Commerce With A Conscience: Fishpeople's Duncan Berry

Turning values and beliefs into a sustainable business is a long shot.  The investment required to pursue – and maintain – ethics in the marketplace discourages many and exhausts most. 

Thanks to extraordinary passion and uncommon business acumen, Duncan Berry's turned a tome's worth of principles into prepackaged seafood products.  His environmental and human concerns take the form of convenient servings of soups and entrees.

Active Junky's sampled a few and found the quality to be superior.  After interviewing Berry, we're convinced he's part of a New School movement that's changing the tide of food production.

Image via Fishpeople

Active Junky: What person did you meet in your journey that most inspired your enterprise?

Duncan Berry: I’m going to cheat and give you two names: Joanna Macy one of the founders of the Deep Ecology movement and an amazing systems thinker who introduced me to the Buddhist concept of “right livelihood.” Paul Hawken and his book Ecology of Commerce guided me during a period of time where I was learning how to integrate my personal beliefs with my actions in business.

Image via Duncan Berry

AJ: What specific species is of most interest to you right now and for what reasons? 

DB: I want to double up again: Albacore Tuna because they travel 5000 miles across the Pacific and arrive at just the moment that our west coast upwelling fires up and feed on forage fish in order to fuel their round trip voyage home past Hawaii and the Philippines. They’re warm blooded and capable of swimming 50 miles per hour. They are also the most beautifully “designed” fish due to their need for the ultimate in streamlining. Also, Chinook Salmon because they embody the soul of the Pacific NW. I admire them more than most people and swim with them high in coastal mountain streams where I come to them on their terms and watch the workings of their society up close. Those who return home after amazing journeys at sea lay down their bodies in a death ritual that makes the next generation possible [spawning].

Image via Fishpeople

AJ: Define success for Fishpeople in three words or less.

DB: Playful, purposeful impact. Playful because peoples’ hearts and minds are open when they play. Purposeful because we need to evolve a different relationship with the sea and rural coastal communities. Impact because our aspiration is to be the most recognized seafood brand in America so that we can revolutionize an industry for the better.