SPEAKERS
Lourdes Gant, Larsen Mettler
Lourdes Gant 00:05
As a business owner of an aquaculture company, how can you take the first step to be profitable and sustainable at the same time? That’s what we’re going to be talking about in these episodes. Hello, and welcome to the business of agriculture podcast. This is the podcast for the Sustainable Business movement in the aquafarming and ocean ranching industries. This podcast aims to amplify the voices of entrepreneurs addressing the United Nation global goals, aka Sustainable Development Goals Number 14.
To conserve and sustainably use the oceans and the seas, listening to fellow business aquaculturists in their journey in this new model of food production, of making their business sustainable, and help the ecology of the oceans, while also making a profit all at the same time. Get inspired to learn how even small to medium businesses can make an impact, save the seas, leave a legacy, and have a better quality of life. One of our goals is to take away a nugget of wisdom that will help your business move from the industrial revolution to business 5.0. Our vision is that of collaboration in the aquaculture industry.
I’m Lourdes Gant your host. As an aquaculture business owner How do you tackle the balance in being profitable and sustainable at the same time? That’s what we’re going to be talking about in this episode. Welcome to Episode Six of the Business of Aquaculture. In this episode, we have Mr. Larson Mettler of S2GVentures.com.
Maybe, Larson, you can give a little bit more background of who you are. I just know that normally I would read the bio of the person interviewing but it’s so personal for me how I got to know you. And just to give our audience a little bit of background, I met Larsen through the Global Aquaculture Alliance where he was a guest. And then I contacted him through LinkedIn. And he was so generous and very much appreciative that I reached out to most high-level people at his position, normally don’t get back, but really appreciate that you are so very much friendly. So maybe give them a background on how you got into the aquaculture space.
Larsen Mettler 02:26
Sure. Thank you very much for having me. This is an honor to be here. And I’m happy to be talking to you today. My background started actually in investment banking out of school, and I started up a seafood-focused Investment Banking Group.
That was with KeyBanc Capital Markets. We started the year the big group focused on Alaska. Shortly after Magnuson Stevens where we saw there’s going to be consolidation in the industry. And then our work spread across North America, Europe, and Asia over a period of about 12 years. That group still running today by a gentleman named Tim Lennox in 2014.
I did a transaction for a salmon company called Silver Bay who is a bio harvester processor up in Alaska with fishermen ownership. And we brought in Dhawan and as minority partners, and then I joined the company. Two years later, as an investor and as their CFO. And we continue to grow that model substantially throughout Alaska in the West Coast, we’re really focused on maximizing the value of the fish and making sure that the fishermen and their interests are taken care of as well.
So it’s a great model that is a win for everybody, a well-managed resource, and a well-managed fishery. But I kept seeing Mother Nature throwing curveballs at us, as everyone knows, in Southeast Alaska that pink salmon runs have been in a dire state for a number of years now. Unfortunately, I believe it’s more of a longer-term systemic pattern due to ocean health. So you start looking at increasing ocean acidification, water temps, algae, blooms, things like that.
I thought that something needs to be done to really address the ecosystem to benefit both short-term and long-term fishermen in any environment. So as to G as an impact first venture capital firm. They built quite a track record on the Food and Ag side. And they wanted to launch ocean health and seafood fund that invests throughout the supply chain. So that’s what we’ve done. We’re $100 million funds. We’re a long-term investor, a 15-year fun life, which started in January.
So when we look at aquaculture, we really view that as the main future of seafood production and protecting ocean health going forward. So big opportunities and we’re excited about really the advancements in technology for promoting these businesses and scaling them. So that’s how we met. Yeah, yeah, it’s
Lourdes Gant 04:56
quite cool. Actually. I know that for a fact that when we started talking to you about you guys are really focusing, especially with the new things that are coming on board in terms of aquaculture technology. And that’s pretty exciting for everybody because there’s quite a bit of comparison of what the agriculture industry has done compared to our space of aquaculture. So it’s really exciting what’s coming on board nowadays. So maybe you can give us a little bit of background on what you think are the pros and cons in the aquaculture industry at the moment.
