community like lives together. so -- you see our mission is to serve as a fun community hub in san francisco and richmond district. so, i hope that we can stay this way for many years.

please welcome to the stage omer dvd ceo be hero and our moderator for this discussion, helena humphrey. presenter of bbc. well, good morning to you all. great to see so many of you here for this session of fireside conversations talking about leading with vision to create sustainable change. looking at but not limited to how we ensure that our food systems are sustainable ones

going forward. great to have so many of you here with us talking about what's at stake. i'll just give you one number to start with. 9.8 billion, that's what our global population is expected to swell to by 2050. so the question is, how do we make sure that we feed those 9.8 billion people while making sure that our change is sustainable while confronting things like climate change? so i'm delighted to be joined today by omer, the ceo of b hero, to talk a little bit about that urgent change that needs to happen. omer, just to start with, you're here in san francisco. i know it's an offbeat way to start this conversation in. i hope you had a good cup of san francisco coffee to start with every morning, every morning. and you know where i'm going with this, because that cup of coffee, to boil it down to its very essence, it wouldn't be possible without the honeybee population, a population that is under

threat right now. tell us more about that. so i think you touched exactly the point. the population is growing. we need to produce more food in the next 50 years, we will need to produce more food than what we produced over the last 10,000 years combined. so the challenge about food production has become a big thing for everyone. and i think one of the things that we did not realize in the early days is how much we depend on bees, even the fact that we call them honey bees focus is on the fact they make honey and this is what we use to take away from them when they were foraging and pollinating plants. so we took the honey as a as a sweetener. but as the farming system becomes more intense, this in order to support the growing population, we need more pollinators. ears and bees is considered to be the most efficient one. so we hear about mortality rates and the fact that more than 40% of bee colonies collapse every year. but we do not necessarily realize how it's going to affect food production and if we do not

introduce technology in order to support beekeepers efforts and farmers efforts to get good pollination, we're going to see the result at some point. i mean, this is nothing to do really with, you know, a critical shortage of honey in the future. that's not what we're talking about. obviously but just talk about your role in that, what you're doing at bee hero to try and address that, using and harnessing the power of innovation, technology or ai. how do we confront that? so i was privileged. i didn't come from the from the beekeeping industry or i wasn't an expert in the bee world. i came from cybersecurity. i'm a serial entrepreneur. i founded and sold two companies in the past and six years ago ish i met itai, one of my co-founders, who is a second generation commercial beekeeper, and i was quite keen to understand why we don't see a lot of technology in this space. like what's what's the missing part? and we decided to try a different approach and focus on

low cost sensors. the fact that the technology is more affordable, the fact that we can use strong models, generative ai and different tools in order to build prediction models and early detection models allowed us to focus on low cost systems that can can be installed in every single hive over the globe and to make sure that we get real time indications about what's happening. so we developed those sensors. it's a small unit, as you can see. it goes into an existing beehive. so you don't need to adjust or change the way that beekeepers are running the operation by collecting things like temperature, humidity, sound and so on from inside the hive. we can understand whenever the queen is in danger, whenever you have a problem of mite starvation situation, viral disease, bacterial disease, all those stressors and things that will cause those colonies to collapse if not addressed on time by the beekeepers. and since then we practically became the largest players in this industry. being the largest pollination provider in the us

as well as in australia, and expanding to more apac countries now. i mean, that sensor that you're showing is fascinating. it works, if i'm correct, using the internet of things is the technical term here. when i think about beekeepers, though, i mean, i think many of us think about people, of course, with their rudimentary technology smokers wearing their white suits, for example. so how do you make sure that something that's small but powerful, like that gets into the hands of people who need it to really make that change? you know what i'm trying to get at here is accessibility. i guess. i think in in one word, it's seamlessness. so like we need to make sure that the solution that we introduce to more of an old fashioned industries is seamless to the way that they used to run things before. because if you need to involve market education and they need to adjust the way they do things, that's where the adoption takes a lot of time. i

mean, we've seen companies in the arctic spec, the agriculture technological solutions is not something new. it probably started 810 years ago with small irrigation to save on water. and so on in areas where we require significant operational changes, things do not scale fast and trying to build a startup to be an entrepreneur in this environment, you have to show scale. you have to make sure that the solution is seamless, that it doesn't affect the way they do things, so they can only benefit if it drives the value that you claim to bring. and once they see the value, this is what you start to see the change in the way they operate. well, on that point, then i guess of value, i, i do also want to touch on the economic point of this because as bees and bee systems and colonies, i mean, they seem to speak to something that's almost a allegorical when it comes to capitalism anyway. right? this is the beginning of organic ization, whether, you know, the worker bees, the honey bees, the queen bee and so on. so how does something that makes

pollination more efficient? what is the economic payoff? can you point to that and say this is how it's worked for farmers, this is how it's improved harvests. for example? sure. so maybe to give the context, because most of us are less familiar with with the pollination industry in general, we have millions and tens of millions of hives moving on trucks at nighttime, several times a year, bees to visit different crops. bees are physically brought to the fields during the bloom time to ensure good coverage of bees. when we are facing low quality beehive, unhealthy beehives, dead colonies spread in the field. first of all, we spend a lot of efforts of moving empty boxes in a way, and then we are not getting the pollination activity that we need. so the first focus using the systems is to ensure that the hives that are being introduced to the fields are strong, healthy and efficient. and the difference between a dead colony which will pollinate zero flowers to a strong colony

that can pollinate tens of millions of flowers a day is very significant. we've seen impact on when it comes to cross pollination on the quality of fruits. you get bigger apples, for example, you get more outputs. if we talk about berries and if we talk about almonds or even canola seeds, those are the things that can we can see increasing outputs as well as quality. and we need to ensure that we tie all those things together. we support the beekeepers all year long in order to introduce strong colonies to the fields, and then the farmers can benefit from this critical short time frame of pollination that can be done in the most precise and efficient way. and just tell us a little bit about the markets that you've managed to roll that out, which countries are we talking about? where have you really managed to see that positive of ecological environmental impact? so we start this. it started as a project, right? we started this project in israel six years ago,

and once we got some good sense that the technology, we can make a difference, we came here, you know, it's california specifically is probably the fifth largest exporter of food in the world. and we want and you see a lot of advanced technology used in this food system. so we were keen to address pollination and we started with the almond industry in california, which produces 80% of the almonds in the world. and started to spread since then we've seen drop of approximately 20, 27% drop in mortality rates of bee colonies. we've seen increase in outputs in different crops almonds, apples, cherries, canola berries, sunflowers and so on. and once we gain some confidence and work with some strategic partners here, we decided to expand geographically . so we spread to australia recently and now we're in discussions with places in south america where we can introduce a lot of value to the avocado industry and the berry industry.

