Bill Collins discusses the longevity superfood: why & how to farm it, champion it, and consume it!

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[00:01] SPEAKER_01: Come to Lethbridge and join an innovative community for entrepreneurs.
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[00:18] SPEAKER_01: Southern Alberta's help for innovation and technology.
[00:21] SPEAKER_01: It's the bright choice for business builders.
[00:24] SPEAKER_01: Go to chooselethbridge.ca slash entrepreneur and we'll help you move and grow in Lethbridge.
[00:32] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:35] SPEAKER_00: The number one podcast for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
[00:44] SPEAKER_03: How to use a seaweed farm to supersize your wealth, your community building, and personal
[00:50] SPEAKER_03: longevity.
[00:51] SPEAKER_03: It can happen.
[00:53] SPEAKER_03: So first of all, that's the scene for today's podcast.
[00:57] SPEAKER_03: I am super excited to have Bill Collins here from Cascadia seaweed and he has got some
[01:04] SPEAKER_03: knowledge that everybody should listen to if you're in a coastal community around the
[01:08] SPEAKER_03: globe.
[01:09] SPEAKER_03: So first of all, knowing that fully self-sufficient, hyper-local villages are the evolution of
[01:16] SPEAKER_03: community living.
[01:16] SPEAKER_03: Not only is it possible, it's likely that fully private or hybrid private public seaweed
[01:22] SPEAKER_03: farms will become a mainstay of food security in coastal communities around the globe,
[01:28] SPEAKER_03: my prediction within 10 years.
[01:31] SPEAKER_03: So first of all, it's already happening, so if you think it's in the too hard basket,
[01:35] SPEAKER_03: think again.
[01:37] SPEAKER_03: I'm Angela Faye, host on Canada's podcast and founder impact coach at future bill, building
[01:43] SPEAKER_03: lasting community impact.
[01:46] SPEAKER_03: Speaking with me today is Bill Collins, a Canada's podcast alumni and co-founder of Cascadia
[01:52] SPEAKER_03: seaweed, who is absolutely poised to help accelerate Canada to be in the global top three
[01:59] SPEAKER_03: best sustainable fish and seafood producers by 2040.
[02:05] SPEAKER_03: Before we get into some of the solutions, sorry Bill, you want to comment?
[02:09] SPEAKER_04: That's the game plan.
[02:11] SPEAKER_03: That's the game plan, I love it.
[02:13] SPEAKER_03: So before we get into the solutions, I'd just like to bring some awareness to the problems
[02:17] SPEAKER_03: that you're solving, Bill with Cascadia.
[02:20] SPEAKER_03: So starting with, give me a little bit of perspective on some of the problems that
[02:25] SPEAKER_03: you shot for right before Cascadia launched into business.
[02:30] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, when we first opened up our doors, we knew that the challenge was going to be
[02:35] SPEAKER_04: access to water.
[02:37] SPEAKER_04: Its seaweed is grown in the coastal zone in tempered waters in Canada and finding the right
[02:46] SPEAKER_04: locations that are conducive to seaweed grows.
[02:49] SPEAKER_04: Now seaweed is a weed and it's just as its name states, it grows everywhere.
[02:54] SPEAKER_04: There is diversity in seaweed off the British Columbia coast, for example, there are 630
[02:59] SPEAKER_04: species that grow natively.
[03:01] SPEAKER_04: So we want to exploit that and to ensure that nature continues to thrive in its biodiversity.
[03:08] SPEAKER_04: Cascadia needs access to water.
[03:11] SPEAKER_04: And we do that through partnering with the coastal communities, first nations in particular.
[03:17] SPEAKER_04: And so for us, the key was gaining access to that water in partnerships so that we can
[03:23] SPEAKER_04: grow this really beautifully sustainable crop.
[03:26] SPEAKER_03: Well, in some of the problems that everybody is facing, I mean, not some of the solutions
[03:31] SPEAKER_03: of getting Cascadia happening on the ground, but there are pressures on the ocean right
[03:36] SPEAKER_03: now or intense in growing as far as having access to the ocean but also preserving and
[03:44] SPEAKER_03: protecting that ocean.
[03:45] SPEAKER_03: And Canadians, in fact, all leaders are increasingly concerned about food security and stable job
[03:51] SPEAKER_03: creation.
[03:53] SPEAKER_03: And traditional agriculture is responsible for 6%, and I'm going to ask you to clarify
[03:59] SPEAKER_03: and make sure that's right, 6% of global GHGs, 40% of methane gas emissions.
[04:05] SPEAKER_03: And there's mounting fear globally about the preservation of coastal communities with
[04:09] SPEAKER_03: climate evolution, you like.
