Spencer's story

I am not your average farmer. I grew up in South Glastonbury, Connecticut, surrounded by agriculture, with a corn field across the street and an apple orchard behind my house, but farming never crossed my mind growing up. Instead, I played football and soccer. The most connected to the land that I got was hiking. I went to college at the University of Vermont, as a double major in Latin and Philosophy. Like I said, not your average farmer. After, I moved to Boston while my roommate finished his five year program at Northeastern. That’s when we found aquaponics. Today we’re in South Glastonbury, where we founded our company. Since then, we’ve been growing food with aquaponics and helping others do the same for themselves and their communities. We have a vision of a world that can feed itself. With 70% of the world’s population projected to live in cities by 2050, we are focused on creating the City that Feeds Itself. My dream is to prove our model in Hartford, my state’s Capital, then repeat it in other cities. I believe in an abundant future, where everyone eats their fill. As with solar-power, in a world where every home has an aquaponics garden, we can enjoy extra income by selling excess production to the community. With a network of producers, we create the City that Feeds Itself. This is a lofty dream. I am confident we can get there together, thanks to technologies like aquaponics and crowdfunding platforms like Kiva! In addition to running our company, I hone my skills through yoga and meditation in open classes and privately. My team and I have undertaken and funded this venture entirely on our own, running it successfully for four years.