so tell us more then about that collaboration. i mean, technological advancement never operates kind of in a in a vacuum without it, right? essentially so, you know, bee hero, as i understand it, was founded by not just veteran beekeepers, but of course, serial entrepreneurs like yourself, data scientists by ologists. i think it's a really interesting group of people to come together, not perhaps people who had worked together every day. so what kind of collaboration did you get with governments, whether that is subnational, national and so on, and what kind of leadership is needed on that? i think i think it's a critical point. when we first started to look into this space, we reached out to some of the universities, some of the governmental institutions to try and see what was already done. like people are looking into colony collapse disorder for 12 years already. so like, what was done? how could this be addressed? opted by the by the commercial domain and we learned

that there's just lack of data. no one was in a position to build strong and solid data set that can support the entire research community, whether it's governmental institutions or whether it's, you know, universities and so on. so the first effort and basically the first year and a half of the company was about building a data set and it keeps building. since then. so it became huge. and now that we have access to a to the data, we are building collaboration. one of the collaborations that we recently built was with with the usda. so the usda is dealing with one of the threats of the spread of the asian hornet into washington state. and they were looking to identify the spread. it affects bee colonies. it affects other pollinators. and that's what we learn and that we have data samples of wasps attack and we can deal with it in order to support their efforts. and now we're doing a project with the government in order to mitigate this risk. and we've seen many projects with different universities across the globe.

and i think this is what we need to put more efforts. we need to pull in more leaders in this industry. so we can share with them our data and they can introduce value to the to everyone. and on that point, then, what more do you think? i mean, you're playing one role, of course, in food security and sustainability, but what more do you think that other leaders, businesses as governments need to be doing to pull their weight essentially on one of the most critical issues of our time? i think a lot has changed. so if we look at the farm bill, for example, in the in the us, it's a good example of how the government is supporting the adoption of new technologies into the food system. the last farm bill was approved five years ago. i think. how much changed over the last five years in terms of the technology, the affordability of the technology and so on. so that's where we are spending efforts with

governments. official not specifically for big hero for different companies and not specifically for pollination, for different solutions that can drive improvements. we are talking about a slow moving industry in effect that is seasonal aspects. there is a it takes time to validate the value proposition, sometimes even years. the startup ecosystem is not built for it, right? it's built to move fast. you need to show double or triple traction every year. otherwise, investors don't really know how to assess. you and this is where i think we are getting a lot of support from governmental officials. and we need to see how we can leverage those new technologies ages to at least be explored by the commercial domain because things that works well in the lab might not necessarily translate well into the commercial domain. and that's a critical part. and talking about those challenges, i mean, startups by their very nature, they start out scrappy me. i

mean, you're a serial entrepreneur yourself. it doesn't mean to say, of course, you know, there are always challenges, right? what were some of those challenges that you faced? and i guess what what advice would you give to other entrepreneurs, innovators coming to the field of sustainability about what they need to do to successfully carry out and bring their vision to fruition? i think in a way, california is a very interesting example because, you know, you have the silicon valley where a lot of tech is coming from, and then you have the central valley where most of the food is being produced in in the in the state. and people in central valley might not look at people from silicon valley in a in a in a good way like, you know, they don't they don't have boots on the ground. we don't really understand what we're doing. i think that's maybe a critical component that one of our co-founders is, is the boots on the ground. he's the guy that grew up in this industry. a second generation person. and,

you know, for us, it introduce some some challenges in the early days that you don't even think of like how can i be accepted in the central valley as a silicon valley company. so those are the small things i think my advice would probably be around get out there early on. you know, we tend as tech people and i'm a tech guy to spend time in the lab to make sure that we can do what we want to do and then we want to come to the market with something that is strong enough, with a proof of concept that we can stand behind. there are so many things that we've learned out there in the field that we didn't know. even though we have someone that grew up in this industry that the sooner you get out there, the more mistakes. i would say you avoid. and every mistakes in this space might take another year to solve because you might need to wait for the next season. so when it comes to agriculture, when it comes to food production, get familiar with the market as soon as you can and use as many

design partners as possible. we got general mills to join be here in the last funding round. the amount of activity that we've been doing with them in order to support our efforts to improve our solutions is significant. talking about biodiversity, you know something that we don't do as a revenue stream. we're not selling anything related to biodiverse city, but that's a big threat that they want to address. they have the resource to address. we have the tools to support it and that navigates some of the priorities that we have within the company. so your message then essentially would be get out from silicon valley. if you're there, for example, in your case, get out into the central valley, get your boots on the ground, get your hands dirty, put yourself in a beekeeping suit, open the hives, spend the day sweat. understand what they're going through. small thing. you know, a product guy will develop an app for a beekeeper, not even thinking of the fact that you're covered with honey. you have gloves like it's not going to work. you're

not going to take your phone to the field when you when you work the bees. and that's just a small example that, you know, working in the office, everything looks clean, everything is easy going to the field does reception, honey bees, gloves. it just doesn't work. i think a powerful message, a reminder to us all, there from omer davidi, ceo of bee hero. thank you so much for chatting to us. thank you so much. thank you. thank you. welcome to the stage, ambassador ertharin cousin, ceo and managing director. good to see you. food systems for the future . ambassador, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today on the stage. you have a distinguished career in

humanitarian affairs, not least as the executive director of the united nations world food program. i want to start with something that you've said, something i personally found inspirational. you said when it comes to ending global world hunger for yes, we can, an inspiring statement. you say? yes, there we go. yes, we can. something people need to be reminded of when we see die dire situations all around the world. before we get to the how and your vision, i want to touch on the obviously, we understand the why, but i want to understand why that's your personal mission. oh, mia, i was born this way. i was simply born this way. i keep saying i'm going to write a book and that's the title. i was born this way. the reality is i grew up in a family where i had a mom and dad who were committed to making change in the world. my mother was a social worker. my dad was a community organizer before barack obama made it popular to be a community organizer. and we

lived in the heart of lawndale, which some people would call a ghetto or slum, but they wanted to live where they worked to provide an opportunity for their children to know how blessed we were. and so we were the place that people could come. they were always balls and bats that anybody could take, but you always had to bring them back and they wanted us to understand because we had been given much, that there was much we were responsible for doing. and i always say my siblings grew up and went and had real lives and got real jobs. i made a career out of trying to help change the world. and in doing that, it's taking you, of course, right across the globe, places like dadaab refugee camp, for example , where you've said before, unfortunately as laudable as the humanitarian affairs system might be, we are still feeding the same people. drought after drought, because that is the cycle of what we're facing right now ever increasingly, unfortunately, due to climate change. now, i say this coming