[04:14] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you're so right, Angela.
[04:15] SPEAKER_04: The way we view the world is a culmination of two things at the moment.
[04:21] SPEAKER_04: First of all, climate action.
[04:22] SPEAKER_04: It's no longer good enough to say we're sustainable.
[04:27] SPEAKER_04: Industry has to take a very proactive approach to repair the damage that's been done to the planet.
[04:33] SPEAKER_04: And we, this will not be an overnight thing.
[04:36] SPEAKER_04: It has to be done with expediency.
[04:39] SPEAKER_04: We can't wait to change the planet, but we do recognize there's certain barriers to growth.
[04:43] SPEAKER_04: So it's the combination or the nexus of food security, health and wellness of the individual
[04:50] SPEAKER_04: and access to a good secure route for food.
[04:55] SPEAKER_04: In addition to this climate action, that's where Cascadia sits right in the middle.
[04:59] SPEAKER_04: Because we can deliver a climate positive crop, secure food to feed the 10 billion people
[05:08] SPEAKER_04: that will be inhabiting this planet in the not too distant future.
[05:12] SPEAKER_04: And at the same time, seaweed farming is done at a community level.
[05:16] SPEAKER_02: Right.
[05:17] SPEAKER_04: Because what we want to be able to do is put people back in their homes, in their traditional
[05:22] SPEAKER_04: homes, spread out a little bit more and doing meaningful work on the water that is in conjunction
[05:29] SPEAKER_04: and harmony with the ocean and its inhabitants.
[05:33] SPEAKER_04: And at the same time, can transform food security from a traditional terrestrial agriculture
[05:38] SPEAKER_04: venue to something that's broader.
[05:41] SPEAKER_04: That's what the Cascadia's goal is.
[05:44] SPEAKER_03: Well, and all of the problems that we talked about really have one core theme, I guess,
[05:50] SPEAKER_03: as to that problem, which is decentralization.
[05:54] SPEAKER_03: And the need for a shift to local food and energy production.
[05:58] SPEAKER_03: What do you think?
[05:59] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I love it.
[06:00] SPEAKER_04: We may comment later, but the way I see it is our goal is to decarbonize the atmosphere
[06:06] SPEAKER_04: and recarbonize the biosphere in order to set the track back.
[06:11] SPEAKER_04: And in order to do that, it has to be done at a community level, well coordinated community
[06:17] SPEAKER_04: level.
[06:18] SPEAKER_04: We cannot do this in isolation and individual community.
[06:21] SPEAKER_04: There has to be a network of communities.
[06:23] SPEAKER_04: There has to be a network of firms.
[06:25] SPEAKER_04: They have to interact with a network, a transportation network to deliver.
[06:30] SPEAKER_04: We need food processing, value added.
[06:32] SPEAKER_04: We may go into that a little bit later in terms of the other things.
[06:35] SPEAKER_04: But it's a community and network of communities that will actually deliver seaweed firms to
[06:41] SPEAKER_04: the scale necessary to meet the demand.
[06:44] SPEAKER_03: Let's talk a little bit about you, the man, Bill Collins.
[06:48] SPEAKER_03: Bill, what again?
[06:49] SPEAKER_03: What's your entrepreneurial journey and really what today has become the evolution of your
[06:56] SPEAKER_03: massively transformative purpose?
[06:58] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I started off as a marine geologist, spending a lot of time in international science
[07:03] SPEAKER_04: and lots of survey work in many of the coastal oceans of the world.
[07:08] SPEAKER_04: I thought we have an opportunity.
[07:11] SPEAKER_04: I did manage to spend a beautiful couple of years in the South Pacific in the 90s and
[07:15] SPEAKER_04: soft firsthand if the globe was on a trajectory for sea level rise or certainly sea level change.
[07:23] SPEAKER_04: It was going to massively impact initially those communities where the height of land
[07:28] SPEAKER_04: is a meter and a half.
[07:30] SPEAKER_02: Right.
[07:30] SPEAKER_02: Right.
[07:30] SPEAKER_02: Countries.
[07:31] SPEAKER_04: So that put a set of glasses on in front of me with a view that whatever has to happen,
[07:39] SPEAKER_04: whether it's industry or science, it needs to be done through the lens of climate action,
[07:45] SPEAKER_04: had the privilege of working an eventually owning a company that was in electronics manufacturing
[07:53] SPEAKER_04: for mass transit because mass transit will be a solution for folks getting around with
[07:57] SPEAKER_04: as minimal impact as possible on our environment.
