SPEAKERS
Lourdes Gant, Jennifer Woodland
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 this episode. 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 Nations 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 ocean, 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 agriculture business owner, how do you tackle the balance between being able to run a sustainable business and being profitable at the same time, just like all our episodes for season one, that’s what we’re going to be talking about in this 14th episode. So listen in and I hope you enjoyed this episode.
If you listened to our last episode, I interviewed Terry Brooks, the managing director of Golden Sablefish. And he discussed how the aquaculture industry’s future trends are changing the way businesses are moving into new methods of farming. For this episode, welcome, Miss Jennifer Woodland. She is the CEO of NCN seafood LP and chairman of the Canadian aquaculture industry Alliance. Welcome to the show. Jennifer,
Jennifer Woodland 02:07
Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited. I’ve been listening to all your episodes, and it’s my favourite topic. So I’m very grateful to be included. Thank you.
Lourdes Gant 02:16
So grateful for your time, Jennifer has 20 years of agriculture experience and 15 years in management roles with demonstrated achievements in improving environmental performance, regulatory compliance, and obtaining third-party environmental certifications for agriculture companies. So thank you again for being with us today. Jennifer, let’s get this started. So how did you get into this industry?
Jennifer Woodland 02:42
I think you’re going to be more than 20 minutes, I grew up around fish. So I am originally from Newfoundland, my dad was part owner of a processing plant. And he also taught at Memorial University seafood processing technologies. So as a child, I was either at the processing plant, or you would find me at the beach going through tidal pools looking for marine creatures. But being around the plant, really imprinted on me, I observed really how valuable seafood was seeing how others viewed our resources and what we had to offer, the products that we were selling at our plant.
My dad sold them to Japan, and Japanese buyers would come and live with us for months at a time while they inspected the product and just how they spoke about the product, how they view the product and how valuable it was really just stuck in my mind just how valuable the resources we have here in Canada. But you know, I’m an environmentally minded person. And I kept thinking, how can we keep taking right from these resources? And are we taking too many and I always had these questions. So for me, I always knew I wanted to do something around the ocean.
I have a passion for marine biology. And then in my first year of university, the cod crisis happened. And that was a pivotal moment really, for me, caught is important to New Zealand. It’s a part of our culture. It’s a part of our identity. It used to be our currency. And I remember really clearly standing in front of the TV and watching John Crosby, then fisheries minister make an announcement that the cod fishery, something that was just a part of Newfoundland culture was over. And it really hasn’t returned that fishery in a meaningful way. And the fishermen were really beating down the door and people were crying. And it just, you know, you have those moments in your life the before and after. And I think we’ll do that with COVID.
Was that before COVID or after COVID? And for me at that moment, it was really before the cod moratorium and after the cod moratorium was such an impactful experience. And then during my undergraduate degree Memorial forethought started to offer a graduate programme in sustainable aquaculture and I thought growing seafood, farming food farming fish, of course, we can do that. We farmed pigs, we burned cows, we burned chickens, why not fish it so for me, it was a no brainer. I finished my biology degree.
I did the Graduate Programme. I’m in agriculture graduated in 1998. And I’ve been in the sector ever since. And agriculture is just one of those wonderful things that that’s why I got into it. But I’m still in it today because it offers so much to me as I’ve evolved as a person. I know when I look at when I first got into the industry was all about the environment and just saving wild fish by farming fish for people to eat. And I would often say we can’t sacrifice our environment for jobs, we just can’t, you know, and I still firmly believe that. But there’s something that needs to be recognized about the economic opportunity and the social opportunity that this industry presents.
And I had the opportunity in 2008, to return to Newfoundland and help the salmon farming sector develop for the rural south coast of Newfoundland. So there are 22 small communities called the coast of bass. And my husband and I went back to help the industry grow there. And when we got there, I mean, there’s just so much evidence of the cod moratorium still, there were empty fish plants, there was no new development, no new housing. Most of the men were away working in Alberta.
And as we started to grow the industry, those people started moving back, we started seeing new developments, we started seeing new houses going up new businesses, businesses were expanding, I would go out on my front door, and there would be strangers saying guys and scallops in a moose rose, thank you for what you’re doing. We really appreciate it. And it was incredible. And I remember I was getting my hair cut one time.
And the lady who owned the salon said, you know, for a year she was barely hanging on, people just got their hair cut, because it was a necessity. And now as a result of the agriculture industry growing in this region, people are getting their haircuts for fun, they’re getting colour, they’re getting extensions, and she was about to buy a tanning bed. And it was just as a mother at that point in time really kind of seeing the economic influence and the social influence of this industry had really opened my mind to the broader benefit of the industry.
