{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2F4ea167b9-fbb5-4f07-88c4-80ae2c6e3c85","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"S2E25: Sam Norton - Seawater Agriculture: Tapping into the Earth\u2019s Largest Resource","description":"Episode Summary\r\n\r\nJoin Harry Duran, host of Vertical Farming Podcast, as he welcomes to the show Founder of Heron Farms, Sam Norton. It is the mission of Heron Farms to create a sustainable agricultural system and restore the marsh using earth\u2019s most abundant resource: seawater. In this episode, Harry and Sam talk all about sea beans, Sam\u2019s fact-finding mission to Bangladesh to learn more about how seawater crops are grown, and the work Heron Farms is doing with other brands to help rebuild salt marshes across the globe.\r\n\r\nEpisode Sponsor\r\n\r\nCeres Greenhouse Solutions\r\n\r\nKey Takeaways\r\n03:22 \u2013 Harry welcomes to the show Sam Norton, founder of Heron Farms, who speaks to his passion for environmental studies and what inspired him to get involved in AgTech\r\n10:07 \u2013 Sam discusses why he chose to focus on seawater agriculture, the startup competition he entered and won and the mission of Heron Farms\r\n15:17 \u2013 Mentors who have motivated and inspired Sam \r\n20:30 \u2013 Sam speaks to the various challenges that he faced when moving to indoor farming\r\n23:47 \u2013 The most eye-opening part of Sam\u2019s trip to Bangladesh\r\n26:35 \u2013 Sam shares some of the tech stack he\u2019s utilizing with Heron Farms and the skillset necessary to succeed in AgTech\r\n30:18 \u2013 Sam discusses some of the benefits and nutritional value of sea beans\r\n34:35 \u2013 Marketing challenges with sea beans\r\n38:28 \u2013 What Sam would do differently in building his team if given the chance\r\n41:52 \u2013 Sam talks about the work he\u2019s doing with Dalai Sofia\r\n45:13 \u2013 How Sam has grown as a first-time CEO, what excites Sam most about the future and a tough question Sam has had to ask himself recently\r\n49:19 \u2013 Harry thanks Sam for joining the show and let\u2019s listeners know where they can connect with him \r\n\r\nTweetable Quotes\r\n\r\n\u201cThe mission of Heron Farms is to tap into the largest resource on the planet, which is seawater. And if we can do that while rebuilding the planet, that\u2019s really a win-win.\u201d(12:44)\r\n\r\n\u201cWe\u2019re fixing the car as we drive it down the road. We have the good kinds of problems. We have more demand than we can grow for so we\u2019re fixing it as we go and trying to get ready to scale.\u201d(14:55)\r\n\r\n\u201cMonocultures are scary at scale, but diverse agriculture at a smaller scale is very interesting and seems to be working over in Bangladesh although it has caused great loss in the natural environment.\u201d(26:19)\r\n\r\n\u201cWe\u2019re basically copying the model that the avocado did. If you boil it down, all we\u2019re really doing is asking, \u2018why have you ever eaten an avocado?\u2019 All those plants went through similar cycles. People didn\u2019t know how to eat an avocado, when it was ripe, what a fair price was. And all of those are true of sea beans.\u201d(35:10)\r\n\r\n\u201cThese systems, they\u2019re not like a fine wine. Indoor AgTech and your grow room do not get better with time.\u201d(41:15)\r\n\r\n\u201cWe pitched this idea with Dalai Sofia where we asked them to put our logo on their can and, in exchange, we\u2019ll replant one square foot every time they sell one of these cans. And within three weeks it was their best-selling SKU.\u201d(43:10)\r\n\r\n\u201cIf we can team capitalism up with restoration then this planet is going to overflow with biodiversity.\u201d(44:42)\r\n\r\nLinks Mentioned\r\n\r\nHeron Farms Website\r\n\r\nSam\u2019s LinkedIn\r\n\r\nDalai Sofia\r\n\r\n\ud83c\udf99\ufe0f\ud83c\udf99\ufe0f\ud83c\udf99\ufe0f\r\n\r\nPodcast Production and Marketing by FullCast: https://bit.ly/3sxZ34y\r\n\r\nSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/4abf92f3-bdc5-4302-b5f2-a8d4e393b503/image.jpg"}