[08:01] SPEAKER_04: All of that came together in the venture that really was the seed for the idea about
[08:08] SPEAKER_04: Cascadia where we were looking for ideas that would create business on Vancouver Island,
[08:16] SPEAKER_04: attract foreign direct investment and where Vancouver Island and the coast of BC, and in
[08:21] SPEAKER_04: fact, the coast of Canada could play a have a global competitive advantage when you take
[08:27] SPEAKER_04: into account food security and climate action.
[08:30] SPEAKER_04: It becomes seaweed as one really good solution to address those two things and where BC has
[08:39] SPEAKER_04: a distinct global advantage.
[08:43] SPEAKER_03: Well and what I'm curious a little bit about is we have our distinct competitive advantage
[08:49] SPEAKER_03: because of the types of waters that we have and what was the number of seaweed plants?
[08:54] SPEAKER_04: 630.
[08:56] SPEAKER_03: If I'm talking to island nations across the globe, would they have seaweed in some form?
[09:04] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, seaweed generally is a macro algae and all coastal waters have macro algae, although
[09:11] SPEAKER_04: we're losing them at an astonishing rate for the climate reasons.
[09:16] SPEAKER_04: So there is opportunity, we're part of a consortium of global seaweed farmers that range from
[09:22] SPEAKER_04: a 300 year old farm in Japan to the plants for a newly minted farm off the coast of Namibia.
[09:30] SPEAKER_02: Oh wow, oh wow, so really that wow, that's quite the collaboration group.
[09:35] SPEAKER_04: It is, it is, it was brought together under the auspices of oceans 2050, whose goal is
[09:40] SPEAKER_04: to bring back the 50% loss of biodiversity in the oceans by the year 2050.
[09:45] SPEAKER_04: It's led by a woman Alexandra Kusto, whose Jacoosto's granddaughter.
[09:49] SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes.
[09:50] SPEAKER_04: And we're part of the consortium called carbon farming 2050, where we're going to quantify
[09:57] SPEAKER_04: the value of seaweed cultivation in support of permanent carbon sequestration.
[10:04] SPEAKER_03: For the laymen, what does that mean?
[10:07] SPEAKER_03: What the cost, what sort of scale are we talking about the cost and what does that sequestration
[10:12] SPEAKER_03: mean?
[10:13] SPEAKER_03: I got the word right.
[10:14] SPEAKER_04: Yeah, sequestration, yeah.
[10:16] SPEAKER_04: It means that the more we can capture CO2 from the atmosphere, and so seaweed macroeology,
[10:28] SPEAKER_04: for example, is not a plant, it sits sort of plant like out there, it's non-animal,
[10:33] SPEAKER_04: right, nutrition, for example.
[10:35] SPEAKER_04: It absorbs CO2 through the ocean and the ocean water as it waves in the currents and it extracts
[10:45] SPEAKER_04: really essential nutrients from the seawater.
[10:48] SPEAKER_04: Part of that is CO2 through the algae life cycle.
[10:53] SPEAKER_04: It absorbs that CO2, turns it into plant or algae energy if you want to think about it like that.
[11:00] SPEAKER_04: And some of that algae, as it's growing, sluffs off into the deep ocean.
[11:08] SPEAKER_04: And that's permanent sequestration provided.
[11:10] SPEAKER_04: We can quantify that.
[11:11] SPEAKER_04: And we know there's science out there that talks about transportation mechanisms from
[11:17] SPEAKER_04: sediments in the coastal zone into deep sediments in the deep oceans.
[11:24] SPEAKER_04: So that represents permanency sequestration.
[11:27] SPEAKER_04: Now, your listeners will say, okay, well, if you're harvesting it, how permanent is that?
[11:31] SPEAKER_04: Well, the actual macroeology that we harvest and eat or repurpose for other things,
[11:38] SPEAKER_04: that gets recycled. So that's not permanency sequestration.
[11:42] SPEAKER_04: However, there is a component as it grows will fall into the deep ocean.
[11:47] SPEAKER_04: Also, our plan in terms of supporting not just carbon neutrality, but a carbon negative in
[11:55] SPEAKER_04: that we're sinking carbon is to leave seaweed under production lines to offset any of the,
[12:02] SPEAKER_04: say, the energy we use as part of internal combustion engine or the trucks that take
[12:08] SPEAKER_04: our seaweed products to market, for example.
[12:11] SPEAKER_03: What I'd like to just delve into a little bit because we talked about the making of a seaweed farm,
[12:18] SPEAKER_03: but let's just talk a little bit about seaweed cultivation, the business.
[12:22] SPEAKER_03: What is the blueprint needed?
[12:24] SPEAKER_03: You know, starting with commercial access to waters, through to end product.
[12:29] SPEAKER_03: What, tell us a little bit about that blueprint.