from the humanitarian system myself. i was a former un worker and it's true we do end up giving very sadly food assistance to the same people, the same women trying to feed their children essentially. how do we change that and what is your vision for changing that so that we don't have to keep giving assistance to people who are living in on the front line of climate change in this way? well, we know that that of the 800 plus million people who are food insecure today, those who are are in an acute famine situation. four out of five of those people are victims of conflict. they are living in conflict situations. and the challenge is providing for resilient food systems in conflict situations. what you need is peace, right? in order to do that first, as we look at ukraine and what is happening in the gaza in gaza and with israel today and other places, afghanistan and other places

around the world. but we also know that climate is driving a great deal of this. and some of the most vulnerable people in the world live in climate vulnerable places. and the opportunity there is to invest in sustain able food systems that will produce, use food that is required to feed families not just during at the time of harvest, but all year round. and the last piece i would say is we need to realize that when we talk about building sustainable food systems, we're not just talking about in sub-saharan africa, we're talking about in countries across the apac region, including here in the united states, investing in the food systems that will continue to produce the food that is necessary to support that 9.5 billion people that you talked about by 2050, when fao tells us that we need to increase food

production by some 50. and just on that point, i mean, you mentioned there it isn't just sub-saharan africa because the knock on effect of this is food insecurity around the world. this country here in the united states, 35 million people, food insecure, are right now. right now, 35 million people are food insecure. and let me give you another number, 41 million people here in the united states who can't afford a diverse, nutritious diet on a daily basis. and that number is part of the 3.1 billion people globally who can't afford a diverse and nutritious diet on a daily basis. but what we need to realize is that the food system is complex. and so the answer is will require a diversity of solutions. it's not about about just sustainable agricultural production on the farm. it's also about sustainable livestock management. it's about agro forestry to support our environment as well as growing food in those places where our

forests are so important. it's about alternative proteins being a part of the solution. but not the only solution. so i can go. it's about aquaculture and having sustainable aquaculture systems and all of these is all of the work across, across the food system, across the value chain is necessary century to ensure for that sustainable durable food system that i talked about whether you're talking domestically here in the united states or across the globe. ambassador, you just sketched out there, i think a five pronged, at least approach to those shoring up sustainable food system. how do you do that? a in terms of collaboration and then, b, let's talk about the money piece right? it's expensive, but how do you do it and where does that money come from? the money will come from not just the traditional sources. you have government subsidies. and what we subsidize

becomes very, very important. and right now, we many would argue that what the $700 billion in agricultural subsidies globally is being misspent. not all of it, but we can can repurpose subsidies to support smallholder farmers to support regenerative agriculture to and carbon sequestration. we can support the investment in what is often too often called specialty crops, which are more fruits and vegetables, oils. and so repurposing subsidies is going to be quite critical. but the other quite critical finding initial source is private sector . what we need is private sector investment in the food and agriculture system. only 4.8% of all climate finance dollars from the private sector goes to ag and food for point 8. yes and food represents 25% of the greenhouse gases emitted every year. and it is the most the

system that is most vulnerable to climate change. why is that right? why is that? i look out on this audience and ceos and say, why is that? the reality is that agriculture and food have already have always been deemed risky. we're not sexy enough as transportation and energy, but we are critical because even if we did everything that that that has been suggested on the in the energy system, if we and transport nation if we don't address the challenges of the food system, we won't meet the paris accord. the agreement of the paris accord. well, you're making a strong sales pitch for it. but you know, just looking at the fact that our global food systems right now, i think they contribute something. around 25% of the world's greenhouse gases. and you can correct me if i'm wrong on that point. and we know that through climate change that ends up having a disproportionate impact on those who are then on the sharp end of

it as well. i mean, it is one of the great ironies of this system right now. so how do we make sure as well that that capital flow goes to those people as well? how do we advocate for them who are really particularly in lower income countries, for example, disproportionately impacted? right. we will need to invest in our smallholder farmers. we have 500 million smallholder farmers who feed 80% of the of the population in the countries where they work. and farm. and so by investing in those smallholder farmers is going to be critical. but it's also important that we invest in large farms. we invest in farms that can efficiently and productively and sustain, stably, provide the food that is necessary to support not only the food needs of the populations in the countries where they harvest, but also to support our global trading system, our global agricultural trading system is quite critical

to our food security system. and we're not just talking about globally as well. i mean, when we look at the united states, for example, i think it's something around 50,000 black farmers who remain in this country operating there. less today. wow. that was at the end of 2021. we had 50,000 black farmers in every year. we're losing more and we're losing more because of the lack of access to the financial resources that we're talking about here today, the lack of access to the tools to ensure that they can compete at less than 1% of the agricultural production that is traded, that is sold on an annual basis in the united states, is produced by black farmers and it is not because blacks don't black farmers, the black farmers don't want to produce less. it is because they have not had the investment, the access that is necessary for them to produce. we have the same thing with women farmers. we know that women farmers don't have access, whether you're talking here in the united states or you're

talking globally, they don't receive the access that is necessary to the finance, the tools, the capacity building. but we also know that in particularly in sub-saharan africa, some 40 to 60% of the farmers, depending upon the country, are women. and if women receive the equal access to the those tools and finance and capacity building that you would increase production by 20% just on the african continent. so these are not problems that are that are are limited to any one country. but that's what's exciting about conferences like apec, because you bring together economies who are looking to work together to develop the responses that are necessary at the global level to ensure that at the national level, there, implementing the policies and the regulations that will support their ability to assist their their, their, their farmers and their populations. well, let's touch a little bit about then the international impact and an upshot of all of

this. then, you know, we're here at apec. if we start to get a handle on some of those challenges with some of the suggestions that you have mentioned, is the upshot of this more global trade? i would hope so, but global because global trade, global trade with rules is rules based, global trade, open free, fair, free and fair trade that's governed by rules, rules regarding the environment, regarding human, human rights, as well as the protection of jobs. you and i had a similar experience coming in here today where there there protesters outside who believed that this type of a conference is detrimental to livelihoods in countries around the globe. i would say it doesn't need to be that way that we can we must have a global trading system

that supports ports where food grows and where food needs, where imports are required. but that system must be based upon rules. it must be open when in 2007 to 9, when i first became us ambassador, we had a high food price crisis because of trade embargoes in in some of the apec economies that affected net importing countries in west africa as far away as west africa and haiti. even and as a result, there were a discussions and that that resulted in a better understanding of what was necessary to keep trade open. and during covid, when all you had a few spikes with some problems, they were minimal. but you did not have a disruption of

the global trading system. and as a result, babies didn't go hungry. you didn't have have the kind of while we had higher food prices because there were other problems that we could talk about that affect were affected by that covid affected in the in the in the in the trading system, even local systems. but at the long line trading systems of commodities stayed open. and we were able to ensure that the level of problems that we saw between 2007 and 9 did not occur as a result. and that's the what you need is that type of partnership and based, as i said, but based on rules ensuring that there is access to the food that is necessary to feed the global community. well, i just want to talk about where, lastly, the civil society comes in on. we're talking about those. well fed babies. i've

read that you've also, whilst you were at wfp, have said that you didn't want your your media team to take pictures of amazing hated babies, babies who were ill because of lack of food, because you wanted to show these chubby, well rounded babies in lower income nations to show, yes, this is possible. we just need to have the commitment. so i guess my question to you is and cognizant of the fact that i myself am a member of the media, what role does media need to play in this? what role does academia need to play? the whole roster of civil society? when we talk about a food secure world, we need a narrative that. says ending hunger is possible no matter where we are in the world . and that narrative starts with the media, the and those with voice who are willing to tell to

speak truth about about women and families is in tough places around the world. because i have been, as you noted, in somalia to sudan, south sudan, yemen, every family feeds their baby first, whether it's in on the west side of the city of chicago or it's in in the it's in the a slum in in nigeria. right. and the reality is what we know is that when people are given the resources to support their ability to grow the food that is necessary or the resources to purchase food that is affordable and available, that their children are fed, that they have the opportunity for prosperity and that's all that is. the that narrative is too often not told. it is we lean into the story

with the baby, with the flies on their eyes and we fail to magnify the mother who is working hard every single day to feed her children, no matter where she is in the world, no matter how tough it is. and they're not asking us to save them. they're asking us to help them save themselves as well. ambassador, thank you so much for bringing that narrative and that reality to us. ambassador cousin. thank you. thank you. thank you so much. please welcome to the stage, michael punke, vice president for public policy, amazon web services. as. ambassador great to have you with us today. great to be here. we've been hearing from our various panelists already about significant challenges in agriculture. you and i are

sitting here having this discussion, obviously not as as farmers, but nevertheless, i mean, the scale of the problem is clear. whether that is talking about pests, whether that's talking about varying crop yields, which we're increasingly seeing now in the face of climate change and coming to you, amazon web services, how can we harness something like artificial intelligence, something like remote sensing to make a meaningful impact to those people on the front line, taking on those challenges his day after day? so one of the really fun things about my job is i get to travel around a lot and i get to see the way that a technology like cloud and artificial intelligence is used by literally hundreds and thousands of creative companies around the planet. and having the ability to have access to those powerful tools. i'll give you an example of since we're talking about

agriculture, and it was really interesting to hear the conversation already today, but there's a swiss company called one soil that uses a combination of satellite technology and artificial intelligence. it's all brought together on cloud to help farmers do a micro analysis of their land. and so when it comes to things like trying to figure out how much water needs to be put out on the land, how how does the seed need to be distributed, how much fertilizer needs to be put on the crops or pesticide they can make remarkably micro adjustments in those calculations as and instead of just doing a big broad cast of water seed, fertilizer, pesticide, they do very micro adjustments. s so that's one example of where artificial intelligence is being used with those kind of remote

sensors that you're talking about in agriculture. another example in a slightly different area, a company called brainbox, that helps commercial entities better use their hvac systems, heating, ventilation, an air conditioning and again, with these kind of micro remote monitors makes adjustments throughout the course of the day. and when this technology is applied, these companies are finding that they're saving 25 to 30% on their hvac bills in a matter of a couple of months. so those are just a couple of examples i think that are interesting of we tend to hear about, you know, companies like chatgpt when it comes to something like like like i and certainly that's an interesting company. but there are thousands of these companies that a lot of people have never heard of that are doing these really interesting things. i think those are two pertinent examples . how widespread is the use of

something like that? the uptake, and i guess you know, how do you scale up something like that? and that's something i've been saying to all of the guests today. how how do you make it accessible? well, for the people that could probably actually most benefit from it. so the whole concept of sort of democratize access to technology is in many ways the most fundamental thing that cloud brings to the table. and i'm not a i didn't come to this job as a technology person. so i've had these various little aha moments as i've been learning about cloud over the course of the last seven years. and one of the real aha moments for me and understanding why cloud is so important, it was in a description i heard about what the typical chief information officer had to do before cloud in figuring out how much technology to literally buy at the beginning of the year. and

when it came to a ceo at the beginning of the year, were trying to figure out how much data to storage and processing capacity do i need for the for the coming year and before cloud, you had to buy your own server. and we all remember the server kind of down the hallway that one of our coworkers kind of was responsible for managing. and the trick of that is if you bought two little stores, storage and processing capacity, you risked your system crashing. if there was a spike in use. and we all remember examples of when systems crashed because of a spike in use. and so oftentimes to avoid the risk of that system crashing companies would go to the other extreme. they would buy too much technology. and what cloud brought to the table is the ability to rent capacity v to storage and processing

capacity, literally by the minutes and if you if your use spikes up, you rent more for that period of time. when it spikes down again, you rent less and it solved a really fundamental problem. but your question was about how do we create more access to the technology? and one of the reasons i mentioned that is because it was particularly hard for small and medium sized businesses to solve that problem because they don't have a lot of capital right? they don't want to miss invest their scarce resources. and so that ability to rent, access to storage and processing capacity is really fundamental. so that's one aspect of it. and talking about that point of renting access, for example, what i am hearing over and over again in all of these pieces with regards to innovation is data. huge amounts of data overwhelming to a layman like myself, if i think it's fair to say so. just help us understand how something like generative ai for example, can

pass these reams and reams of data to in a way that has a positive ecological benefit. so if we're talking about decarbonization strategies, for example, if we're talking about predicting flood risks, how can we use that? how can it be useful? well, let me give you a couple more examples from sort of actual real world applications, because i think they help to it's also abstract, but otherwise. and so some of these real world examples i think make it more understandable. well, so one of is customer is qantas airlines. and obviously we figuring out how much fuel to use, how much by which path a airplane should follow. is rich with potential for applying data about all sorts of different factors at

the same time and what qantas is doing is using ai to literally be able to adjust their flight paths as they're flying and make these small adjustments in order for the fuel economy of the plane to be better and so, i mean, that's a sort of a real world example of fuel conservation. in another example, i love, i live in montana where forest fires are a real issue in the summer, like like here in california, india and california is using a combination of drones and ai technology to be able to monitor our vast forest lands and detect outbreaks of forest fires much earlier so that they can be they can be fought much earlier. so there's all sorts of examples like that. you're talking about data sets. there's a company in my hometown of missoula, montana. i like to hike, and

