Sustainable Farming Comes To America’s Heartland

Last summer’s heat dome exacted a huge toll in the northeast Pacific. Hundreds of people died because of the extreme heat and its lingering effects. A perfect storm of high temperatures, low tides, and a noonday sun that scorched exposed tidal flats meant marine life suffered as well. The heatwave killed, by some accounts, one billion sea creatures. The marine toll was felt especially acutely by the US $107-million shellfish aquaculture industry in Washington State.  One of the people paying close attention was Tim Smith. An aquatic ecologist and aquaculture sustainability consultant turned science teacher, Smith recognized the scale of the problem. But just a few months later, when he began working at Pioneer Middle School in Shelton, Washington, a hotbed town for shellfish farming, he recognized an opportunity.