I'm back I'm Charles Showalter you listening to the union as Labor start Radio thank you very much for tuning in we enjoy your company we like hanging out with you and we appreciate all the wonderful things Jew doing for your community folks don't forget go to our website w w w dot the union edged dot com sign up for our activist newsletter download a free app for your i Phone or your Android so you can listen his radio program anywhere in the world anytime really makes it kind of cool or well you know just take a look the really cool swag that we have on the Web site we appreciate that and we're excited to have you with us today joining us from the hill we have Sarah 1st Sarah welcome back thanks so much for having me we appreciate you being here a bomb scare exits are being felt in Senate battleground states. Do we actually have insurers simply just raising rates or do we have insurers point out completely or what what do we have so the combination of all the data that I looked at. For the most recent story actually look at all of them to leave the state and we've heard about some of the big players United Health. Leave changes but it's also a smaller and regional exchanges and the net result of that is that about $25.00 people across the country to go and he insure legal. At least multiple channels in at least one insurer leaving every town next year. Why. Why is it when it's still profitable I mean it's you know united in the rest of these multimedia state national insurers they're still doing very well for themselves. They may not have the profit margin it's. Within some of these areas but if you take them in totality across the state or across the country they're still doing pretty good yeah. Well it depends on who you're looking at a lot of the some of the bigger players like United haven't invested in the same way they haven't put in the resources they're not they're not looking at the they're not offering the same products that other companies are offering that are actually helping them to make money so some of these bigger companies have not trimmed down their offerings to actually get to a point where they can make a profit so that's what we're seeing in income combination with the enrollment not being as high as people thought they are sicker people than expected so all of this is sort of coming together and we're seeing answers just say you know this isn't worth it for us to go around we're going to be focusing on the markets where we are have already been seeing the financial success. Of the packages that are not profitable for some of these companies are they offering too many bells and whistles are they offering the the double double platinum plan or what are you that's a new one from a. Well so the companies that have been doing well on the exchanges there's one company called Malina these are plans that have specialized in Medicaid offerings before entering the Obamacare exchanges because they already knew how to cater to low income people who are lower income and can say you know maybe these are narrower networks maybe they're higher out of pocket costs but at least there's a plan that you can afford so that seems to be what definite are a lot of health experts right now so the trends are heading for some of these larger companies that's not where they decided to go and so they're deciding to drop out its entirety is that going to leave communities under served. Well there's on the map that is from Kaiser news. Cover health they have been putting out they've been tracking the number of insurers that say they're going to be leaving and there are a very large number of counties about one 3rd of counties in the United States are only going to have one insurer next year so that is a monopoly that is not good for health competition matter who's talking about this and so that's a big concern to be the 1st time that will really seen this in the 4 years that Obamacare has existed and what is the impact on the Senate races in those battleground states so we're just now starting to see Republicans take advantage of the bad news for Obamacare on the campaign trail we've entered that really crucial post Labor Day stretch ahead of the campaign and of a lawmaker is increasingly part of their ad campaigns as part of their stump speeches but they're introducing goals about in the House and the Senate bill the fact that the insurers are are leaving in the states that are also a very crucial battleground little the Senate and potentially the White House this is just you know there's there's new ammunition here for Republicans to be to be talking about the failures of this law which even some public health experts say they are we are seeing some bad news here that needs to be addressed by the next administration. Very interesting I'm thinking about Pennsylvania a battleground state the Senate race with Senator Toomey is definitely in question and but it seems to me that we've got a robot just. Affordable Care Act participation in this state m m I'm missing something here. So in large parts of Pennsylvania there will be only one of 2 insurers offered next year that doesn't mean that their arch parts of Pennsylvania that don't that aren't seem very competitive places but for the 1st time we're going to see Philadelphia only have one option is and that's echoed in other places like Charlotte North Carolina only one option so this is. You know with these these aren't that finalized there could be some last minute changes but right now this is how the picture looks for the fall all right I didn't realize that Philadelphia was going down the one option do you know offhand who that company is. I don't know Philadelphia specifically Ok I will try and find out and thank you I did not I did not realize that Philadelphia was going down to one option is very interesting indeed. Is there anything else that we should be taken away from this today sir. Well it just it really just shows. Yes it really raises questions about what the federal government and what Congress to do and whether they can work together to get insurance through this as an enticing opportunity for them and that is the question here is a lot of companies are going to be willing to the