Larsen Mettler 05:30
I personally don’t believe there are too many cons to it, I just think that there are hurdles that are standing in the way to overcome those hurdles would include fee production, right? Obviously, people are focusing a lot on alternative proteins for a fee because they are based on a finite resource at this point. We think there’s a lot in genetics and vaccines that will be coming on board here shortly.
As well as your more precision farming, like you said, kind of what people doing, I’ve been doing on land for a long time and bringing it to the ocean, that would include your precision feeding systems, really having real-time management, reporting up systems, install things that will digitize a lot of this save people costs and be able to grow it quickly.
And then there’s also access to market, you know, finding a more efficient distribution system to the market and to the consumer to get the best value. So I don’t think there are downsides to it. I think there are hurdles, and the benefits are substantial. You know, it’s not just about getting food in people’s mouths, but it’s about promoting economies and communities. It’s also about restoring ocean health depends on what you’re you’re farming. I mean, some of these can have some pretty substantial impacts when you start looking at species that clean the water, whether it’s shellfish if it’s kelp, things like that, that are trapping carbon and promoting more biodiversity and marine life is beneficial.
Lourdes Gant 06:58
I know for a fact that you guys are focusing on Aqua tech. And nowadays there’s this for tech that’s happening to education technology, green technology, I think, which we’re all a part of medical technology. And of course, there’s FinTech as well. So maybe you can discuss some of the projects that you guys are going through recently along the same lines
Larsen Mettler 07:20
firm on the technology side. We’re currently looking at five projects, the first is in fishmeal in oil processing. So it’s a unique IP and patented technology that produces fishmeal and then oil with no waste. So you’re not dealing with stick water and things like that on the output. There is a satellite company that we have been looking at to battle illegal fishing.
So it’s the launch array of satellites, you can track dark vessels, when they turn off their AI is there’s a unique way that that’s done. And it works through clouds and things like that, too. So excited about that component. We have a therapeutic. That’s an RNA therapeutic for white spot syndrome and foreign trip that we’re looking at. We’re working with the company on AI and machine learning for feeding systems about biomass growth, and health and stress analytics. And then we’re also working with a novel solution for managing water quality, specifically dissolved oxygen levels and aquaculture. Those are a handful of them.
Lourdes Gant 08:26
That’s amazing. Oh, I can’t wait to have them come on board, especially the one on security because we’re always having to want to look about that. Because as we know, poaching in fisheries in agriculture has been rampant. So that will really change the game if we have this technology. So thank you for sharing all those.
Larsen Mettler 08:43
That one’s interesting too because you can buy the data from the company, right? They want satellites, you subscribe to it, you can pick it up, it finds a dark vessel and assigns unique identifier to it. And you can track it back to its pork. You can track it to the places delivering its seafood to so we’re pretty excited about that.
Lourdes Gant 09:03
Sounds good. And I know you mentioned hurdles instead of coins in the industry. Do you have any comments about the recent Netflix documentary of NC Spira? See, I know the actor will enjoy Of course.
Larsen Mettler 09:15
I think that there where there are pros and cons to that documentary. They brought up a lot of points that I think were valid, but maybe in very siloed sectors. And I spread that out to make it a broader application of the entire universe, which I don’t think was fair. I also don’t agree with the solution to all these being don’t eat seafood.
Right? I agree that there are problems, but there are alternatives that folks are working on to address these and improve them. So that’s the bad side of it. The good side of it is I think it gets people talking about these issues. So you can say hey, maybe it wasn’t particularly in the best light but I think it targeted a couple of points that will help people Talking, maybe bring more attention to it both at the consumer level at the government level and maybe at the investor level too, and in deploying capital and funding some of these projects.
