Karin Kloosterman‎

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Karin Kloosterman is a serial entrepreneur, biologist, journalist, environmental publisher, founder of Green Prophet, co-founder of Flux IoT, social entrepreneur and futurist.

Biography

Kloosterman was born in Canada to Dutch and Scottish immigrants.{{Cite web |url=https://www.israel21c.org/gadget-blooms-your-hydroponic-garden/ |title=Gadget blooms your hydroponic garden |author=Abigail Klein Leichman |date=July 15, 2015 |access-date=April 30, 2017 |website=ISRAEL21c}}

She studied zoology at the University of Toronto. And is the founder and editor of the sustainable news site [http://www.greenprophet.com Green Prophet].

Kloosterman first worked at CABI finding natural alternatives to conventional pesticides. During that time and before she had published several papers on tracking forest health using [https://www.thebhs.org/publications/the-herpetological-journal/volume-10-number-2-april-2000/1600-03-the-diet-of-coexisting-species-of-amphibians-in-canadian-jack-pine-forests indicator species such as amphibians] and the importance of Old Growth Forests for forest health. She left Science because she said it didn't leave space for intuition and even though research institutions welcomed women the entire approach of Biology was masculine and based on antiquated constructs that didn't leave room for intuition. She travelled to the Middle East and established the blog Green Prophet with the goal of creating a news site where North American Jews could find out about environmental issues which affected Israel.{{cite web |url=https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/green-blogger-takes-on-the-middle-east/ |title=Green blogger takes on the Middle East |last=Jacobs |first=Justin |date=July 14, 2010 |work=Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle}} She then decided she didn't need to limit it to just Israel, and begun covering environmental issues throughout the Middle East.{{cite web |url=https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/the-mideasts-environmental-prophet/ |title=The Mideast's Environmental 'Prophet' |last=Eglash |first=Ruth |date=August 16, 2011 |website=The Jewish Week}}

Kloosterman is co-founder of the Internet of things company Flux IoT, based in New York City. She also founded Israel's first and now largest international cannabis technologies conference, CannaTech (although she is no longer involved in the organization),{{cite web |url=https://blog.startupnationcentral.org/agritech/women-powering-israeli-innovation-karin-kloosterman/ |title=Women powering Israeli Innovation: Karin Kloosterman |last=Arieli |first=Inbal |date=January 20, 2017 |website=blog.startupnationcentral.org |accessdate=2020-10-11}} and founded Mars Farm Odyssey to create non-NASA approved solutions for farming in outer space.

Flux IoT, developing a grow robot called Eddy, was hailed by Bloomberg News in 2017 as "likely to disrupt" the food system.{{cite web |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-09/military-grade-tech-to-monitor-eggplants-rather-than-explosives |title=Military-Grade Tech to Monitor Eggplants Rather Than Explosives |last=Ackerman |first=Gwen |date=March 9, 2017 |website=bloomberg.com}}{{cite web |url=https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-get-your-startup-featured-bloomberg-we-did-karin-kloosterman |title=How to get your startup featured on Bloomberg (we did it!) |last=Kloosterman |first=Karin |date=March 14, 2017 |website=linkedin.com |accessdate=2020-10-11}} In 2017, her alliance Mars Farm was featured in Fast Company.{{cite web |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/3066828/these-futurists-and-urban-farmers-are-figuring-out-how-to-farm-on-mars |title=These Futurists And Urban Farmers Are Figuring Out How To Farm On Mars |last=Peters |first=Adele |date=January 4, 2017 |website=Fast Company}} In 2019, Kloosterman was interviewed about her plan for a device that will grow cannabis on Mars.{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/what-would-it-be-like-to-get-high-on-mars/ |title=What Would it Be Like to Get High on Mars? |last=Hay |first=Mark |date=April 19, 2019 |website=Vice}}

She has written articles for publications such as Canada's National Post,{{cite news |title=Women's hockey in the holy land: Thornhill dynamo hopes to shepherd Israeli upstarts to 2010 Olympics in B.C. |last=Kloosterman |first=Karin |date=October 14, 2006 |newspaper=National Post |page=TO14}} [https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/30/how-to-keep-iot-hunters-and-poachers-out-of-your-food-and-farms/ Techcrunch] The Jerusalem Post,{{cite web |url=https://www.jpost.com/local-israel/on-the-wings-of-an-albatross |title=On the wings of an albatross |last=Kloosterman |first=Karin |date=November 13, 2009 |website=The Jerusalem Post}} HuffPost,{{cite web |url=https://www.huffpost.com/author/karin-kloosterman |title=Karin Kloosterman |website=HuffPost |access-date=2020-10-11}} TreeHugger,{{cite web |url=https://www.treehugger.com/author/karin-kloosterman/ |title=Karin Kloosterman |work=TreeHugger |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170926235641/https://www.treehugger.com/author/karin-kloosterman/ |archivedate=2017-09-26 |accessdate=2020-10-11}} and Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.{{cite web |url=https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/writers/karin-kloosterman/ |title=Karin Kloosterman |work=Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle |accessdate=2020-10-11}}

Personal life

She lives between Ontario, Canada and Jaffa, Israel, and is a convert to Judaism.{{cite web |url=https://jewishjournal.com/culture/lifestyle/humans-of-israel/235236/joined-tribe-thrived/ |title=She Joined the Tribe and Thrived |last=Danan |first=Deborah |date=June 14, 2018 |website=The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles}}{{Cite web |url=http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2016/11/15/israels-flux-is-helping-feed-the-world-with-new-tech-for-home-gardens/ |title=Israel's Flux Is Helping Feed the World With New Tech for Home Gardens |first=Gil |last=Tanenbaum |website=Jewish Business News |date=November 15, 2016 |access-date=April 30, 2017}}