And so I really wanted to come back to British Columbia and relive that experience for First Nations, I’ve spent a lot of my career working with First Nations communities, I want to be a participant in reconciliation. And I wanted to come back and kind of relive that with First Nations communities and work with First Nations to establish economic development and agriculture.
Lourdes Gant 07:22
That is quite amazing. Thank you for sharing that way with us. I love what you mentioned about fish being a currency. I came from a third world country before I immigrated to the Philippines. So I can totally feel how you know, resources in the community in the village play such an important role in the culture of our location. So that was quite something to get started 20 years ago. And here, you’re still the Trailblazer in this industry, because it’s still a new industry. And so it’s always good to talk to people who started early, and then how that evolved to where it’s going now. Which leads me to my second question in that span of time, what are the pros and cons that you’re seeing in the industry?
Jennifer Woodland 08:03
There are so many pros. I mean, agriculture is recognised globally. As a growth industry. It’s the fastest-growing food sector, right? It’s the demand for seafood is growing, our population is growing. And as our population is growing, so is the demand for food, we know that volumes of wild-caught seafood are not going to meet that demand, we really need to extract more value from our fisheries. But in terms of volume, we are going to get that volume from aquaculture.
There’s so much opportunity in kelp aquaculture, we’re seeing so much more plant-based diet or the nutritional punch that Cal holds as an additive to so many foods. Also as a classic alternative as an agriculture feed. There’s a real opportunity for substantial growth even within that sector. And it’s a good investment. Canada is a signatory to a high-level panel on sustainable ocean economy. This is an international multinational initiative that’s looking at the role of oceans and the role that oceans are going to play in sustainable development.
And I encourage people is a really interesting read and it’s called the sustainable ocean economy by 2050 approximating its benefits and costs. So that panel created this report. And it estimates that investment in ocean economic activity is going to have an economic net positive benefit ratio of five to one and increasing the sustainability of ocean source proteins by 10 to one so it has massive potential for Canada when you look at our coastline, it is a smart investment. And it’s a smart investment at a time when we need it.
Economic Recovery post-COVID and in areas we need it in rural and coastal communities. I mean really COVID is changed our world. And there’s such an emphasis on food security, food safety, healthy food, carbon reduction and the need for economic development. And at every turn agriculture is ticking all those boxes. So the Canadian farm sector is really the answer. And in so many aspects of my life, it ends up being the solution. It’s such a solution-oriented industry.
And really the opportunity that presents for First Nations and coastal communities for business development, and particularly with first nations leading the growth of the industry. I work for a First Nations company, and much of my career has been working with First Nations and sustainability is not what they do. It’s who they are. It’s ingrained in their culture. It’s ingrained in their being every decision that I want to make as a company, you know when I bet it through our shareholding nations, it’s based on our core values. It’s based on sustainability, and what impact will this have seven generations from now.
And over the past five years of working for Nutella, seafood, that’s one of the most remarkable things that I will take with me forever is not just looking ahead, you know, in business, you plan for five and 10 years, they look at hit 100 years. And it’s just remarkable to ensure that you’re having a positive impact 100 years from now, and not a negative impact. So as rights holders, First Nations should be leading the way in agricultural development. And we’re seeing more indigenous-led agriculture development and indigenous partnerships within the industry.
But Canada has decided as well, and there’s a lot of talk about this blue economy. And there’s a tremendous opportunity within the blue economy, the blue economy is a balance of conservation with economic development. It’s the state what they’ve written out when you look it up from what they presented, and they’re doing engagements on that right now. It’s about the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs, and ocean ecosystem health. I mean, to me, that’s also the definition of aquaculture, right.
And it’s also the definition of how First Nations manage their aquatic resources. And I mean, this is how first nations have always managed, I spoke to my mentor and president of our company, Larry Johnson, and we were talking about the blue economy, blue economy strategies, a blue economy, blue economy, that’s what first nations have always lived. And it’s remarkable that Canada now wants to take this on and how moving forward, there can be incredible growth in the seafood sector through this blue economy, and how agriculture is going to be a major contributor to that.
So I’m excited about that. And I encourage your listeners actually to visit seafood opportunity.ca and see the videos that the fisheries Council of Canada and the Canadian aquaculture industry Alliance collaborated to produce. So this is the commercial and the firm sector coming together to provide a strategy about what the blue economy can look like, pros careers.
I mean, there’s a pick for everybody in agriculture, I have yet to come up with a career that’s like, you want to be electrician, there’s a home for you in agriculture, you want to be a vet, a biologist, nutritionist, you want to feed fish you want like whatever it is construction, there’s a home for you in agriculture at every level at every education level. And you know, you can start from the ground up. It’s such an exciting opportunity for coastal communities and rural communities, in First Nations communities in Canada, that there’s a career for every culture.