there's a company called onyx o x that that makes a map technology that you can carry on your phone. and it literally has access to all of these public domain maps that you can carry around with you. you can be in in remote backcountry areas and see on your phone where you're at and keep yourself from getting lost. and so let's talk a little bit about the impact of that then between on ai and the cloud in terms of you've gathered this data, you've collected it through ai, it then lives on the cloud and, you know, how can that be used by whether it's subnational national governments, for example, in terms of, you know, predictive strategies? i mean, it must be of use for that kind of thing. sure and i mean, there's a lot of different aspects about the interrelationship between the cloud and ai, between the cloud and generative ai. i mean, the

way that i think it's most useful to think about it is the cloud is really the foundation on which all sorts of other really critical technologies that we think about and talk about all the time are built. so ai is built on the cloud's capacity to store and process a lot of data. quantum computing is relies upon cloud. five grams relies, relies upon cloud. so cloud is really the foundation for all of these other things. and then when you talk about generative ai and especially the ability to train these large language models that that in particular requires very large amounts of storage and processing, capacity processing capacity. and so cloud is essential in that. how borderless is something like

cloud then and you know, and how important are cloud first policies you know particularly cognizant of the fact that we're here at apec and going beyond, you know, the us and member economies. so how borderless is something like cloud? well well, certainly the ability of data to move around the planet is a big part of the idea behind the power of the internet in terms of the ability across national lines to have access to the to the world's data. that's what we think of with, you know. ww world wide web. it's all it's supposed to be world wide but i'll pick up on a couple of different pieces of your of your question separately because you mentioned you mentioned cloud first and cloud so-called cloud first is a policy that many governments around the world have embraced based as a way of saying that in their own

operations they will default to using cloud first because of all the advantages that cloud brings to the table in terms of security efficiency. et cetera. and one of the really interesting dynamics we've seen is as covid resulted in many governments around the world accelerating their use of cloud tools in the face of crisis, and which i think historically you see lots of examples of a particular crisis accelerating necessity, being the mother of invention. exactly. yeah, exactly. and so during covid governments were all grappling to help their citizens be able to work remotely, be remote education, have access to health information and in some cases, by necessity, they turn to cloud as a way of doing that more efficiently. cloud first, as i said, is kind of a step of

making that a much more deliberate and less reactive type of, of policy prescription. and it's important because it signals that the cloud is a safe way to store and process data. well, let's touch a little bit on the collaboration part in all of this, because it never happens in a vacuum in terms of technological advancements. so how does amazon web services collaborate with other stake holders, be it business, government and so on, to make sure that these technological advances are impacting ecologically in a positive way when it comes to the environment. so there's a bunch of different aspects of that question. i mean, the starting point at amazon, i think when it comes to sustainability is, is our climate pledge, which we undertook a couple of a few years back, a pledge to meet our

paris obligation of being net carbon neutral ten years early. so instead of 2050 meeting that by 2040. and then we invited. other companies to sort of join us in that pledge, recognizing, of course, that it takes it takes a broad community to truly have impact. and so more than 400 companies have joined the climate pledge since amazon took that initiative. there's in addition to companies making their own pledge about accelerating their their their work, there's also all sorts of cooperative initiatives between the companies. so for example, amazon works with rivian, which makes green vehicles. we bought 100,000 delivery vehicles, green delivery vehicles from rivian. so there's that type of cooperation. but but one thing i really want to emphasize when it comes to sustainability is the

significance of cloud itself as a as a way of achieving our climate goals. one thing we can almost certainly predict is going to happen is the amount of data that all of us around the world use is going to continue to increase and we all carry around in our hand a cell phone in which we see minute by minute our own personal uses of data. and so that that use of data is going to increase. and so having the most efficient way possible to store and process that data is going to be critical to the planet's ability to meet our climate goals. cloud and because you can think of cloud in a lot of ways as the public transit of data and the storage of storage and processing because it's pooling this effort. so it's the

equivalent of taking taking the bus as opposed to the old fashioned way of driving your own car to work having, which is having a server down the hallway. so there's a great study that shows that the day that that entities shift to the cloud, their carbon footprint for data storage and processing drops by 80, which is an incredible number when you think about it to get that type of a gain from a single change like that. lastly ambassador, i think we've got about a minute left and i've got a massive question for you, which is basically with your extended background in international trade and as the us ambassador to the world trade organization, how do you envisage envisage opportunities, you know, to harness ai to boost global trade? you know, keep everybody fed at the same time and contribute to green economic growth? what's a huge challenge? and in many ways the global trading system has not exactly

been shrouding itself in itself in glory in recent years in terms of demonstrating the ability to help problem solve. but i think there are, on the one hand, it's critical that if we're going to see the benefits from a technology like ai, which i believe very much are there, we have to also address at the same time the legitimate concerns that people have about a powerful technology like ai. and governments have a huge role in in in in helping to build that trust. i think there are some really positive signs lately with things like the white house voluntary commitments on ai, which have been carried forward also by the g7. i think that is an organization that is that is helping to build that trust. but it's going to be difficult as the group of countries gets

bigger and bigger to not have it be the case that we slow down the speed at which we move or watered down the quality of the standards. so that would be the challenge for groups like apec. yeah, huge challenges and opportunities, hopefully. ambassador, thank you so much for being with us. thank you. great to talk. thanks. thank you. thank you. please welcome to the stage the honorable gavin newsom. governor, a pleasure to meet you. thank you so much for being with us. good to be here. a real fireplace. it's amazing. nothing less for a proper conversation. what is this by the way? ouch. i haven't asked that question, but glad you have . hello, everybody. governor newsom, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us as a particularly busy time, of course, for your state. we've been talking about sustainability, of course, california is a state that knows firsthand the challenges of climate change. so we were

talking about the pressing need for sustainability in the food system, but it's not limited to that of course, all sectors of the economy. tell us about how your state is dealing with that pressing need and your vision. i mean, it's if you don't believe in science, you have to believe your own eyes. you know, california in the last few decades has been burning up, heating up. our children are choking up. unprecedented droughts, unprecedented wildfires, record breaking, this record breaking that we are the tip of the spear in terms of the impacts of climate change. but also the tip of the spear in terms of the strategies to dramatically change the way we produce and consume energy. and just for folks that may not be so familiar with california in relationship to the issue of sustainability, our leadership goes back to the 1960s. it goes back to then governor ronald