mix of the financial risks and whether they're going to didn't meet with the market places is sustainable and viable for the long term which there's always politics involved in this is the leaders of the House and Senate and of the White House know it's not worth it and we're you know we're we're not going to the students are continuing and this is going to be a massive shake up. Well there you go Sarah thank you very much for being with us today thank you for helping us understand this a little bit better how do we find out more about you and what you do for the help . Of that story out today on this it's at the Shell dot com and also on Twitter Sarah Farris you can read neither And if you include us at that you know jewelry tweeted for you and we'll talk again soon Ok All right thanks so much thank you we appreciate it there was a surfer of the hill talking about the Affordable Care Act in the insurance companies backing out of. Their involvement in oftentimes leaving it down to wine play or in some of these communities which turns it into a monopoly. And you know I got to tell you I would not be surprised to find out that in some places the insurance companies are being you know they're they're losing money. And that's why they're point out but they're making a lot of money in other places too south can even doubt me n. If you let it but that's another story meantime I'm sure will show alter You're listening to the union edge of Labor's talk radio let's get America working we must build maintain and repair our nation's crumbling infrastructure. Teamsters support a bipartisan approach to creating good jobs for American workers learn more and let's get America working dot com Teamsters strong America stronger. Looking back I'm chilled Showalter You're listening to the union and Labor's Talk Radio thank you very much for tuning in and we appreciate you hanging out with this for me afternoon that's for sure folks don't forget go to our Web site. That you know edged dot com sign up for our activists newsletter download the free app for your i Phone or your Android and don't forget if you are in the Grand Rapids area September 23rd between it's a Friday between $5.00 and $7.00 at Teamsters hall for 06 we're having a get together Union edge cut to the chase radio in many others we're all getting together or talking about radio what we should be doing and. That's a front so we're If you're in the Grand Rapids area Teamsters all looking for 06 if you're in Lansing the so to Labor Council is putting together a boss get ahold of the folks at the Lansing Michigan Central Labor Council to get you on the bus and well there you go can't be done with a cent now came. Right now we're talking with Carmen Rojas she is the c.e.o. Of the workers lab Carmen welcome Union edge thank you so much for having me thank you very much for being with us today we appreciate that tell us a little bit about the workers lab what you guys do and I understand that you've got a new app to help get it done. So we are a that really a lab we are a place where we experiment with ways to build power for working people in the 21st century economy were founded by the Service Employees International Union really. Not all of the different ways that working people can have a greater voice greater mobility and greater power in the workplace above and beyond collective bargaining So what we can do is both how. Actual experiments so what are apt work or report is a great example of that to try and test the ways that technology or that new forms of organizing our new ways of organizing our economy can be helpful to increasing powerful where these people are out of work and report really came out of a set of conversations that we started having with cities across the country who were passing minimum wage laws that were struggling with the enforcement of those laws and we were interested in trying. Figure out how technology could be helpful in. Getting data the whole is experiencing in ways that and how that they think violations in the workplace how can we better understand how to connect those workers to the set of services both legal representative of and government services that can help. Fight back. And in trying to figure out how more broadly technology it is and it isn't helpful when we're talking about low wage workers we experience a great level of vulnerability and exposure to weight and husband safety violations in the workplace. It sounds to me like you get your hands full on God bless you for you know grabbing hold of both ends of that snake at the same time you know I think I think to myself. That there are so many things that are wrong that go on in the average workplace outside of a unionized workplace we're outside of a unionized industry even just the industry being unionized is a big help a lot of times. So I'm thinking to myself you're trying to reach out to people all across the country and say hey you know what are you experiencing and you're trying to qualify that and quantify that and get that information out to others so when you get something that works in beating it back everybody else can learn about it and do the same thing utilize perhaps some of the same tactics. To be to back in your community right that's right and it's also the other side by grabbing both ends of the snake I also want to make sure that as technology is becoming sort of more ubiquitous Is this like the saying that in our everyday life that we understand the limits of use and the limits and the opportunities of using technology to increase workers' visibility and increase worker voices so this is an opportunity for us to understand in this particular area of wage theft and health effects safety violations. How technology can be helpful and cannot be helpful when trying to resolve issues of friendly enforcement and I like a lot of what we're learning is that. At the end of the day a lot of the cities counties and states that there was possible for us sourcing health and safety laws are extremely under-resourced. Find it and you know I find it really difficult so for me the question is Ok so can technology be helpful can can take knotting accident even a bit of a bridge to help address some of these issues when you only have to inspect Texas has to OSHA and specters for the entire state is right right you know and and that's why you have things like West Texas happening and exactly right and there but for the grace of God It didn't take out all the kids in town because it happened at night when it blew up right next to the elementary school that's right you know so Carmen my. You know my thought is you know I'm an old fashioned kind of guy I'm on a radio program we're on in 30 different markets every week you know so it's it's a kind of thing where this is one way of getting the word out do you keep any statistical data on what you're finding because you know as well as I do you're going to have people out there saying Well taxes has people out there checking on these sites every day what they don't tell you what they don't tell you is of got to people that you know that's exactly right you know so what we are hoping to do is one collecting data on hotspots those places so we're testing worker report in 3 cities and in Santa Clara County silos a California in Oakland California and in Seattle Why. Seems we have 3 The partner organizations that are helping us both get the job out as well as working to make sure that the workers we have issues are getting responded to what we want to be able to know is do what you're describing one Identify hot spot in a specific place so we don't know in Oakland and so I asked of the fact whether or not 5 has the highest incidence of health and safety violations or hospitality that we have no idea and it's all. Retrospective data and what we want to be able to do is offer real time data on the ng the street is a sectors that are the greatest violators to push for greater regulation of those industries and. We also want to know whether or not workers will use a technology like this. To actually address their issues you know I Heidi I think that we have. Again we we are experimenting and I am really excited about work the report but I also believe like you mentioned like Imo schools 1st and then that I believe like one the was organizing also is very helpful to it and can't be disconnected from whatever we do if you're absolutely right in Carmen I'm an old dog organizer and I have been organizing thank God for many many many years and I got to say this. Is not there's not one single tool that gets it all done but when you use a number of tools and you use them together and use them fact of Lee in conjunction with each other there my goodness there are there are very few things that a dedicated group of organizers can not affect right and so I think that that's right so it. Here's what I want to do I mean we got about 4 minutes left but . In this is we're just barely scratching the tip of the iceberg on this one because this is this I believe is an awesome thing my God is yes if it works people will use it people will tell their friends about it more people will download it more people will use it you will get more and better information and that cycle will just continue to feed itself in and this is a great thing. Mike My question to you is how do we get the app how do we find out more what's your Web site sure so our website for the workers lab is w w w dot the workers lab worker plural come and then for good reports I think go on to your. Store and it is both. Apple and Google Android friendly and download work to report we are even though we are testing the app and 3 cities we are collecting data from across the country really to China and validate whether or not people are downloading them that app and what of it is shoes that people are reporting so I really encourage people to go on to their app store their phone and download that happen check it out and give us feedback you can e-mail us at info at the workers Lab dot org dot com sorry and if you have any feedback questions about that we need to send them to us because this is a nuance in the way that it gets better is by having seen back on it right and Carmen see. Here's what I want to say I this is I think this is good tech I think this is a good thing we want to help. We want to get the word out we want to help get more a people to download the app I'm going to have talk to Britney because I need help . But you know where I'm going to find a teenager Ok you know but the long and short of this is this is the kind of thing that you know this is one it's a great tool to I think people are going to use it 3 if they use it and you're starting to get really good data you know that just blows those old conver you know those old arguments out there well we don't need to have unions because we've got OSHA we've got em sure we've got the a.f.l. Are a half hour. Well in the meantime some of our Republican friends have been undercutting and defunding all of those great organizations as rapidly as they possibly can that's exactly right yeah so yeah we want to be able to make the case that workers are experiencing every day a level of exposure and vulnerability and especially low wage workers that is unfair accidents and that we actually need to double down on investment intuitionism a 4th letter and this is organizing We want to make sure that workers. Have power and ways in the 21st century workplace and this is one of the things that we are investing in in order to make that happen so you find I am signing you but you sign me up to me favor stay on the line is we transition to break give us a Web site one more time it's in w w w the workers Lab dot com The tablets but you know. Yes I think b.n. B.n. Listen stand a line I'll be with you no 2nd I'm Charles show alter You're listening to the union edge Labor's Tanya. Just a great. Way to educate yourself. To the. Welcome back I'm sure I'm sure Walter you're listening to the Union Address Labor's Talk Radio thank you very much for tuning in we enjoy your company we like hanging out with you and we appreciate all the wonderful things that you're doing for your community hey folks don't forget go to our website. That union Edge dot com sign up for their act of his newsletter download the free app for your i Phone or your Android and well you can take a look at the really cool swag that we have on the website we appreciate it very much. Right now we're talking with Greg Santana he is with the Asian Pacific American labor Greg I did it again. Like. I always get there wrong but welcome back how you don't. Get thank you so much for having me Always a pleasure always a pleasure So Greg what do you guys up to I know that you know the election season is going on. You know I'm sure that you and many of your staff are out whipping up the troops getting people registered to vote and all that kind of stuff but what's going on. Absolutely absolutely yes why don't we start with our election work Apollo has been doing election work since we were founded more than 20 years ago and this year we're focusing our efforts in the data Virginia Pennsylvania and targeted races and California Washington and New York you know we have a campaign called every vote counts we work to get folks registered educated out to vote and make sure that they have the resources through Election Day And so we've been really ramping up specially post Labor Day and we look forward to really going from the being marginalized to the margin of victory which is what we're seeing now is a growing and booming Asian American approach to the Condor population absolutely let me let me ask you this Asian population here Asian Pacific population in the United States what's the percentage. So we're we're about a little over 6 percent that 7 percent were the numbers are about $18000000.00 and rising and you know especially if you're looking at states like Nevada as an example that actually is the state with the largest growth since the 2010 census the Asian American and Pacific Islander population actually grew 110 percent the most in any other state Wow And so you know so when we're thinking about battleground states and we're thinking about the presidential and even the the Senate seat that Senator Reid is vacating there are you know there are a lot of opportunities to not only engage our communities but to to make sure that you know that the Democratic party and candidate that really care about our issues can really see share of support from our communities yes absolutely Reagan I am absolutely surprises Nevada is there has that kind of growth with the Asian Pacific population was what was the emphasis for them. You know I think there's a lot of different reasons I think one you know. It's very Las Vegas is Las Vegas. And Reno are challenging and that and I think people are familiar and when people immigrating come come to the place where I think people are automatically attracted to there's also lots of labor right I mean right at the Las Vegas the big town and you know there are a lot of there are a lot of not only job of the good union jobs where people are able to really provide for their families and so I'm sure that's an a and the there factor as well and many people are also drawn to our family that so especially when you're thinking about Filipino and Chinese communities which are the largest communities of Asian American community in Las Vegas Nevada then you know you are drawn to where your people are at and so I think that also what what's kind of contributed to that Greg was a Donald Trump. No idea I don't think so but I just had to toss that one out there after so let me ask you a question great was some of the other immigrant communities here in the United States we have many of our friends who come here there was full there we go they've got all the documentation they've been in the United States have been working paying taxes there wasn't even a permanent residence. But they just haven't quite gotten around to naturalizing is power working on naturalizing those individuals that are union members that are eligible for naturalization. That is such a great question Has I'm really happy you asked that because that's actually a core component of our work we've actually identified. The key naturalization ceremony that are happening in that of Virginia Pennsylvania and other parts in our recruiting volunteers to actually work to get folks registered. After the naturalization Samaras what we're actually seeing is that there's hundreds and hundreds of people but but literally not as many volunteers out there working to get folks ready but I probably have moment where people are probably most likely to register is right after they finished the naturalization process and so we've seen not only as an American sentiment under is but at the very diverse that the folks as well and I know that there are some unions including the u. Of c. W. Unite here and some others who have actually really prioritized this not only for their members the for the broader community as well right you know. It's kind of strange for me as as a as an American is an Irishman as somebody who has worked for the Immigration Naturalization Service you get people that have come to the United States and they've done everything the right way in their work and here in their living here they're married they've got kids that are born here and then they've got a mortgage and a car payment no as I was and they don't naturalized and I'm thinking to myself you know folks you are doing everything else a citizen is doing you know you're you're paying all the bills why not just take that step and in you know take the greatest gift that the United States has to offer citizenship and go ahead naturalized I mean it's not that rough I mean if I if I could pass a test anybody can. Right and that's that's a fair point child and I think one thing that we've learned is that what we have to remind ourselves that many of these immigrants and even refugees who come from other countries have varying experiences with their government and so you know some cases literally governments have been telling people or they're going to wars or whatnot so I think part of the education and part of our work is actually letting people know that it's Ok things are just you know things are the way government works and different here in the u.s. And we actually do encourage you to vote if you are eligible and this is why these are the connections so it's actually you know which is why it's important for organizations like a Polish other community based organizations to really dig in on voter engagement in the contagion work is because there are some nuances and different layers that that need to be addressed as well Greg you know I got to tell you I am so glad that the effort will say Oh it has a policy to it and and other constituency groups through to reach out in the community union union soon to be union and you're giving in there and your own up your sleeves and you're getting it done for all of our friends are out there union or not in it's a wonderful thing to say great I got to ask you how do we find out more about a policy. Yes yes there are a couple different ways you can visit our Actually our newly revamped and redone Web site at w w w a poly 88 l a n e t that Oracle pollen that org Or you can catch serving San Diego from high atop monument peak in the Laguna mountains this is Cayenne s.j. Where you can hear talk of the town with Mikey Geary Monday through Friday from 8 to 9 am and reporter 5 pm it's an insightful program about what our country needs to be doing to get back on track it's informative educational and even funny a topic that's Talk of the town here on k n s p Descanso 89 point one f.m. And streaming live online it k. And I stayed auto org. For. This is sea change radio covering the shift to sustainability Alex wise. You're buying tuna How do you know what you're getting let alone how it was caught when it was caught where it was caught who caught it and how they were treated how much they were paid for that I mean all of that stuff once that becomes a mystery then it's just your There's openings for the miserable treatment of the ocean and the fisheries. As more of us are becoming aware of the dark side of the seafood industry the locavore revolution has been moving full throttle into seafood this week on sea change radio we hear from Kirk Lombard the founder of a community supported fishery or c.s.f. Called Sea forage or we learn about the ins and outs of his business the challenges facing smaller players swimming with the sharks of industry and why Lombard and other c.s.f. Hope to attract good citizens rather than just typical consumers. I'm joined now in Seachange radio by Kirk Lombard he is the founder of sea foragers Seafood Company Kirk welcome to sea change Radio thanks for having me out so for our listeners want to you 1st explain how c. Forger works Ok well it operates along the lines of sort of like a produce box c.s.a. Delivery people sign up online for a minimum of I think for deliveries they pay a set rate and then I choose. Based on what I think is most sustainable option plus what's the freshest so and then I provide that seafood I deliver to various drop locations and also door to door service if it's requested if it's in San Francisco we can do that. So what gave you the idea for this are there other c.s.s. C.s.f. Surrounding country to do this oh yeah yeah it's a I think a growing trend happily. A few a few other competitors in the Bay Area but when you look at how many different seafood companies there are I mean there are dozens in California. There are way fewer people who define themselves as c s F's or fish delivery packages and and so there's less competition which is one of the reasons that I was interested in doing it just on a business level the weight the way I see forger started is that I do walking tours where I very fishy sort of fish centric seafood he salty walking to as I take people around various neighborhoods and on a coastline and I teach them about the sea weeds to grow their monkey face eels live under the rocks and we practice how to how to cast how to throw casting nets so people can catch their own small fish. Using the Hawaiian casting net technique and I again mystify that because there's a lot of different people who teach how to do that online and I have the simplest way to do it and the most effective so I teach people how to to go out and get stuff and I was doing these tours for a couple of years and I just started to notice that. At the end of the tour I get a lot of people. Who would ask me that say hey so if I can't go out and throw casting and catch my own herring or I don't have time to go out and catch a perch on the on the coastline here or go fishing for stripers or whatever how do I get something that I know is fresh and sustainable so I was pointing them in various directions and just throwing a lot of business at various other. Really the recently one or 2 different companies that I was really throwing people towards And I just decided Well since there has been a question why don't I provide the seafood in with the the. Contacts that I've made in the seafood world over the last 20 years I've been able to do that so yeah that's how it how it happened take us back to that 20 year period a little bit give us a little bit of background you have a very interesting past. It's a it's a hard one because I've I've worn a lot of different hats so it was just I've done a lot of different jobs over the years and but the one thing that I always have done is a voice fish mostly recreationally and I've always just been in love with being out on the water and or just along the shoreline as it were most of the fishing that I actually do is shore based so like the things things that I write about in my book . The most are things like monkey face eels and night smelt and surf smelt and. Fishing from some of the peers in the Bay Area and that's all that's always been sort of my you know my focus. And yes so. As many different jobs and careers as I had over the years the one thing that I always have done is been connected to the ocean in some way or another. And so I just decided at a certain point to. To commit to to a life in seafood I'm a true. Tarion in the in the old Mr Flood that I'm making an obscure reference to a 2 a book by Joseph Mitchell who has a wonderful wonderful take on American Seafood in the 1930 s. You can you can read about in a book called up in the old hotel but he has a piece called Old Mr Flood which describes a person who's just passionate about seafood and old Mr Flood refers to himself as a seafood a Tarion And so that's how I refer to myself and what is the problem with being a seafood Terry and in today's marketplace if you're not a conscious consumer in terms of what you're putting in your body and what you're doing in terms of supporting some of these less the stain of all businesses why we want to you explain how your business is kind of a reaction to some of the market inequities in inefficiencies if you don't have a conscience and you don't have a problem you know you can go do anything but I but if you do have a conscience and you know you're concerned about the plight of the. Of the oceans and the sea food resources you know there's some very practical things that you can do so what is the flip side of your business you know people who actually are conscious about seafood are your consumers but 99 percent of people don't even think about where their seafood comes from why should they one thing I just always not ever felt like I like it's productive to tell people what they should do so I do what I do and if that appeals to people Hey I'm more than happy to provide seafood and what I do is I always have the name of the boat I know when the fish was landed I give details to my customers about how those fish were landed I'm into the story I'm into people knowing that what we provide on a weekly basis depends on a lot of factors it depends on the skill of the guy going out and getting those fish it depends on how big the swell is it depends on what is migrating and what is available and what quotas have been reached all of that stuff. If you're not attuned to that then you just you come to think that it's just always there and the problematics seafood as I see it is the stuff that's just always there so a major component of what we do is trick is to try to is to educate and you know people don't sign up for c forger unless they're open for open to that you know I ever now and then I get somebody who writes me an email saying hey you know I could have gotten such and such a fish for half of what you're charging and then I say Well 1st of all how do you know that such and such a fish is even the species that you're buying the New York Times did a study well with it was either 40 or 60 percent of all American Seafood is mislabeled to the species level it's at that is just insane So you're buying and you're buying tuna how the hell do you know what you're getting anyway so let alone how it was caught when it was caught where it was caught who caught it and how they were treated how much they were paid for that I mean all of that stuff. Once that becomes a mystery then it's just there's openings for you know the miserable treatment of the ocean and the fisheries I try to take that mystery out and the people who are part of that as well are down and down the whole supply chain there's a lot of misery there as well we've chronicled some of the work in Southeast Asia Oh man have you ever seen a man of my tours or one of my talks I met a guy who was working on a film it was called. It's a really darkly humorous title it was called grinding NEEMO no more. So if you're haven't a really bad day do not go and see this movie if you're having a really good day and you just think that you're you're flying too high and you want to bring yourself down a couple of notches go watch grinding memo which is all about the shrimp industry I guess and I don't want to say the wrong country as it was in Tunisia or something and how they've they've depopulated the coastal resource to the extent that the only fish left to feed the shrimp in the in the coastal destroying shrimp farms that are being built the only fish left are the like the clown fish like NEEMO so they put these drag boats that drag over the tops of these coral reefs and destroy the reefs and then they catch these little tiny fish and then they grind them into fish meal to feed the shrimp that are in the shrimp ponds that are destroying the coastal ecosystems so it's and they're employing slave labor to do this now you don't need to watch the movie but you should check it out anyway because it really with really impress you. Are going to. Go along with. How grandma. Is. With. Grandma. Told month. To listen to see change radio anytime any place just subscribe to our free podcast simply follow the link from sea change Radio dot com or search for us in the i Tunes podcast directory. This is Alex wise on sea change radio speaking to the founder of sea foragers Seafood Company Kirk Lombard So Kurt when you walk a potential customer a listener through the process if they were going to go on to see forger dot com and sign up right so you go to see forger dot com and you see there's like 2. Possible avenues of your web surfing as you get there so you can you can click on the thing that there's an icon shows me doing 2 words you can take one of my walking tours around the area and I'll go over the basics of fishing and forging the California coast the northern California coast or you can click on seafood and if you click on seafood then you go to a link and it is all about sea forgers seafood and it's sort of tells you what our governing principles are and why we're doing what we do and you look at the drop locations I mean I'm thinking if I was a customer 1st thing I would do is I'd say Ok so these guys do fish drop offs around the Bay Area so are they in my neighborhood so then you look up we have about 30 different I think even more than 35 different locations South Bay San Francisco in East Bay and you look up Ok so I live in Glen Park Well there's a Glen Park pick up on Wednesdays and what you do is you sign up then for what you want or you wouldn't adventurist seafood eater and you're you're willing to take pretty much anything out of the ocean which could be oysters could be clams it could be squid it could be small fish or it could just be a fillet every now and then if that's what you're what you're well suited to what you like then you sign up for what's called the Neptunes delight order. I think it's a minimum of 4 and you sign up for and every week you will go to that location and pick up your order the other option which I didn't mention is called the slab order and that's just a filet So you've got 2 options Neptune's the light which could be anything out of the ocean and the slab which is just a fillet every week and and it's packed in ice and it's put in a cooler in the cooler goes you know in someone's porch or in the back of a cafe or something like this or at your work location we have a few a few coolers around town in and businesses and so yes so that you show up and you open the cooler and you look inside and there is a package with your name on it and you take it and you put it in a bag and you get quickly home put it in a fridge rater and then eat it and sometimes you put it some type of instructions as well that for example if you're getting muscles that might be some kind of recipe Oh there's a whole back story that which I'm sure my wife Camilla will chastise me for not mentioning but of course we provide for everything that we that we send out we provide. Details about how it was caught where it was caught status of the fishery if you want that information and then Camilla provides recipes and then our customers also send in recipes and photographs of their work people who who they're cool unary skill I should say and people who send nice nice pictures of. What they did with the seafood we provide to get a little special treats like aprons and baseball caps I was curious how you find people to participate in the drop off system how does that work a large percentage of my customers are just people who took my tour and then lately we're getting a lot of people. Through the book my book that was published in. September 26th and so that's how we're getting a lot but I also do like I do speaking events and I do dinners where I provide all the seafood and I get up and I talk about it and and then my wife contacts like neighborhood groups and. You know we we just have a lot of a lot of contacts a lot of word of mouth We have flyers that go out you know our in our bags that say hey if you if you sign up x. Amount of people you get a free order or whatever. So we have all of that sort of promotional stuff and it's just been incredible how it's grown so do they get some kind of discount on their monthly subscription if they agree to be a drop off location Yeah absolutely if someone wants to be a drop off location as long as they can get 10 sign ups then we give them a free order every other week and you explained how one of your customers or potential customers complained a little bit about the price being more expensive than Liff they went down to Safeway in order to you know I got a piece of fish so how does a safe We keep their prices so low do they really I think fish is pretty expensive around the board Yeah relatives are cheaper than me how can a can of tuna be $0.50 or whatever right I suspect that the reason for that is simply that the the fish are caught in huge volume and then whoever bought those fish and actually paid pennies on the dollar for my let me just give you the case of sand dabs Ok so last year most of the stand ups that I sold were coming from one guy Hi David. Out of Monterey who would go out and he would catch the sand hook in line Ok so he's he's dropping a line down to the bottom with a fishing real mechanized fishing real or whatever but you know a fishing real nonetheless looking line. And the sand abs and all of these sent up I mean how big is the sound of a big one is what 10 inches you know and maybe a quarter of a pound in weight so imagine this that guy has to go out all day long and catch those sand abs and on a good day he's going to catch 350 pounds on a really good day and that's a lot of work and he did you know 12 hours to get those $350.00 pounds of sand abs now if I'm going to pay him the same amount for his sand that. The big drag boat gets for its sand ebbs when it's catching $20000.00 pounds in a day or whatever it catches I don't even know that total because I don't I don't buy those if I pay that guy the same price then he just made you know you can do the math there but it's like what $100.00 or something to go work for 12 hours and pay for his gas and his pay and his tackle and maybe he lost a couple of lines I mean so so I have to pay that fisherman what $10.00 times what the going rate for those fish are and even then. Even in my in my book it's not enough I'd like him to make more but I have to if I'm doing his business I also have to make a margin so that's how I I can illustrate the difference. Follow the shift to sustainability with sea change radio on Twitter at twitter dot com slash Seachange radio and on our Facebook page this is Alex wise on sea change radio I'm speaking to the founder of c 4 a jersey food company Kirk Lombard So Kurt I mean Trista do it also and this guy who's fishing for sand dabs does he have other customers who else is he selling to besides other industry other businesses like yourself to my competitor Ok but my competitors also honestly he's my friend. So he sells to real good fish which is. My competitor they operate a little smaller salvage southerly than I do we're see forger and he sells to whoever the hell is going to pay the most 1st fish which is what he should do the fishermen in our area they they wear a lot of hats. Because you know seasons clothes fish move offshore something isn't biting you have to be able to figure out what is biting and how to adapt and to do it and and so like you know there's few few people in the fishing industry that I know if you commercial fishermen that are doing only one thing you know just by survival most of these guys do well to some herring bill to black cod they'll do salmon crab they do a lot of different things and in the case of David the guy that I get my sand from where I did last year anyway this year there haven't been any. In the case of him he does all that stuff so. You know he yes a lot of different markets I would imagine I'm not the only one but. In an ideal world I would I would have a guy that just fished for me. All year and that's what I would be selling or you know get a boat of my own and go out into it but it hasn't happened that way and you know I have other things that I want to do which is you know so a blessing and a curse you also provide a lot of variety to our customers and that's not necessarily something that one fishing boat could do for example when I signed up for a Neptunes