Growing up in Harvey and Algiers, Johnnie James II said he always knew what he wanted to do, just not exactly how he was going to do it.
“My mother was the first person to own nail salons in Louisiana in the 1980s,” he said. “From as far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur.”
Over the years, James has worked as a consultant, actor, real estate developer and concert promoter, but the seeds of his biggest passion were planted 20 years ago.
“After being displaced by Hurricane Katrina, I lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I was first introduced to sustainability and aquaponics,” he said. “I was invited to join the board of a local NGO called the Sustainable Global Leadership Alliance, and my relationship with sustainability and systems thinking deepened during this time.”
After returning to New Orleans, James was doing a site visit in Algiers in late 2019 for a proposed residential project when a simple question caused him to start thinking about the lessons he’d learned in New Mexico.
“The question of what future tenants would have to eat opened my eyes to the systemic challenges of food deserts and malnutrition in underserved communities,” he said. “I realized that addressing these issues would require innovative and interconnected solutions benefiting both people and the environment.”
At that point, he said he decided to pivot from the real estate project and establish Pursuit of Happiness Farms in March 2020, although he sees as the venture as not a far departure from where he started in business.
“Truth be told, I still see real estate as a huge part of the future of our business. When you begin thinking about the implications of being able to reclaim land on the coast, you are literally creating real estate. At scale I see a unique real estate challenge in small island restoration wherein we could acquire land improve it by growing more of it and increasing the value of the real estate in a variety of ways,” he said.
Originally located in Algiers and now headquartered officially in Baton Rouge at Nexus Louisiana, the company focused on recirculating aquaculture systems and controlled environment agriculture food production methods, with the goal of zero waste agriculture.
“We wanted to produce food without producing waste and assist farmers to transform waste into added value byproducts,” James said.
Since its founding, Pursuit of Happiness Farms was selected as a semifinalist for the Blue Swell incubator from Sea Ahead and won Pitch BR from Nexus Louisiana in 2024. Additionally, the startup has secured partnerships with Additive Innovators, Climate Culture, Glass Half Full, Louisiana Additive Manufacturing Association, Louisiana Chamber of Commerce Foundation, and R C O A S T and is being supported by Idea Village, GNO, Inc, LSU AGGRC, Nexus Louisiana, OHUB and Tulane Innovation Institute.
In April 2024, POH Farms secured the global exclusive rights to a product called Reefbuds©, which he describes as “an innovative, plant-based concrete technology. A single solution that restores coastlines, revitalizes marine ecosystems, and reduces carbon footprints faster than anything else in the water.”
The startup was recently recognized by Opportunity Hub NOLA (OHUB) and its New Energy Technology Incubator as an outstanding business concept. James was among five founders that were invited to pitch at the organization’s Climate Tech Demo Day last June.
During the event, he noted that Louisiana is expected to spend $50 billion over the next 50 years on coastal restoration and protection, with concrete being a key component on every project. He added that concrete is the third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide on earth, is largely inhospitable to marine life, and has a high PH that harms ocean life and degrades in even the most optimal environments.
Reefbuds, he explained, solves all these issues. A carbon negative product, it attracts marine organisms “within days rather than years,” helping to rebuild reefs and barrier islands. The product was created in the Philippines with help from a grant aimed at addressing the marine dead zones that had been created from blast fishing with dynamite.
“The pilot was used in a marine dead zone in 2007 and the area was resurrected within weeks,” he said. The “secret sauce” of the plant-based concrete? “Let’s just call it metallic oxides,” he said, “which rapidly recruits marine life.”
James said Reefbuds has been deployed in locations stretching between Lake Pontchartrain and Pensacola, Florida, and area from where POH Farms is gathering data. Noting research and development partnerships currently including the LSU Ag Center, The Beach at UNO and Tulane Innovation Institute, the company is working to secure suppliers, with the goal being to offer on-demand manufactured material.
“An ideal client for POH Farms is any organization, government agency or private entity seeking sustainable and innovative solutions for coastal restoration, coastal protection and/or carbon reduction.”
Currently, POH Farms operates as a founder-led initiative supported by a collaborative team.
“While we don’t yet have formal employees, we’ve been fortunate to have volunteers from the community join us as awareness of our project has grown. Their enthusiasm and contributions reflect the grassroots momentum behind our mission as we work toward scaling our efforts and securing funding to support a formal team.”
For James, the debut of Reefbuds to the local community couldn’t have come at a more important time, as the realities of climate change become more and more apparent.
“We are actively developing partnerships and seeking potential clients, collaborators, and funders for projects. Reefbuds has a long history of Rotary Club-sponsored deployments with thousands of structures deployed in the Philippines,” he said. “POH Farms is seeking similar partnerships with Rotary Clubs and other eco-aware organizations. Our current focus is on building manufacturing capacity and collecting data through projects, which will serve as a foundation for expanding our client base and our solution offerings.”
Pursuit of Happiness Farms
Pohfarms.com
FB: @pursuit.of.happiness.farms | IG: @pursuit.of.happiness.farms