[12:31] SPEAKER_04: Right. So there's some fundamental commonalities in whatever market vertical we end up being into.
[12:38] SPEAKER_04: Those commonalities are you need ocean access to ocean, pristine ocean waters that have a
[12:45] SPEAKER_04: minimal integration or interaction with, say, vessel traffic lanes.
[12:50] SPEAKER_04: So you need partners to deliver access permissions and regulatory to satisfy the regulators that
[12:58] SPEAKER_04: we're doing this in a way that's not going to tremendously negatively impact. We think clearly
[13:04] SPEAKER_04: the benefits outweigh the impacts, but anytime you're putting equipment in the water,
[13:09] SPEAKER_04: you do impact that ocean. So we're not blind to that. It's really important to understand that.
[13:15] SPEAKER_04: So access to water in British Columbia, in the British Columbia context, that's partnering with
[13:20] SPEAKER_04: First Nations. There's many, many, many more reasons for us to partner with First Nations,
[13:26] SPEAKER_04: then just gaining access to their territory. We strongly believe that a workforce,
[13:32] SPEAKER_04: a knowledgeable workforce that have been on the water and eating seaweed for millennia
[13:37] SPEAKER_04: are the perfect partners, business partners for Cascadia seaweed as we try and take this product to
[13:43] SPEAKER_04: world. Okay. So once you harvest it, you now see we just for your listeners, it grows on production
[13:53] SPEAKER_04: lines in the water. So horizontal lines, regular rope, that's hung between a float and an anchor.
[14:04] SPEAKER_04: We have to cultivate it so there's science involved. We have to take a seaweed,
[14:11] SPEAKER_04: reproductive tissue, bring it into a lab, into a big aquarium, and grow seaweed babies,
[14:16] SPEAKER_04: and then outplant them. That happens on a yearly cycle. So you have seaweed growing on the lines,
[14:23] SPEAKER_04: you go out and you're mechanically, you physically take it off the line and harvest it,
[14:29] SPEAKER_04: bring it to coastal zone near you, a shore jetty near you because it doesn't last that long once
[14:36] SPEAKER_04: you harvest it. Right. Ours. Okay. It starts to degrade and obviously we want the highest quality.
[14:40] SPEAKER_04: So then it has to be stabilized and we're using existing infrastructure. Yeah. We believe for
[14:46] SPEAKER_04: example in BC, the social licenses there for industrial use. And I have to, I can't stress
[14:54] SPEAKER_04: enough, it has to be industrial use in harmony with the environment in a positive approach.
[14:59] SPEAKER_04: That's clear from the lessons of the past, we can't avoid talking about that subject and we try
[15:04] SPEAKER_04: to be as transparent as we can about the impacts. So you have a processing seafood processing
[15:10] SPEAKER_04: facility that can take seaweed into their stream. It gets prepared, sorted. It will be, if it's
[15:20] SPEAKER_04: fresh frozen stream, then it will be frozen. If it is to be dried and powdered so that it enters
[15:27] SPEAKER_04: another food stream, either way, it is fine. It would go then to a value added, like a co-packed
[15:33] SPEAKER_04: facility where it would be transformed into something that's really tasty. I have to say,
[15:40] SPEAKER_04: if you have the opportunity to go out in a boat and pick some seaweed right out of the water and
[15:45] SPEAKER_04: eat it, you would be amazed. You might think, oh, this is a salty, slimy mess. Absolutely,
[15:51] SPEAKER_04: the opposite. It doesn't taste salty, it tastes green and lovely and crunchy, highly recommended.
[15:57] SPEAKER_04: So when you get the seaweed, then of course you have the product formulation. We expect to have,
[16:02] SPEAKER_04: oh, I don't know, 30 or 40 skews at the end of the day, as we attempt to realize our goal of
[16:09] SPEAKER_04: making seaweed a staple in North America, not just a delicacy or something that you might pick up
[16:16] SPEAKER_04: in the sushi counter at your local supermarket. So those are the mechanisms to get it. And once it's
[16:22] SPEAKER_04: prepared and stabilized, its distribution network will be like any other food distribution network.
