magazine, monthly specials, and its staff members to explain the program to customers.

The program isn't just about salmon, Nussbaum said.

"The salmon is a symbol to rally round," he said. "Salmon are an iconic species; the label represents practices that protect and preserve water quality and habitat, which benefits the whole watershed."

Gerard Bentryn, owner of Bainbridge Island Vineyards and Winery, has not had anyone ask him about the salmon-safe labels on its wine bottles, but he is committed to the ideals of the program.

"I hope it will have an impact, that people will start to think about what they consume in environmental terms," he said.