Aquaponics farmer Kenkel ’18 receives $1.6 million investment

Two Springworks employees examine lettuce on the farm. Courtesy of Trevor Kenkel

About 97 percent of America’s lettuce production is in Southern California and Arizona.

By Sarah Drumm
Bowdoin Orient
February 9, 2018

Excerpt:

In junior high, Kenkel started a small organic garden in his hometown in Montana. Frustrated by Montana’s short growing season, Kenkel learned about aquaponic farming online and began to build his own system with money from a summer job.

He continued to expand his first system and began to create a business plan for the company. Though he was recruited to play football at Bowdoin, Kenkel instead pursued his interest in sustainable agriculture, buying land near campus in Lisbon to allow him to continue to build the company while at school.

He now sells his lettuce to 30 individual customers and a number of distributors who transport his produce across New England. For now, Kenkel only grows lettuce, a choice designed to maximize the efficiency of the operation. Although lettuce is a $3 billion industry in America, most of it is grown in the southwest.

“About 97 percent of America’s lettuce production is in Southern California and Arizona. That has typically a very negative impact, especially when you consider water stress in that area. This is a way to make the supply chain a lot more efficient,” explained Kenkel.

Read the complete article here.