{"id":15149825,"date":"2026-06-09T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/exploring-some-of-the-ways-food-is-sourced-in-the-pacific-northwest\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T15:10:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:10:19","slug":"exploring-some-of-the-ways-food-is-sourced-in-the-pacific-northwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/exploring-some-of-the-ways-food-is-sourced-in-the-pacific-northwest\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring some of the ways food is sourced in the Pacific Northwest"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>Each&#xA0;week on The Newsfeed,&#xA0;host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists&#xA0;dive deep into one&#xA0;topic and&#xA0;provide&#xA0;impactful&#xA0;reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3 id=\"wsu-researchers-analyze-ultra-processed-food-purchasing-habits\">WSU&#xA0;researchers&#xA0;analyze ultra-processed food purchasing&#xA0;habits&#xA0;&#xA0;<\/h3>\n<p><!--kg-card-begin: html--><\/p>\n<p><!--kg-card-end: html--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cascadepbs.org\/author\/paris-jackson\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Paris Jackson<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cascadepbs.org\/content\/images\/2026\/06\/20260609-hero.png\" alt=\"Exploring some of the ways food is sourced in the Pacific Northwest\"><\/p>\n<p>Washington State University researchers are looking into what we eat, what we&#xA0;buy at the grocery&#xA0;store,&#xA0;and the changing food market across the country.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>In a recent study, those researchers analyzed national data and focused on ultra-processed food, to understand why some scientific findings suggest that kind of&#xA0;food is addictive.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>Since 2024, Washington State University researchers have been analyzing consumer habits through standard data from grocery stores across the country.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>Lead WSU researcher,&#xA0;Jill McCluskey,&#xA0;says grocery stores use a four-category scale, called the Nova System.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>Within the system,&#xA0;group 1 is unprocessed or minimally processed foods, which include fruits, veggies,&#xA0;and&#xA0;fish.&#xA0;Group 2 is processed culinary ingredients, such as olive oil and butter.&#xA0;Group 3 is&#xA0;comprised&#xA0;of&#xA0;processed foods,&#xA0;like&#xA0;cheese, bread, and wine.&#xA0;Group 4&#xA0;is ultra-processed&#xA0;foods,&#xA0;which&#xA0;includes&#xA0;chips, hot&#xA0;dogs&#xA0;and soda.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>McCluskey says&#xA0;they&#x2019;re&#xA0;finding consumers&#xA0;who&#xA0;purchased&#xA0;ultra-processed foods&#xA0;don&#x2019;t&#xA0;necessarily cut back in this category as much as in&#xA0;others when prices rise.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>&#x201C;And we found that&#xA0;[Group 4]&#xA0;has&#xA0;&#8230; the lowest sensitivity to price of all the categories by by a lot,&#x201D; said&#xA0;McCluskey&#xA0;who is&#xA0;a&#xA0;Regents&#xA0;Professor&#xA0;and&#xA0;WSU School of Economic Sciences Director.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>McCluskey says their&#xA0;analysis has&#xA0;found&#xA0;people are willing to spend&#xA0;more&#xA0;on ultra-processed&#xA0;food, especially people with younger children.&#xA0;She says&#xA0;if a healthier food&apos;s price&#xA0;goes up, they may&#xA0;also&#xA0;substitute with&#xA0;an&#xA0;ultra-processed&#xA0;food: like replacing&#xA0;an apple with chips.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>McCluskey says her study aims to also learn more about how and who&#xA0;food companies&#xA0;target&#xA0;with&#xA0;their marketing and pricing.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>&#x201C;Food companies might want to underprice to children, so that&#xA0;they&apos;re&#xA0;lifelong &#8230; consumers&#xA0;almost like&#xA0;cigarettes or drugs. They might want to get&#xA0;people to start consuming them and then have them as lifetime customers,&#x201D; McCluskey&#xA0;said.&#xA0;&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>McCluskey says the study is ongoing.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"tulalip-tribes-foster-collaboration-to-restore-salmon-passages\">Tulalip Tribes foster collaboration to restore salmon passages&#xA0;<\/h3>\n<p><!--kg-card-begin: html--><\/p>\n<p><!--kg-card-end: html--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cascadepbs.org\/author\/venice\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Venice Buhain<\/a>, story published 06\/08\/2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Tulalip Tribes have worked to restore salmon populations for decades. In recent years,&#xA0;they&#x2019;ve&#xA0;taken&#xA0;a new approach: coordinating public agencies and private landowners to remove culverts and restore streams.&#xA0;&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>&#x201C;Fish passage projects are so important to get those juvenile and adult fish back to their habitats that they historically had access&#xA0;to,&#x201D;&#xA0;said Brett Shattuck, who manages the Tulalip&#xA0;Tribes&#x2019;&#xA0;Restoration,&#xA0;Acquisition&#xA0;and Stewardship program.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>There are thousands of culverts and other barriers to fish passage throughout the state on both private and public land. The Tulalip Tribes have not only coordinated the&#xA0;collaboration between agencies, but they have secured tens of millions of dollars in&#xA0;recent&#xA0;years, receiving money from&#xA0;both&#xA0;government agencies and private grants.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>&#x201C;So now we&apos;re working to replace those crossings that not only convey water, but also convey fish both up and downstream so that we can both get our transportation that we need to the places we need to go and allow those fish to access their habitats upstream,&#x201D; Shattuck said. &#xA0;&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>The Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission,&#xA0;an organization that&#xA0;co-manages salmon&#xA0;and other natural resources&#xA0;along with state agencies, recently featured the Tulalip Tribes&#x2019; work in a&#xA0;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZIu81En__Qc&amp;ref=cascadepbs.org\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><u>short film called &#x201C;Passage Home:<\/u>&#xA0;<u>Tulalip Tribes remove barriers to salmon habitat.&#x201D;<\/u><\/a>&#xA0;The&#xA0;short documentary was produced by Northwest Treaty Tribes,&#xA0;which is one arm of the commission.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>The film features Jason Gobin,&#xA0;Tulalip Tribes&#x2019; Director of Natural and Cultural Resources,&#xA0;whose family&#xA0;works&#xA0;in the seafood industry.&#xA0;He said the work helps preserve&#xA0;the salmon&#xA0;and other fish for future generations.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p>&#x201C;Projects like this and the returning fish that they&#xA0;provide, provides&#xA0;that opportunity for, you know, myself, my family, our people to go out and harvest out there on the saltwater and in the river here,&#x201D;&#xA0;Gobin&#xA0;said&#xA0;in the film.&#xA0;<\/p>\n<p class=\"inmi-source\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cascadepbs.org\/the-newsfeed-2\/2026\/06\/exploring-some-of-the-ways-food-is-sourced-in-the-pacific-northwest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Seattle \u2013 rss.app \u2192 manual entry<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week, the team brings you stories about small farmers, seafarers, WSU research on processed foods, and a salmon restoration project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15149827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15149825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seattle"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero.webp",720,406,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero-300x169.png",300,169,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero-620x350.png",620,350,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero.webp",720,406,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero.webp",720,406,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero.webp",720,406,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero.webp",720,406,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero.webp",720,406,false],"ignition_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero-670x406.png",670,406,true],"ignition_item_lg":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero.webp",720,406,false],"ignition_article_media":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero-510x406.png",510,406,true],"ignition_minicart_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero-160x160.png",160,160,true],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero-24x24.png",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero-48x48.png",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero-96x96.png",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero-150x150.png",150,150,true],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/15149825-20260609-hero-300x300.png",300,300,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"news.iNthacity","author_link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/author\/atombo\/"},"category_info":"<a 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