[16:29] SPEAKER_04: The Roots of Market are all going to be the same. And how much do you imagine would be consumed
[16:35] SPEAKER_03: in the local community or the regional community versus exported? Well, if we make it a staple,
[16:41] SPEAKER_04: as in many countries it is now, South America, I'll point to Chile, seaweed is a staple. By the way,
[16:47] SPEAKER_04: lower uptake rates of COVID from countries that have seaweed in their diet for all its medicinal
[16:55] SPEAKER_04: and health and wellness purposes. If we are successful at delivering it as a staple in Canada or
[17:02] SPEAKER_04: North America, then it will be eaten by every community. The beauty is if you're talking about
[17:08] SPEAKER_04: hyper local food and we have seaweed farms, we have a network of seaweed farms up and down the coast,
[17:15] SPEAKER_04: then you should be able to gain access to it from your local producers. In the same way that you might
[17:19] SPEAKER_04: go to a local orchard to get apples that, you know, the 50 mile diet or the 100 mile diet,
[17:25] SPEAKER_04: it should be doable if we live next to the coast. To connect, a center for entrepreneurship and
[17:32] SPEAKER_01: innovation and lethbridge has been spring-blinged entrepreneurs to success for 10 years and counting.
[17:39] SPEAKER_01: Our spirit of innovation is a way of life. We have an incredible environment. Our innovators are
[17:45] SPEAKER_01: not afraid to stand apart because they know that in Lethbridge we are brighter together.
[17:51] SPEAKER_01: We are Lethbridge. Come and join us. Go to chooselethbridge.ca slash entrepreneur and we'll help you
[17:59] SPEAKER_03: move and grow in Lethbridge. Tell me a little bit, Bill, about why? I mean, you've done so much
[18:07] SPEAKER_03: groundwork, literally groundwork or seawork. You're like on, you know, prepping. You've got
[18:14] SPEAKER_03: R&D site. You have a test farm on the go, which was why I wanted to tap in your story, but what's
[18:20] SPEAKER_03: happening now? Right. So you were already at the growing, you're about to hit, pervist. Can you
[18:26] SPEAKER_03: tell me a little bit about what specifically is happening at the city? Yeah, I sure can. We realized
[18:31] SPEAKER_04: we had to be large out of the gate. So within in 2019, and I think we probably spoke in October of 2019,
[18:40] SPEAKER_04: we had we were just in the process of putting farms in the water. That was our first harvest. We
[18:46] SPEAKER_04: harvested 20 tons in the territories of the Euchachlis-it tribe government and the Hohweye. We harvested them
[18:52] SPEAKER_04: last year in 2020. We used that as an input to the development process. We have three food
[18:58] SPEAKER_04: developers right now preparing this delicious food for for market. We felt we had to be large
[19:06] SPEAKER_04: scale. So in so this year, well, sorry, 2020 last year, calendar year, we put 30 line kilometers
[19:17] SPEAKER_04: in the water. So we grew by fivefold. Wow. Those farms were put in that with an additional territory
[19:25] SPEAKER_04: of the Clahous First Nation in partnership and in and around muscle farms, by the way, because
[19:30] SPEAKER_04: integrated multi-trophic aquaculture is one way to support a more holistic view of the of ecosystem
[19:36] SPEAKER_04: and of the its impact on from aquaculture. So we have those firms and all firms reporting back
[19:44] SPEAKER_04: right now that the seaweed that was planted in late December and in early January is growing
[19:50] SPEAKER_04: very well. So our goal this year is our first commercial harvest. Some were about 150 tons,
[19:57] SPEAKER_04: which we will bring to to primary processing locally in British Columbia, local processors,
[20:06] SPEAKER_04: and then get it into co-packs probably on the lower mainland for direct to consumer availability
[20:12] SPEAKER_04: through a brand which we will launch in May. Stay tuned listeners. This is going to be it's going to be
[20:18] SPEAKER_03: great. I totally see another podcast coming. It went through there, right? Yeah. And that's amazing.
[20:24] SPEAKER_03: And I mean, we talked about some of the infrastructure. You said you're leveraging also things like
[20:28] SPEAKER_03: the food hub in a neighboring community. You know, leveraging existing infrastructure that
[20:34] SPEAKER_03: there as well as building and investing in some of your problems. This is a this is a transformative
[20:39] SPEAKER_04: industry and a and will provide a transition from from jobs that maybe had sunset. And I'm not naming
[20:49] SPEAKER_04: them specifically the industries in general on the coastal zone of BC want to make the investment
[20:55] SPEAKER_04: payoff in the long term, which means a greater attention to impacts on our environment.
[21:01] SPEAKER_04: But if there are industries that that are not going to be with us in the future and particularly
[21:07] SPEAKER_04: coastal industries, then seaweed agriculture provides a great transition to again jobs, high paying,
[21:15] SPEAKER_04: high value jobs in the long run where they can be considered green or more alignment with the
[21:22] SPEAKER_04: blue economy, which is a way that we can capture us more climate sustainability in coastal and marine
[21:29] SPEAKER_03: industries. That's a perfect segue into, you know, you're not only farming, you're and earned
[21:35] SPEAKER_03: in, but you're also knowledge sharing. And I mean, this is an amazing, you seem to be doing
[21:41] SPEAKER_03: everything all at once, but I see cascadiat community building actually training farmers doing events.
