Its not every day that you meet someone like Jason Woods. He is one of those people who would succeed at whatever he tried. In his case, he has loved to fish ever since he was a young boy. Over the years, he’s tried his hand at most styles of commercial fishing and found his current setup to be the most humane. Jason doesn’t waste anything; bycatch is not a part of his process. On many fishing operations, hundreds or thousands of pounds of fish will be killed or discarded in order to catch a few. With Jason, he hand-selects each crab, fish, and sea urchin — it’s a different kind of fishing. But his philosophy toward fishing is just the start of this impressive man. Along with sustainability, Jason also values hard work.
Alberta Salazar, the other character in today’s story, knows plenty about hard work herself. She came to the U.S. as a teenager and worked in the strawberry fields for more than 20 years. That time transformed her into a proud, charismatic, and influential woman. She now works on empowering her Mixteco community to know their rights and also to adjust to life in the U.S. Her people aren’t native Spanish speakers, so they experience an extra level of discrimination from their Mexican coworkers.
These two stories come together outside of Los Angeles in one day of filming on our Real Food Road Trip and in a great meal at the end of a long and rewarding day.