About the Flounder

James Rafferty grew up in Calgary AB, in a home that supported his creative ideas and hands on nature as a child. His father worked in telecommunications, and his mother was a bookkeeper. Even in his early childhood he would build various machines and take things apart in order to find out how they worked. Of course his favorite TV show was "How Its Made". Throughout junior high and high school, he continued his interest in hands on activities and excelled at automotive mechanics, construction, and began building a small go kart and "dune buggy" from the ground up.

Having learned basic skills in construction, mechanics, welding, electrical, and other trades, he went on to SAIT where he took an accelerated program in aircraft maintenance. After SAIT he worked in aircraft maintenance for about five years before joining a small company which specialized in landscaping and maintenance. The goal in the landscaping company was eventually to manage and grow the company for the future, but that opportunity inevitably fell through a couple years afterward.

About the time he was in SAIT, he enjoyed racing motorcycles, and out of personal interest he started importing LED lighting due to high local retail prices. Soon after importing these lights he started getting interest from friends and acquaintances to buy these products. This was the beginning of the commercial and industrial lighting company which is now called Streamline LED. From its humble beginnings of selling HID headlights and bike accessories, Streamline now sells a variety of HID and LED products across AB, and has grown sales year over year.

Over the last few years he developed an interest in household plants, and as he was able to trial and test new LED growing technology out of China. This grew into an interest in bonsai, orchids, fruit trees, and vegetables soon after. After exploring the growing technologies being employed overseas and experimenting with his household plants, he eventually came upon the concept called Aquaponics. This technique was the foundation for the idea of building an off-grid sustainable Aquaponics greenhouse. This interest is what grew into the idea of Rafferty Farms today. He currently operates the two tradenames Streamline LED and Rafferty Farms under the legal entity, Earthis Ltd.