[21:50] SPEAKER_03: Tell me a little bit about why such a big focus as well on the knowledge sharing.
[21:57] SPEAKER_04: It's a it's a nascent industry and our view of the world is we have the opportunity,
[22:05] SPEAKER_04: as I said, we can't wait to change the world, but it won't be done by individuals or indeed by
[22:12] SPEAKER_04: individual corporations. It needs to be built as a sector. So a strong foundation for any
[22:19] SPEAKER_04: strict sector is in the knowledge base in which to do it. We talk about the knowledge economy
[22:25] SPEAKER_04: all the time. Well, there's a prime example. If you build a strong foundation built on quality
[22:30] SPEAKER_04: science and engineering mixed with marketing and sales in the new context in the gig economy,
[22:40] SPEAKER_04: we're leveraging all that to to say we do that found at a foundational level. And we're very,
[22:47] SPEAKER_04: very inclusive as an industry. We've spoken to every non-Asian seaweed producer. So all the g's
[22:55] SPEAKER_04: sevens, but the the Western European and North American seaweed producers. So it's not that many.
[23:05] SPEAKER_04: We've spoken to them all and we share all parts from as it's very few. So for example,
[23:13] SPEAKER_04: what's the best size of production line? And we can write to our friends on the East Coast and
[23:19] SPEAKER_04: say, well, what did you use? And they say, well, we use this or we use that or we use this firm design.
[23:25] SPEAKER_04: Those are the kinds of things that we need to share. Again, in order to drive this industry,
[23:31] SPEAKER_04: we need to do it at pace. And in order to do it at pace, we need extreme collaboration.
[23:36] SPEAKER_04: Gorilla collaboration, we call it because I love it. Yeah, because you really don't have a choice.
[23:42] SPEAKER_04: Our goal was to get seaweed farms in the water within six months. We did that.
[23:49] SPEAKER_04: It's really key that together we pool the knowledge. There's so much room. The market
[23:54] SPEAKER_04: demand. The market's been growing by six by eight to 14 percent globally. There are new products,
[24:00] SPEAKER_04: new ideas coming out every single day for the uses of seaweed. And I can go through the market
[24:07] SPEAKER_04: verticals that will give your listeners a chance to get a, oh my gosh, I didn't realize,
[24:12] SPEAKER_04: you know, seaweed could be used for that. That's a daily trend around our offices and we try
[24:18] SPEAKER_04: and spread the word. So there's plenty of room for competition. So I'm just going to touch on,
[24:25] SPEAKER_03: I think we'll go back to that question, but I'm just going to remind everybody again,
[24:28] SPEAKER_03: we're talking about how to use a seaweed farm to amplify your wealth, your community building,
[24:35] SPEAKER_03: and your personal longevity. So first of all, as an entrepreneur, you're inspired,
[24:42] SPEAKER_03: you imagine starting your own seaweed farm. What should they do? What's the pathway
[24:49] SPEAKER_03: for the actual private farmer or entrepreneur to do? Get involved.
[24:53] SPEAKER_04: Right. So if you can work for a seaweed farmer, if you're young and enthusiastic and want to go
[25:01] SPEAKER_04: from the ground up, if you're old and enthusiastic, you know, fill your boots, talk to local farmers,
[25:10] SPEAKER_04: maybe go to work for a local farmer if that was possible. And I say local, I mean community
[25:14] SPEAKER_04: farms. Here's the challenge though. I would not be encouraging a thousand one hectare firms
[25:24] SPEAKER_04: to come up on the coastal zone. I would be encouraging folks that if you're going to do it,
[25:28] SPEAKER_04: you have to think at the right scale and that's a firm that's really a minimum of five to ten
[25:35] SPEAKER_04: hectares. Okay. It will take you a long time to grow your business. So we're encouraging
[25:43] SPEAKER_04: definitely more entrepreneurs in the sector to fill the need. We're open to all kinds of
[25:50] SPEAKER_04: discussion. One of our one of our engineers here at Pasquedia, a phone a year ago and said,
[25:57] SPEAKER_04: I really want to be a seaweed farmer. I've been a marine engineer for a few years. And this is my
[26:03] SPEAKER_04: passion. And I said, well, he's asked me what the advice was. I said, well, he got a couple of choices.
