Jim holds a B.Sc. degree in agronomy from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California, 1974.  He is classically trained in soil science, soil microbiology and tropical agriculture, plus orchard, plantation and vineyard crop production practices.

Jim has rare knowledge and experience in the concepts and methods of applied soil microbiology that stimulate and support plants to have improved growth and higher yields. He is a career master consultant in modern sustainable agriculture who brings state-of-the-art techniques of soil fertility, applied soil ecology, plant nutrition and plant health--including biological control of common pests and diseases.  He has extensive international experience in crop production and planning of large-scale biodiesel and biomass projects in Mexico, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Cambodia, and Ghana.

In 1977 Jim was the regional manager in the Sacramento Valley of California for Advanced Ag Associates, a consulting firm that provided soil analysis and crop production inputs to farms.  In 1980 Jim joined Bonanza Seeds of Gilroy, California, a vegetable seed company, where he worked in procurement and sales.  Beginning in 1983, Jim took a hiatus from agriculture to follow his interest in human nutrition and health and went into the field of chiropractic.  He graduated from Western States Chiropractic College in Portland, Oregon in 1986 and was in private practice before joining the administration of Western States as the Director of Development.  He later instructed in the college's teaching clinic as an Assistant Professor.

In 1991 Dr. Barlow returned to his first love of the emerging sustainable agriculture industry and was co-founder of Soil Foodweb, Inc., a first-of-its-kind soil microbiology analysis laboratory that he spun out of Oregon State University at Corvallis in 1996. With knowledge and experience gained at the lab, Jim has become an expert in applied soil ecology as a means to increase the root health and general productivity of trees and crop plants. He has mastery of best products and cultural practices that will cause still more rapid growth and health of plants than is achieved by use of fertilizers alone. The business potential of this combination of technologies for biofuel and biomass production is enormous.

In 1997, while at the lab, Jim was recruited by the U.S. chairman of the agriculture committee of the Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission to travel to the Russian Far East on a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to assess the condition of the agricultural sector there.  Jim made a second trip to the Russian Far East for the U.S. Department of Commerce in 1999 where he lectured in three cities on how applied soil ecology can increase farm yields.  

In 2006 Jim joined Goldstar Biodiesel company of Monterrey, California as a co-founder and Chief Agronomist.  While at Goldstar, Jim focused the management team on the stratagem of being a primary producer of feedstock, and refining secondarily as a value add.  Jim helped raise capital for the company and made five trips to Ghana, West Africa where he examined soil and climate maps to identify the best growing regions.  Goldstar evolved into Abundant Biofuels, which merged with Jet Bio.  Rather than join Abundant Biofuels, Jim co-founded Sequoia Energy of Carmel, California in 2007 where he is Chief Agronomist.  Jim helped raise additional capital and was the company point person in Ghana meeting with tribal Chiefs when it leased 100,000 acres (40,000 Ha) of prime land there for its plantations.  During this time, Jim traveled to Mexico, Mozambique, Australia and Nicaragua to tour Jatropha operations and consult to several biofuels companies with regard to land selection. 

In 2010, while consulting to Riverton Agricultural Services, Jim was endorsed by the U.S. Department of Commerce to the Minister of Agriculture of the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq and traveled there to meet with eleven department heads regarding how modern methods of sustainable agriculture can be used to increase forestry and food security in Iraq.

Jim is a published author and an accomplished public speaker who has lectured widely on advanced techniques of sustainable agriculture across the U.S. as well as in New Zealand and the Russian Far East. He has appeared on radio in New Zealand and the U.S., and on television in Mexico and Cambodia.

Jim speaks English and Spanish and is available to assist serious investors and project managers who wish to establish or manage large plantations for biofuels or biomass production. He is an experienced project planner and designer with respect to the logistics and agronomy of plantations for feedstock. This includes site selection, sourcing best varieties of plants, best products and cultural practices that will further accelerate the growth and productivity of trees and crops for biomass and oil production.