The Planting Pierres

Pierre Sleiman Sr. and his son, Pierre Sleiman Jr. wanted to spend more time together. Pierre Sr. had worked for a while manufacturing t-shirts and Pierre Jr. was going to UCSD to earn a degree in business and technology. So they set off on adventure to find better and healthier ways to grow food.

The father and son duo put their heads together and combined Pierre Sr.’s business background with Pierre Jr.’s understanding of newer technology and came up with Go Green Agriculture.

Located in Encinitas, in the northern part of San Diego County, Go Green Agriculture is based on the idea of creating urban “mini-farms” to supply healthy food to a local community. This cuts major transportation costs and fuel emissions while supporting sustainability.

In order to create these mini-farms Go Green Agriculture needed a flexible way to plant crops, even in places where there isn’t a lot of land. So “The Pierres” decided to use a farming method known as hydroponics.

Hydroponics is the art and science of growing plants in nutrient rich water instead of soil. Instead sitting on top of earth, the plant floats on top of the water with the roots growing beneath the surface. With these advanced methods, Go Green Agriculture can conserve up to 80% the amount of water and produce 3 to 5 times the yield per square foot as compared to a conventional farm. They farm year round and they can grow as many as 60,000 heads butter lettuce in a month!

Now Pierre Sr. and his son get to spend plenty of time together bringing sustainable crops to local communities around Southern California. They have recently decided to convert to being a certified organic operation and we hope they’ll continue to grow.