Encinitas Company Honored With White House Award

Go Green Agriculture uses a process called hydroponics to organically grow produce without soil and with less water

An environmentally progressive company in Encinitas was recognized nationally as part of President Barack Obama’s Champions of Change program.

Go Green Agriculture uses a process called hydroponics to organically grow lettuce without soil and use 80 percent less water and produce five times the crop of a traditional farm.

The company’s CEO, Pierre Sleiman, is a first-generation farmer who hopes he can inspire kids to get into farming.

“One of the things that I look to do is to inspire kids to … understand that agriculture is a really cool thing that involves science, technology, mathematics,” Sleiman said. “And if I knew that as a kid, I think I would have been way more interested in farming from an earlier age.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is working to encourage younger, more innovative people to get into farming. Today, the average age of farmers in the United States is 58.

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