Lourdes Gant 10:11
Yes, awareness is always good when people become aware of how there’s that problem. But there are also different solutions, not just one, I think that’s the biggest message with that. I’m going to give a little bit of background. As to GE, I know you mentioned quite a bit already, but I really love what I see when you guys put it out there, especially in your I guess collateral materials that S2G ventures believe a healthier food system is the under-recognized solution to critical global challenges like climate change, health care, and nutrition, food should be produced in a way that considers human and environmental health just as much a state and profit and they back trailblazing entrepreneurs with big ideas to help make that dream a reality.
Together, they are harnessing the power of Food Innovation to create better outcomes for people and the planet. It’s just, I guess, a statement on how you guys work? And is there background on how these come about? And I’m asking this question because there’s probably a really good story behind that. All those really good statements?
Larsen Mettler 11:22
I appreciate that. Yeah, I will say, first of all, it was written by one of our people, talented people, probably in marketing. So I cannot replicate it as eloquently as that. I think it’s just come from the long-term patterns that we’ve seen. In the food systems, right. There have been corporations that have been focused more on profit than they have on health. And I think the background is really just observing that the healthy, it seems like Mother Nature will take care of itself, right Mother Nature is it provides us with a lot of tools that we need, and we need to work in concert with it. It provides so many solutions that people are taking and reprocessing and it’s not being done in a healthier the right manner.
And there’s a tremendous amount of food waste, as well. And we think that it’s also created kind of these food deserts and disparity across the price system. So anything that we can do really to manage the growing population meets the needs of the healthy food system, and healthcare all at the same time is necessary. You know, I don’t think that there is a unique, distinct background of an event triggering it, but it really has been the longer-term trends that the company has been noticing. And it’s always
Lourdes Gant 12:38
great. And my last question, which is a good segue from what you just said, is, what are you seeing as the top three trends that are going to happen in the industry in the next 10 years?
Larsen Mettler 12:49
Good question. And the trends and it depends how far we dive down into him. But I believe we’re gonna see a tremendous uptake and see we agriculture, I think that people will start looking at the benefits of what those do for marine ecosystems, and also for the climate in general, hopefully, we do get a blue carbon credit system set up, and people can be rewarded for that.
I think that’s a wonderful way to take care of the environment for the earth. So that will be a big focus. I believe that cultivated meat will also be a big focus, you know, it’s a different way of production. That makes sense. But currently, it’s just very cost-prohibitive to do at scale. So I think that’ll develop over the next 10 years, and start to take a good market share seafood in general.
And then like you said before, I think precision agriculture will certainly be a component of that. And that’ll be driven by the food tech side, the understanding of the ocean better. So more like a data and IoT side where you have better weather predictions in the ocean, you understand where to select sites really driving down into that same way that we do on land, as well as the actual production part. So those are probably the top three, I’m sure there’s a lot that I’m not thinking about them.
Lourdes Gant 14:08
There’s amazing. Well, thank you so much for your time, and I really appreciate you my biggest takeaway from this episode is when you were talking about working in concert with Mother Nature. I think we forget how powerful Mother Nature is. And so go with the force, they say is very true.
Larsen Mettler 14:24
Absolutely.
Lourdes Gant 14:27
Thanks again Larson. For the next episode, we’ll have Mr. Brian Tsuyoshi Takeda of Uchinomics, who will talk to us about sustainable urban agriculture. Thanks again. Larsen. I really appreciate your time.
14:37
Thank you.
Lourdes Gant 14:38
Bye for now. Thank you for listening, and I hope you are inspired by this episode. Do take a moment and share this with your friends and colleagues and rate and review the podcast wherever you get your podcasts. I’d love to know what your biggest takeaway from this conversation has been? What are you going to do differently? Please share thoughts across social media and tag us for links and show notes for this episode, visit our website, www.sustainableaquaculture.ca/podcast. Thank you again. I hope you will join me on the next episode and together we can help create a better business in aquaculture.