[26:09] SPEAKER_04: You can go it alone and we will help you. But we will really want to work with entities that
[26:16] SPEAKER_04: are have visions to be larger and to support the sector build out. I said, or you can come to work for
[26:22] SPEAKER_04: us, learn the ropes on our dime and then, you know, branch out and do this on your own. If that's
[26:28] SPEAKER_04: what you really want to be, is that kind of an entrepreneur? And so for community builders,
[26:34] SPEAKER_03: right, the policymakers, maybe the public servants, the other stakeholder groups, what can they do
[26:41] SPEAKER_04: to embrace this unstoppable trend? Yeah, I would say a couple of things. I've just recently, over the
[26:49] SPEAKER_04: last few months, virtually met with just about every municipality on Vancouver Island. And inevitably,
[26:55] SPEAKER_04: the question comes, what can we do? So the first thing that you can do as an individual,
[27:01] SPEAKER_04: apart from the obvious, you know, make sure that your local town council are as amenable to growth
[27:07] SPEAKER_04: in businesses, are amenable to opening their minds to new forms of aquaculture that don't carry
[27:14] SPEAKER_04: perhaps the baggage of more traditional kinds of aquaculture. As an individual, the best thing you can
[27:22] SPEAKER_04: do is leave a healthy lifestyle with healthy eating to live longer so you can eat more seaweed.
[27:29] SPEAKER_03: I love that. I just got to explore that. Can we just have a quick spitfire? What are all of the
[27:38] SPEAKER_03: things that you imagine or that are actually being made by seaweed already as a consumer? Just spit
[27:44] SPEAKER_04: balling. Yeah. So start the food highest and best value. From a business perspective,
[27:50] SPEAKER_04: where after high margin, high volumes, if you can do it, so food. In order to do that, we have to
[27:56] SPEAKER_04: change the hearts and minds of individuals and their natural eating habits in North America.
[28:02] SPEAKER_04: Secondly, we're betting on a bovine feed. As a bovine feed supplement, we have the opportunity
[28:09] SPEAKER_04: for the triple planetary bottom line. As you grow seaweed in the coastal oceans, you will see
[28:16] SPEAKER_04: Quester carbon. If you're harvest and feed to cows, some species, you have the opportunity to
[28:24] SPEAKER_04: reduce enteric methane by up to 90% or 95%. You can eliminate it as a GHG if we do the kind of
[28:34] SPEAKER_04: investment in the engineering and the science and technologies to deliver that. The offshoot,
[28:40] SPEAKER_04: the collateral benefit is that when you feed seaweed to cows, science has shown that you can
[28:46] SPEAKER_04: also improve feed conversion ratio, some say by up to 30%. So that means when you add half a
[28:53] SPEAKER_04: percent of seaweed to a cow's diet, it changes the energy dynamics in the cow's biome.
[29:00] SPEAKER_04: You can reduce the amount of silage, maybe 30%, and water that you have to grow to feed the cow.
[29:06] SPEAKER_04: So there's your triple bottom line because we can then repurpose land instead of having to
[29:12] SPEAKER_04: grow it for silage, for cattle feed, we can grow it to support higher value crops that will be
[29:18] SPEAKER_04: more sustainable. Bioplastics, there are companies right now that are refining seaweed for sodium
[29:25] SPEAKER_04: alginate, which is a fundamental raw ingredient to the production of bioplastics. I mentioned
[29:32] SPEAKER_04: neutrosuticals. If we eat healthily, we will live longer, as I said, that's the main goals,
[29:39] SPEAKER_04: to have folks live longer from cascades perspective. We have the opportunity to supplement folks
[29:46] SPEAKER_04: diet with those that may not have access to healthy local produce, for example. What a stat I saw
[29:52] SPEAKER_04: was the other day was 5 grams of seaweed nutritionally is equivalent to a kilogram of vegetables.
[30:03] SPEAKER_04: Terrestrial vegetables. I'm not going to stand here and say that that's true. I thought it was an
[30:08] SPEAKER_04: interesting stat. So neutrosuticals. A cascadious, presently, bioprospecting because most of the
[30:15] SPEAKER_04: 630 species have never been analyzed that will live out that hang out our shores, have ever been
[30:20] SPEAKER_04: analyzed for the bioactive components. So we're bioprospecting as we deliver seaweed as a healthy
[30:28] SPEAKER_04: supplement. There are probably other compounds within the seaweed that if we unlock them,
[30:34] SPEAKER_04: we'll be able to deliver things like facoidin, as the name you might, your listeners may want to look
[30:41] SPEAKER_04: up. It is supposedly, for example, outpaste is remdesivir as a COVID-19. Those sorts of anecdotes
[30:50] SPEAKER_04: come to mind. One thing is clear, the nutritional value and the medicinal value of seaweed we have yet
[30:56] SPEAKER_04: to explore and really exploit. Again, it comes back to doing it in harmony with our planet and that's
[31:02] SPEAKER_04: a key thing. I heard that seaweed can be used to replace phosphates in detergent.