Lourdes Gant 13:07
That’s fantastic. I love the way when you mentioned about sustainability being should be who we are not something that we do. And it’s very close to my heart. But as I was just talking about, there’s this course and curriculum that I’m developing and the three pillars of sustainability. And it’s not just ESG, as you know, but it’s like the leadership is like who we are, if some people in the sustainability sector has that integrity to be able to actually do what’s right, even though no one’s watching, then there’ll be no greenwashing.
So, it’s fascinating that you mentioned that. And you also mentioned investment, but because I just found out today, that Aqua spark in the cup, bought an Indian company for 9 million for seaweed and in partnership with a Singaporean company. So all these strides that are happening now are amazing in terms of development. But can you repeat the name of the report that you mentioned sustainable economics in 2050? What is it called?
Jennifer Woodland 14:02
Yes, so Canada is a signatory to this high-level panel on sustainable ocean economy. And the report is called a Sustainable Oceans Economy by 2050 approximating its benefits and costs.
Lourdes Gant 14:13
Perfect. So it’s Sustainable Ocean Economy 2050. So I’ll probably post a link or something so our audience can access that. But tell us the challenges. I know there are lots of opportunities, but of course, there are challenges that are just such as life.
Jennifer Woodland 14:30
Such as life, you know, the biggest challenge I see that’s been a challenge for agriculture development for many, many years is the uncertain regulatory framework and the just lack of a growth plan. So there’s an uncertain regulatory framework and this is not species-specific. This is for finfish, shellfish kelp. There is no aquaculture act. We are a misfit in the fisheries Act. The Canadian shellfish sanitation programme needs modernization it needs the enhanced capacity to encourage new entrants and Make it more feasible. And we need capacity development, regulations for kelp to help with the growth. We’re seeing enormous growth.
We have a government that doesn’t have enough resources to process the applications in a timely manner. You know, we don’t have a federal champion for seafood. And if anybody’s heard me speak at any other engagement, I talk a lot about this. Canada’s seafood sector has stagnated, particularly in agriculture. We are not taking advantage of the growth potential. Canada used to be the leader in seafood exports and the seafood leader.
We’re now eighth. And with our coastline To me, that is so disappointing. aquaculture globally is poised for growth and is growing, we have the largest coastline in the world, we need a national plan to promote the aquaculture sector and increase the value of what we have in fisheries. Having a plan gives confidence to investors and investment least innovation, innovation leads to growth, the demand for seafood continuing to rise, other jurisdictions are taking advantage.
So if you look at Norway, New Zealand, UK, they have multi-year government plans to increase jobs and grow the sector, we don’t have that if Canada doesn’t create a plan, we’re going to continue to stagnate. But that doesn’t take away the fact that the fish are going to be grown, it just won’t be grown by us. And other jurisdictions are going to take that opportunity and that market share away. So for example, if you look at agriculture, we have the CFDA, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and they regulate the agriculture industry.
But then we have Agra culture and agri-food Canada that promotes the industry and has supports for innovation and help competitiveness, you don’t have that seafood. We have DFO, who is identified as the regulator and the promoter, which is appropriate to regulate the industry. And we don’t have the same support system that other sectors have. And that’s where there’s an enormous opportunity, but it’s our biggest challenge. We just don’t have that federal support, we need a federal champion, especially if Canada is serious about taking advantage of a blue economy.
Lourdes Gant 17:09
Thank you. It’s such I think, a big cry about this having a regulation that specifically for agriculture, especially in Canada, because as you mentioned, even the word DFO is Department of Fisheries and Oceans, we need something that’s agriculture is specific. And you just brought the importance of having that. So thanks for those.
So my favourite question of all my questions is, what are the trends that you’re seeing in the agriculture industry? It’s so fascinating what comes up from this question, because at the end of my season when I’m actually going to summarise all of the trends in agriculture that all my guests mentioned, and so I’m so excited to hear what you have to say.
Jennifer Woodland 17:49
You know, there are exciting trends that are happening, what I’m seeing is just increased collaboration. You know, one example is First Nations participation in the sector. As rights holders and guardians of the ocean more and more first, nations are seizing this opportunity to develop economic opportunities in agriculture and to partner with companies. This is real and meaningful growth on how there’s really meaningful growth and how the industry has been working with First Nations.
When I started 20 years ago, one of my jobs was to do outreach to First Nations communities, and that was one person within a company. And now we see hold dedicated departments with First Nations individuals holding real key positions within these companies. And there’s a real commitment to undrip and honouring the rights of indigenous people. And the industry is moving towards more of ecosystem-based management and collaboration with First Nations.
