Farming – not on land – but in the sea. Budding entrepreneur and recipient of the most ever grant funding by a College of Charleston student, Sam is working to grow a new sustainable food supply.

Sam Norton, founder of the seawater agriculture company Heron Farms, is a graduate student in the College of Charleston’s Master of Environmental Studies program. He was raised on the coast of South Carolina surrounded by marsh and ocean, where he first developed his interest in the role of halophytes in the coastal environment.

Norton’s research on the use of saltmarsh plants for seawater agriculture won the South Carolina Department of Agriculture’s annual ACRE competition and his start-up Heron Farms won first place in Charleston’s Harbor Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program. He is currently writing his Master’s thesis on the commercial feasibility of indoor seawater hydroponic agriculture and the effect of LED spectra on halophyte biomass and morphology. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx