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Compelling Calgarians: Paul Shumlich

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Paul Shumlich, the 28-year-old founder of Deepwater Farms, gets excited when he talks about entrepreneurship and the future of this city.

The third-generation Calgarian says young entrepreneurs are embracing new technologies as well as concepts such as “local” and “sustainable” — and in the process are expanding the city’s image beyond oil and gas.

“My peers, my friends from university and other inspiring people are doing amazing things,” Shumlich says. “Things don’t change overnight, but they are changing.”

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Shumlich’s business, which he started five years ago while still a student in Mount Royal University’s entrepreneurship program, represents a new way of thinking about food and farming. Deepwater Farms raises leafy greens and fresh seafood together in what will ultimately be a sustainable, closed loop system. (Right now, the waste from the fish is used as fertilizer for the plants. Once the company gets its technology perfected, Deepwater’s goal is to condense the purified water the plants release into the air and return it to the fish).

“We are at the crossroads of nature and technology,” says Shumlich, who believes that while aquaponics is unconventional right now, the growing global demand for food and concern for the environment will push it into the mainstream.

“We are just at the forefront of where things are headed in terms of smart farming,” he says.

Already, Deepwater’s produce and fish appear on the menu at some of the city’s finest restaurants. Shumlich — who has raised close to $2 million in seed funding for the business that started in his back yard and is now located in a 10,000-square-foot building in a northeast industrial park — says he believes Deepwater Farms could grow to 10 times its current size within the next three years, and he’s not afraid of the hard work it will take to get there.

“I’m young, I don’t have a house, I don’t have kids,” he says. “I’ve got nothing to lose and I’ve got everything to gain.”

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