reagan. it goes back to the partnerships that we advanced with then-president richard nixon. california created its first regulatory body, the california air resources board, in 1967, and we became the first state in the united states of america to regulate tailpipe emissions. and that's allowed us to maintain in a position of leadership. and it has allowed us to maintain in a position that has some permanency, regardless of what happens in washington, dc, california is able to establish a constancy in terms of its regulatory structure that allows partnership. it allows investment point and allows a sense of certainty that policy will accelerate our change to change the way fundamentally we produce and consume energy. so i'm really proud to be part of that, proud tradition. in terms of california's environmental leadership. but there is no state again, the western united states, but particularly

california, more impacted by the consequences. absolutely i want to touch on something you just said there, saying regardless of what happens in washington, dc. okay. so you have your policies in your state. what kind of pace do you think all states need to be moving at? how aggressive does it need to be? how quick does this change need to happen? well, we're the pace car of modern environmental movement in the united states of america. we feel a deep sense of responsibility to be first mover. we love to say about california, the future happens here first. we're america's coming attraction. and when it comes to policy setting on the climate, we have no peers. and the remarkable part about california's leadership again, is established under the framework of our regulatory body, the california resource board, is that we impact that the influence other states, the power of emulation success leaves clues and what we've been able to achieve in california is not only nation leading environmental policy, but the

application of that policy has allowed us to dominate as one of the most robust economies in the united states of america. and i think that's really the principal point. i want to emphasize here today. our economic success, california's economic success is not despite our environmental leadership. it's because of our environmental leadership. we're a large fossil fuel producing state that already has six times more green jobs than we do fossil fuel jobs. just think about tesla. tesla exists in california for a reason. it was the policy as we established that created the conditions for the kind of risk taking and investments that elon musk and his board have made and we've now exported that technology around the rest of the globe. 56 are headquartered manufacturing companies in the zev space, one of our biggest exports just in that space. we're the first jurisdiction in america to require all purchases of new vehicles to be alternative fuel

vehicles by 2035. we saw then other states follow that lead at the pace that's required of this moment. and that pace setting is to me, where the real opportunity lies. and i'll tell you, you listen to the president yesterday in our climate assessment came out, there was not a lot of good news in there. i mean, everybody needs to wake up this this climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis, period. full stop. it's the burning of carbons and we have got to get off our addiction in california is in the how business is. and we want to prove that we can do that and signify efficiently grow our economy. and we want to dominate. we want to dominate in this next great global industry. talk to me a little bit more about then your vision coupling environmentally sound policies and economic growth because, you know, to play devil's advocate here, some people would they

could say, well, that's a challenge. it's a challenge to grow the economy in this way, taking into consideration all of these factors with regards to sustainability, you've just said it's not. you're saying it's an opportunity for growth. yeah. talk to me more about that thinking and how you achieve it. the challenge is the status quo. it's bankrupting us. i said we're burning up, heating up and choking up. people are having a hard time getting property insurance that's impacting new home construction. the cost of living is going through the roof . taxpayers are getting fleeced every single year. i mean, how many billion dollar catastrophes can the taxpayers continue to absorb and subsidize the cost of inaction is the insanity of the status quo. i'm for the fresh air of progress versus the stale air of normalcy. i mean, this is the greatest economic opportunity that's ever been presented. so we have to disabuse ourselves of this mindset, this lazy mindset that somehow this impact it's economic growth. let me just

give you a proof point. in 2021, we had 7.8% gdp growth in the state of california. we're the fifth largest economy in the world on our way to be the fourth largest economy in the world soon. if you're from germany, we're right behind you. we're coming. we just took out the uk. thank you. brexit and in my no comment, that was a that was a shot that wasn't but the point is the point is you see i mean if your world your entire world is just gdp. and consider california in the last decade, consider california before the pandemic, five years before the pandemic, california outgrew all western democracies. in fact, globally, there was only one economy, and that was china. that outperformed the state of california. in the five years prior to the pandemic, as we were accessing generating these environmental policies. and i want to underscore that as we were accelerating this transition mission. so i just i call bs on this whole idea,

which, by the way, is an idea that's brought, bought and paid for by the arbiters of the status quo that are buying off politicians like me left and right. well, we all run out with our stale talking points. california is about innovation. it's about change. it's about entrepreneurial ism. it's about pushing out the boundaries of discovery and new thinking. and i want to invite the world to this state. and again, it goes back to the state of mind that i had in the reflection of your question. and in fact, being no matter what happens, i want you to all please understand this. no matter what happens in washington, d.c. we are a stable partner when it comes to investment in this space. the trump administration and let me call balls and strikes the trump administration tried to vandalize our leadership. we were involved in over 100 lawsuits with the trump administration, and we beat him back in every one of those cases . we will continue to maintain our leadership no matter what happens. and that, i hope, invites investor talent and

invites the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that defines the best of our state. governor, talking about that entrepreneurial spirit, you've spoken about the need for fast paced excel operation for leading the way. i want to ask you, how do you make sure that no one gets left behind in that as well? because we were speaking to our guests, ambassador carson, who was saying we have a dwindling number of black farmers in this country. we have 35 million people right here in america who are food insecure. when we look at california and we think of silicon valley innovation and then we look at the central valley, for example, and we think about the agriculture there and the challenges that are also faced there because of climate change. how do you make sure that no one gets left behind? well, that's the economy we've created. it was the left behind economy. that's why i want to disrupt the status quo and advance a construct of not just growth, but inclusion. and we build that in the answer is very specific. and it's not even complicated. you write it into the rules and regulations. we

have the first fully functioning cap and trade program in the united states of america. interesting a republican governor signed that legislation in the cap and trade legislation . when we require the cap and trade revenue to go back into communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the change, and i'll give you another example, very specific example we have and my staff hates when i refer to it as the saudi arabia of lithium. but down near the salton sea in the southern part of california, we have enough lithium reserves to basically provide for a third of all the lithium in the world. we just established a new rule, making 100% of all the fee and tax revenue that's generated from the extraction of lithium has to go back to this community that has been disproportionately left behind and impacted by our fossil fuel economy. so you write the rules and regulations. again, we overcome applicate this. it's pretty straightforward and we address the mistakes of the past because we know the fossil fuel industry

has socialized those costs and burdens on the rest of us. the health care impacts in the central valley are disproportionately being felt in terms of bad air quality, asthma rates, life spans, all of those things are factored in in the context of all of our rules and regulations and our workforce development strategies and our long term sustaining mindset in terms of addressing, again, the inclusion part of that growth equation. i mean, as you sketched out at the beginning of our conversation, you have been on the frontlines of this in california. whether that is water scarcity, whether that is wildfires that you have been battling now for years, increasing in ferocity as well. how has that inspired your vision when it comes to sustainable leadership and taking that from it? sometimes from a local level and then bringing that onto you know, a global stage as well here at apec in it's rather extraordinary. i was in beijing recently and they had a similar experience at record breaking

drought and then record breaking rain back to back. that's exactly what happened to us this year, in december and january. and february, march, these pineapple expresses these atmospheric rivers, these rivers in the sky, massive flooding after three years of some of the worst drought we've ever had in our history, this whipsaw. but what you just laid out is more impactful. it's people, it's lifestyle styles, it's traditions that are being destroyed and wiped out in real time. grizzly flats, california almost wiped off the map because of wildfires. parrot california. 85 people lost their lives. the first time i met donald trump was on a flight to paradise, california, where he saw firsthand the ravages of mother nature. of course, he doesn't believe in climate change, but he again had to have believed his own eyes. he said it was a forest management issue. little simple in terms of his mindset.