delight I got clams and mussels and oysters it was almost all shellfish I think it was was all shellfish in fact a way I almost forgot I got Dungeness crab twice to want to explain some of the disparity in some of those procurement industries in terms of somebody who's getting oysters from her muscles from the Philippines or wherever versus these small fish or that are carrying mussels in oysters and stuff in a sustainable manner so basically it's funny that you say that because I have to admit that in the winter our variety is is much less than it is in in the bring in summer later spring and summer and even into the fall because the weather turns foul in the winter especially this winter and it's a great thing for a lot of stuff I would imagine in 3 or 4 years we're going to have a big salmon season because of all this rain and that's great but as far as the day to day of providing seafood to my customers it's just been a nightmare because it's just been hard for anyone who is actually going fishing you know like a crab has been fairly steady but even that's been affected by all of this crazy weather but and so we've done a lot of crab but just trying to get a fish for my fillet orders has been like a weekly Odyssey I just never know what I'm getting and very often I have to fall back on my friend run safe trout farm called McFarland Springs truck farm and Susan bill and it's in California. And I've been providing a lot of that because frankly that trout farm is is the only one that is raising trout on an algae based feed pellet and for those of us who are you know committed to the sustainability project that's a really attractive thing because what that means that is that here's a predatory fish a trout which is able to be raised on something that doesn't include herring or menhaden or sardines so that the world's population of those incredibly important forage fish species isn't being completely sucked dry to feed this fish the fish are also. The waste is fed back out over you know a meadow or horses I mean it's sort of like the. Portlandia thing about the chicken with the Harvard education or whatever right your chickens name is Dave your traps name is Bobby you know he was raised in this beautiful farm he's fed on you know. These feed pellets the never used any animal protein and so yeah I have access to those because I know the owner of the farm Kenny and Bill they own the farm and Susan Filan so I've been able to do a lot of that but I don't want to do that week after week I want to have fish but given the state of the ocean right now it's just been very difficult especially considering that I've also got all of this really strict program of sustainability and I'm trying to follow you know the good news here is that as frustrated as I am about this every day I go and I look at the sign ups and 8 it's increasing every day I mean it's just keeps growing and yeah and it's even going to come to a point where I have to just maybe cut it off because. It's good you know it's just going to be harder and harder to source but that happening hasn't happened yet and we're really happy with it but it is been very amazing to watch how it grows it's obviously what I'm doing in speaking to a lot of people because the sign ups don't lie you know so. But you know every now and then you get the person who compares your price structure to Safeway you know. Or even the even the variety to Safeway and you know and Safeways try and I saw that they're trying to do some you know they've done some work on sustainability so I don't want to just trash them I'm just sort of talking from the perspective of just you know giant mega shopping area you know I wrote a thing in my book to see foragers guide to the northern California coast if you don't mind me plug in and I'll go away Ok forgers guide to the California coast northern California coast I'm sorry I wrote a page at the beginning where I talked about the difference between a citizen and a consumer and I think that what I'm what I'm opting for ideally is a person who's more of a citizen of the of the coast rather than just a consumer of an a person can go to the grocery store and they can find cheaper fish than what I'm providing absolutely and when I do get those e-mails I don't really need to know I respond as politely as I can but that's not what I'm doing and so. If my variety on the slab orders. Is less in in the in the winter time that's just a function of what I'm trying to do all that means is that I'm I'm actually following through on my core principles and if what you're getting is a lot of shellfish on your Neptune's delight order which is. Part of the deal with Neptune still and that's because all cultures facilities tend to be. More predictable in the winter and that's not to say that they don't close down you know I've had a lot of trouble getting stuff out of tamales Bay in the last few months because of all the rain we've had and when there's rain you know the coliform Celts go up and they have to close down small speck so. So I'm giving you all the challenges here but I don't want to sound like I am you know just hand me a violin or harmonic and I'll play the blues He's the founder of c. Foragers Seafood Company Kirk Lombard Kirk thanks so much for being my guest on sea change Radio thanks for having me on. You've been listening to sea change radio our interview Hello this is Michael Geary my friends as a San Diego lawyer I fight the good fight every day and I must ask you to help all of us here at Cain as Jay as we fight for funding it's not easy as a noncommercial community radio station we implore you to become part of our Cain s.j. Community and contribute to our success how you may ask by going to Cannes s.j. Dot org and clicking on the Donate tab become a subscriber if you're like most people today you don't subscribe to magazines the way you used to please subscribe to cane s.j. This way you will be able to continue listening to the fine programs you have come to appreciate here of course we know the talk of the town is your favorite show so I ask you to please help us with the sound of social justice K.M.'s j 89 point one This guy.
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