It’s so important that because of the holistic nature of First Nations and the traditional knowledge that they can bring to the table that’s so valued by the industry. But then the industry holds the expertise and how to grow and how to farm fish. And there’s more and more interest among First Nations people to do enhancement activities in wild stocks. And so the knowledge that the industry has to assist in that area there, I just say collaboration is just going to continue and more and more of these partnerships and relationships.
And as we saw with the blue economy strategy by the fisheries Council of Canada and the Canadian aquaculture industry Alliance, we’re seeing increased collaboration between the commercial and firm sectors. I’m excited about that. I mean, my personal goal is to not discern between the sector’s but just create Canadian seafood. So I see that we’re on that trajectory. And I’m really excited about that trend. I think another trend we’re seeing is innovation.
I mean, the industry 20 years ago, even 10 years ago, has changed so much in the last 10 years. It’s incredible. And you hear a lot about adaptive management in agriculture. And you adapt to changing environments and changing regulations and the need for innovation. And I participated in a DFO Working Group on emerging technologies in the finfish sector a couple of years ago and we’re already seeing all those new technologies in the water today being trialled.
And this year recently, I participated in the BC aquaculture Innovation Awards. And that was phenomenal. I mean, so many innovators with brilliant minds coming up with some of these fantastic ideas for how to improve the quality of your shellfish, or how to enhance competitiveness and finfish or plastic alternatives using kelp.
You know, with the right federal support for this industry into innovation and investment into innovation. I can’t wait to see what this industry looks like 10 years from now. We’re really that’s like one of the most exciting trends for me. And we’re seeing a shift in consumer trends. This was happening pre COVID. My company on St. Jean smokehouse and canneries, or shelf-stable seafood producers, we do a lot of market research and invested heavily in ensuring COVID because we were seeing some of these trends before COVID.
And COVID just kind of accelerated a lot of what we were seeing from the consumers. People started cooking more at home, people are very conscious now of what they are buying. And consumers want healthy food. I mean, we spent the last year and a half talking about sickness and they want healthy food, low ingredient, healthy food, they want food sourced from Canada, Canada is a trusted food source.
Domestically, people are looking at it from food security but also by local initiative. They want easy to prepare food. There’s some consumer work that needs to happen understanding how easy it is to prepare seafood, I mean, you can put a fill-in fish in the oven with like lemon and salt. And it’s done in 20 minutes, you can’t get faster, more nutritious, and shellfish, literally put it in the pot with a drop of water. And in five minutes, you have a delicious healthy meal. So,
we fit the bill on that people want food with a low carbon footprint, we know we have a low carbon footprint, they want sustainable food, they want food they can access through e-commerce. And we’re seeing a big trend in how we even sell the fish and getting it delivered to the door. And shall staple food or frozen food people want. You know that pandemic effect where we saw empty shells still resonates today that people want to have that security of holding the, you know healthy food for their families and having access to it.
And right now there’s an opportunity for growth with domestic consumers. The Canadian Food guy says we should be eating one to two meals of seafood a week. We don’t do that. Right. So there’s so much opportunity for growth there with some consumer research and as well as consumer outreach on how easy healthy low carb and that we tick all these boxes that where consumers are shifting and how they buy their foods. seafood is a fit for that. So I really see as we do that research, the trend is going to continue for increased demand.
Lourdes Gant 22:46
Wow, you’re just a wealth of knowledge. I wish that my podcast is an hour. But that means I may have to talk to you again because I love hearing everything that you’re saying and sharing here. Thanks, Jennifer, I really appreciate your time.
My biggest takeaway from this session is wow, there are so many takeaways that I got from everything that you’ve said, but really mostly on how we can create a growth plan for the industry so that there’s a proper support system because I think that is really imperative to where in the Canadian aquaculture industry should be headed. And the way that you mentioned increased collaboration.
As I mentioned, my second pillar is a partnership. And that is really what this is all about. I mean, if we can be one voice for the agriculture industry, and I absolutely agree with you. It’s not just farmed or wild. It’s both are important in the economy. And so this increased collaboration will be like an ongoing trend in the next 10 years as well just to make it stronger.
And my last takeaway was when you mentioned the blue economy strategy after you read a paper It was amazing what you guys did do that in the videos that you have online. It’s amazing. I’m gonna put a link as well from the recording. Well, remember you helped build the home in the Philippines every time you listen to the podcast via the B one g one initiative, share the podcast with your friends and family who you think may benefit thank you again, Jennifer, I really appreciate your time.
Jennifer Woodland 24:18
Well, thank you so much for having us. My pleasure, happy to come.
Lourdes Gant 24:22
Bye for now.
Jennifer Woodland 24:23
Bye, take care.
Lourdes Gant 24:28
Thank you for listening, and I hope you are inspired by this episode. You 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?
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