he also said we should rake our forests and that would solve it. and i mean, actually in real life said rake them with rakes and just rake it 100 million acres. i don't know about your raking policy and your respective countries, but that was a serious, serious proposal from the president, united states, former president. he lost the election, by the way. so, look, when you when you go to greenville, california, it's gold rush town like grizzly flats and paradise. that's literally dropped off the map. it's pretty sobering. and the folks up there, that's trump country as well. a lot of concern of folks up there. and it goes back to my fundamental point. there's no republican thermometer in american politics or a democratic thermometer. there's just real life. and in california, what's happened and i think you're seeing this growing consciousness around the

world. this is no longer ideological. it's not even through the prism of politics. it's through the prism of people loving their families, loving their communities and are just desperate to address the ravages of what we have created in this manmade climate disaster. and the fact is, we have the tools. and i just if there's nothing else i want to leave with you when i say we're in the how business, we're through this. we're in this process. we call it the great implementation. we've moved away from ambition. i don't know what else we can do. i guess we could pull some of our ambition closer, but at the end of the day, i'm done signing any commitments to 20 this 20 that it's like we've got to go, we've got to invest, we've got to make things happen and i think people are now seeing that they're part of that future and they see a brighter and better future. and that's why i'm very enlivened and optimistic. did you take that message to china for example, you were recently there. tell us about those conversations. look, there is no you're never going

to solve for the planetary realities of climate change unless california or rather the united states, in partnership with california and china, work together. you know, just just think about the united states and china alone, over 40% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, just those two countries. and so it's all about partnership. i said it when we met with president xi. it's not a closed fist. it's an open hand and it's sharing best practices. it's partnership, it's scaling technology, it's sharing technologies. i left with the climate envoys you saw with climate envoy kerry and minister was down there at sunnylands, and we had an opportunity to showcase some of the work we're doing out here, some of the modern work. but but we've been trading best practices for decades between our respective countries and the planet is a beneficiary. our economies are beneficiary. so more of that and that's why i'm here at apec, more of that again, open hand, not a closed fist divorce. this is not an option. we have to live together and advance

together across our differences. we'll manage our strategic competition, but at the end of the day, we all share the same short moment in life. and the climate is the ultimate equalizer here. and to me, it's so foundational in terms of finding of connecting our fate and future in a way that should invite us all to the same table and so i was really proud of that trip up. i was really i'm really proud to see our two presidents meeting as we speak to trying to turn the page, turn down the volume a little bit. and i just think it's a very healthy thing. so you went there with a message of an open hand from california. yes. how was that received? what kind of partnership through the silly season of politics for folks that on that other side of the political aisle? that's one thing the folks that are actually thinking through stuff and i think received very well. it was certainly i don't know, i can't talk about how it was received in china. but you know,

look, it was received well in my home. i got four young kids. i got a seven year old boy, dutch. and you know what? i think he'll you know what? i think he'll be proud of his dad. 20, 30 years from now. said, you know what? you know, when i was his age, i was jumping under the damn desk at school because we're having some nuclear war with russia. i don't want him to grow up like that. i mean, literally, i lived through that anxiety. the late 70s and 80s. we all did. we don't need that. there's too much anxiety, too much stress in this world. i mean, it. and so i'm not interested in the situational politics. and that's why i was out there with the with president xi yesterday welcoming to california, welcoming back to the united states. we need more of that. and again, that's why i'm proud to see president biden down there on their teams working together. i'm looking forward to the readout today. and i have all the confidence it will be very positive and constructive. and so, again, our lives are too

short and i really mean this. the issue of climate presents itself as an opportunity for the commonwealth and it creates an opportunity for us to build trust and relationships, because at the end of the day, that's all that matters. governor newsom, thank you so much for being with us. thanks for having me. i appreciate it. great to see you. thank you. thanks, everybody. you're watching san francisco rising with chris

manner today's special guests i'm chris you're watching san francisco rising the rebuilding and reimaging and our guests the executive director of the homeland security and today to talk about the city and solutions and welcome to the show. >> thank you an honor to be here. >> let's a start by talking about people traeld don't consider that much the business programs what does the city need to have that. >> most people think of homeless they think of people they see on the street in the tenderloin and many people experiencing homeless have not visible to the average person and a lot of those people are children or older adults and families that is what we see at

the department of homeless on top of homeless among the black community we don't realize there. 40 percent of our homeless populationist with the african-americans and only 5 percent of the population today the with the african-american and the same thing about the communities that over represent and we we try to make sure there is equity in the system and reaching the goals not seeing by the public as much we know that housing is essentially what everyone needs to thrive in the community. >> quite correct some of the solutions often vulnerable or smaller scale how do we expand those solutions as we go about. >> a attended in the homeless

he roman numerals seeing none, three interventions need presentation for the people experiencing homes in the first place and pouting are ways for people to get to permanent housing on their own and need shelter so really need all three of the intefrjz for people to assess one the things we often don't understand meet people where they are and sometimes did have the documents or other things to move into housing. they maybe waiting on disability income or themes so we have to be prepared to have things ready to use the sheltered are reality important. we know that ultimately preservation ask one of the most important toltz we can put into our systems if

people don't have that mri better off for many reasons but way cheaper to have someone out of homeless in the first place and the permanent housing is a wonderful tool for many people can't get housing on their own and needed case management or other services to be able to assess the other part of their life employment and things. >> so the home by the bay plan can you explain the basics and how to address the needs? >> sure the home by the bay the strategic plan the 5-year plan to prevent homelessness i want to do what at mayors said homeless is not just owned by the department of 40e789s but the responded didn't has to include a number of stakeholders what that requires is really a

collaborative approach we're really continuing to work very close with the 0 department of public health and law enforcement or the department of - aye. >> by linking to the voices of people exercising homelessness need to create programs without listening to the people experiencing and finding what is like for them to go through the system we're not going to make that better and ultimately will not be successful. your first goal really to produce inexacerbated in our system remarkably equity and also want to reduce the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in 5 years and over all address homelessness by 15 percent your offer arching goals for us and some people said that