[31:10] SPEAKER_04: So, yes, so if that is indeed a vertical that could be represented by the raw products that we
[31:17] SPEAKER_04: produce, then we're actually supporting a ocean mitigation of the phosphates that end up in our
[31:25] SPEAKER_04: oceans because of land use and community and global people practice of cleaning things with
[31:32] SPEAKER_04: phosphates that eventually end up in the ocean and they don't really support a healthy ocean.
[31:38] SPEAKER_03: That's just a few of the verticals. Well, in some of those access to those verticals, and I guess
[31:43] SPEAKER_03: one privilege that we have in this day and age is, you know, our shopping is just as easily digital
[31:49] SPEAKER_03: and global as it is the corner store. So, as a consumer, if I decide I would like, I can't even
[31:56] SPEAKER_03: think of all those verticals, but I want to change up my, you know, my cleaning products in my home
[32:01] SPEAKER_03: and I want to have neutral suitables. What was the? The bonus pet to help me live a person in a longer
[32:14] SPEAKER_03: life as well as eating raw seafood. Can I buy from you online? Can I want to be a trend center?
[32:20] SPEAKER_04: How can we help? Stay tuned. Our Cascadia Sea, we will be launching a brand of seaweed for consumers
[32:31] SPEAKER_04: in May as part of a seaweed day is a global festival to celebrate the opportunity and the hope that
[32:37] SPEAKER_04: exists with seaweed cultivation. There are tremendous number of verticals. You can go to your
[32:44] SPEAKER_04: supermarket now. There's probably 10 to 12 products that you can buy. The vast majority come from
[32:52] SPEAKER_04: Asia. So, that's another thing is that we have an ability to disrupt the supply of seaweed. 8,000
[32:58] SPEAKER_04: tons in 2019, 8,000 tons of seaweed was imported into North America. We have the ability to change
[33:07] SPEAKER_04: that by a well-managed sector that that grows seaweed in the coastal zone. So, these are
[33:13] SPEAKER_04: kinds of things that can be done and you'll eventually you can go online now and buy seaweed snacks
[33:18] SPEAKER_04: and you can go to your local supermarket. Stay tuned for many, many more skews that are in favor of
[33:25] SPEAKER_04: a more North American generalized palate. It's not this slimy, salty green stuff that you expect.
[33:34] SPEAKER_04: It is really wholesome and by the way, if you need umami in your diet, if you want that sensation of
[33:40] SPEAKER_04: flavor, then nutritionally would go to MSG. Seaweed is a very natural source of umami. In fact,
[33:47] SPEAKER_04: the other one thing I didn't mention was body products. Whether you're talking about plant-based
[33:53] SPEAKER_04: collagen, which can effectively come from seaweed or you're talking about the only vegan source of
[33:59] SPEAKER_04: B12, which would be seaweed. So, those are things in folks that that live a healthy life and that turn
[34:08] SPEAKER_04: to veganism to support their personal goals. We're going to be providing products that will help you
[34:14] SPEAKER_04: with a variety of choices that allow you to maintain the diet and the lifestyle choices that
[34:19] SPEAKER_04: you're making and give you way more flexibility and perhaps even entice more folks because the choices
[34:26] SPEAKER_04: will be greater and the food sensations will be greater from more of a vegan approach to eating.
[34:32] SPEAKER_04: This will only help improve I think Canadian diets and North American diets and so we do have a
[34:39] SPEAKER_04: chance to change things and we're trying to take up that cudgel. Awesome. Bill, it is always a pleasure.
[34:45] SPEAKER_03: I am we're on the same path. I'd like to live to be 147. So, I've got another 100 years
[34:50] SPEAKER_03: ish in my belt. So, if this is one of those solutions, I look forward to it as well as helping build
[34:58] SPEAKER_03: the regional economy. I'm very excited about that. So, thanks for joining us again today on Canada's
[35:03] SPEAKER_03: podcast. You're welcome. Post podcast. How can we what's the best way to follow up with you? Would it be
[35:09] SPEAKER_04: on the website? Yeah, you can write to us at info at cascadiacwe.com. Follow us on Instagram and we tune
[35:18] SPEAKER_04: into all the social media channels and spread the word talk to your neighbors. This is something the
[35:25] SPEAKER_04: opportunity that we have to deliver. We can't wait to change the world. Awesome. Thanks Bill. Talk to you
[35:31] SPEAKER_01: again soon. Bye bye. Bold, vibrant, technological. In Let's Bridge, our spirit of innovation is more
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