didn't seem like enough or didn't seem bold enough to given where we are not just a a city but country wiring proud of that goal and look forward to implementing the work that it takes to get there and hoping will be can he have in 5 years. >> we are here the property interrupt trip to the lovely agreement can you talk about that and then maybe talk about how public housing will be a solution? >> one of the very exciting things about that building it accommodates names families in a neighborhood with grocery stores and transportation a little bit out of the tenderloin when we think of families with children finding places in the area that are enacted by homeless. so very

again community space and actually have a partnership with the housing authority the housing authority has different kinds of vouches they have available and in case with the vouches we use those vouchers with the unit and help to cut the cost we have homekey dollars that provide money to the counties our acquisitions and able to leverage that. >> can you you, you talk about the voucher programs how they help public housing and help landowners into the whole thing. >> sure we have a few voucher emergency vouchers from the federal government during covid and dispersing those with the housing authority and the programs one they can help

prevent people from 0 becoming homeless and people are in danger of becoming homeless with a necessity they can stay in the place they have and people are experienced homeless and in a shelter and kwobtd with the system the best way for them to find it themselves with the help of a case manager or a housing locate our that makes sense in san francisco we will have a number of buildings in certain neighborhoods in san francisco and a number of places in san francisco we find people experiencing homeless across the decide but don't have an easy option with a number of neighborhoods so emergency housing voucher program we

partnered in bay view and been successful in making sure that people from that neighborhood and that neighborhood kind of a proximity for people who have experienced homelessness with born and raised in bay view and, you know. instead of putting them in a place across town a unit available able to work with them to find their units in the neighborhood eventually and we hope when lvrndz will see the value got a number of landowners buildings with a lot of vacancies we think that it is really um, helpful for them and hopeful for us we can work together and see the number of units in partnerships we can get people housed with a steady income from the rent. >> thank you i appreciate you coming into here today. you

know. this is great. >> thank you chris appreciate that. >> that's it for in episode and for sfgovtv i'm chris thanks for

my name is doctor ellen moffett, i am an assistant medical examiner for the city and county of san francisco. i perform autopsy, review medical records and write reports. also integrate other sorts of testing data to determine cause and manner of death. i have been here at this facility since i moved here in november, and previous to that at the old facility. i was worried when we moved here that because this building is so much larger that i wouldn't see people every day. i would miss my personal interactions with the other employees, but that hasn't been the case. this building is very nice. we have lovely autopsy tables and i do get to go upstairs and down stairs several times a day to see everyone else i work with. we have a bond like any other

group of employees that work for a specific agency in san francisco. we work closely on each case to determine the best cause of death, and we also interact with family members of the diseased. that brings us closer together also. >> i am an investigator two at the office of the chief until examiner in san francisco. as an investigator here i investigate all manners of death that come through our jurisdiction. i go to the field interview police officers, detectives, family members, physicians, anyone who might be involved with the death. additionally i take any property with the deceased individual and take care and custody of that. i maintain the chain and custody for court purposes if that becomes an issue later and notify next of kin and make any additional follow up phone callsness with that particular death. i am dealing with people at the

worst possible time in their lives delivering the worst news they could get. i work with the family to help them through the grieving process. >> i am ricky moore, a clerk at the san francisco medical examiner's office. i assist the pathology and toxicology and investigative team around work close with the families, loved ones and funeral establishment. >> i started at the old facility. the building was old, vintage. we had issues with plumbing and things like that. i had a tiny desk. i feet very happy to be here in the new digs where i actually have room to do my work. >> i am sue pairing, the toxicologist supervisor.

we test for alcohol, drugs and poisons and biological substances. i oversee all of the lab operations. the forensic operation here we perform the toxicology testing for the human performance and the case in the city of san francisco. we collect evidence at the scene. a woman was killed after a robbery homicide, and the dna collected from the zip ties she was bound with ended up being a cold hit to the suspect. that was the only investigative link collecting the scene to the suspect. it is nice to get the feedback. we do a lot of work and you don't hear the result. once in a while you heard it had an impact on somebody. you can bring justice to what happened. we are able to take what we due to the next level. many of our counterparts in other states, cities or

countries don't have the resources and don't have the beautiful building and the equipmentness to really advance what we are doing. >> sometimes we go to court. whoever is on call may be called out of the office to go to various portions of the city to investigate suspicious deaths. we do whatever we can to get our job done. >> when we think that a case has a natural cause of death and it turns out to be another natural cause of death. unexpected findings are fun. >> i have a prior background in law enforcement. i was a police officer for 8 years. i handled homicides and suicides. i had been around death investigation type scenes. as a police officer we only handled minimal components then it was turned over to the

coroner or the detective division. i am intrigued with those types of calls. i wondered why someone died. i have an extremely supportive family. older children say, mom, how was your day. i can give minor details and i have an amazing spouse always willing to listen to any and all details of my day. without that it would be really hard to deal with the negative components of this job. >> being i am a native of san francisco and grew up in the community. i come across that a lot where i may know a loved one coming from the back way or a loved one seeking answers for their deceased. there are a lot of cases where i may feel affected by it. if from is a child involved or things like that. i try to not bring it home and

not let it affect me. when i tell people i work at the medical examiners office. what do you do? the autopsy? i deal with the enough and -- with the administrative and the families. >> most of the time work here is very enjoyable. >> after i started working with dead people, i had just gotten married and one night i woke up in a cold sweat. i thought there was somebody dead? my bed. i rolled over and poked the body. sure enough, it was my husband who grumbled and went back to sleep. this job does have lingering effects. in terms of why did you want to go into this? i loved science growing up but i didn't want to be a doctor and didn't want to be a pharmacist.

the more i learned about forensics how interested i was of the perfect combination between applied science and criminal justice. if you are interested in finding out the facts and truth seeking to find out what happened, anybody interested in that has a place in this field. >> being a woman we just need to go for it and don't let anyone fail you, you can't be. >> with regard to this position in comparison to crime dramas out there, i would say there might be some minor correlations. let's face it, we aren't hollywood, we are real world. yes we collect evidence. we want to preserve that. we are not scanning fingerprints in the field like a hollywood television show. >> families say thank you for what you do, for me that is

extremely fulfilling. somebody has to do my job. if i can make a situation that is really negative for someone more positive, then i feel like i am doing the right thing for the city of san francisco. >> call the san francisco disability and aging service committee of wednesday october 4, 2023 to order. i'm the president janet spears. as noted on the agenda, members of the public may observe the teleconference meeting via sfgovtv.org or channel 78 and may offer public comment by calling the public comment phone number. i like