Podcast: Interview with Anu and Brandon - Episode 1

STEM Minds founder Anu Bidani and “agripreneur” Brandan Hebor discuss their shared mission to inspire youth and newcomers to see agri-food and agri-tech as innovative, meaningful career paths that address food insecurity, climate change, and an aging farming population. They connect soil health, plant health, and human health, emphasizing land stewardship, regenerative practices, and the importance of understanding the full agri-food value chain. Drawing parallels between early STEM education and today’s agri-tech gap, they argue that schools don’t need “new content,” but a new lens that links existing math, science, biology, robotics, and technology curricula to agriculture. They highlight hands-on learning at their Living Lab and farm, robots, drones, IoT, AI crop diagnostics, as powerful ways to make agriculture “fun and cool,” while promoting local food systems, community gardens, and small backyard growing as practical responses to food insecurity. They also identify a major opportunity in harnessing the skills of immigrants with agricultural backgrounds, re-framing farming as an entrepreneurial, tech-enabled, high-skill profession, and outline initiatives like “Just an Acre” to prove that regenerative, small-scale production can be both profitable and climate-positive.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi everyone, my name is Anubidani. I'm the founder and CEO of STEM Minds, where we inspire young people from kindergarten to grade 12 in being the innovators and future leaders.

SPEAKER_03 0:12

And I'm Brandon Heber, and I will say self-proclaimed farmer of the future and teacher, farmer, and a few other things in between, where I started my journey, sort of like you and off of a passion and purpose of growing food. And my time was bringing the farm to the city to reconnect people to food. And that's when the journey started back in 2015. And you know, here we are 10 years later. And not only have I done some pretty, pretty awesome stuff, met some amazing people, but I think our journey together over this last few years has been really inspirational, not only to each other, but to uh to this next generation of innovators and farmers and all the other people in between.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

So why are we here? Let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_03 0:54

Well, why are we here? Well, well, I think we're I think we're here because uh it's about time that we we actually tell our story, right? And and get the chance to um communicate with, we'll say, the world uh of why why do we do what we do, why do we believe it's important, um, and even some of the impacts I think that we've we've really witnessed over the last couple of years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

I guess starting with with kids is important. Um I think if we can inspire our young children about why they should focus on food insecurity, why they should learn how to grow, why they should respect what farmers grow, um, these may seem like very simple, basic statements, but they're very important in the world we live in today. And I think you and I coming together of intersecting education with STEM, with farming, and with your experiences and my experiences, I think what we've created is this world where we can excite you and inspire you about the future of, I guess, agri-food, agri-farming, uh, whatever term we want to call it, but it's about making sure we are self-sustainable in the food we eat and the food we grow and our connection and respect for it. I think the one big thing I learned from you when I met you was, and I never knew about this, was how much we need to respect our land, right? I mean, we we we walk on it, we we grow on it, we eat from it. Like I just would love to hear your perspective on it again for our audience, because I know for me, when I heard you talk about it, it was like I never thought about it from that lens.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

Yeah, well, just in terms of, you know, it's funny because as you go along the whole journey of not only like growing food, and and my story started without even, you know, having soil. We were soilless, we were doing aquaponics or raising fish in a shipping container in downtown Toronto and growing our plants and trying to do it as sustainably as possible. But it wasn't until a few years ago that we really got into, you know, the soil at the at the current farm, um, where you know, along the whole journey you look at, well, it's really true when you are what you eat, right? And so that starts with what's called the soil microbiome and creating, you know, healthy soils with, you know, uh organic matter and compost. So the soil is feeding itself. It's a living, you know, it's a living structure, we'll say an organism with billions of bacteria and and microbes and whatnot in it. But then that then leads to the plant microbiome, right? And then that leads to our gut microbiome. And so, you know, over again, the last 10 years has been, for me, has been not only, you know, producing food, but also understanding how people are interacting with food. And, you know, the unfortunate nature of things is that there's such a disconnect between our farmers that are growing the food that want the best for the environment. And farmers are amazing stewards of their own land. But then there's also this total disconnect between those that are mainly in urban centers that are consuming the food. And so, you know, there's little touches of gardens and balcony gardens and community gardens and things. Um, but the educational system is not actually really bridging this kind of gap in understanding and whether or not, you know, a lot of young people nowadays are not going to sit there and watch a soil over the course of, you know, 24 hours to see microbes move here and there, but they will taste really great food or they will love to play with technology that maybe helps to bridge that gap between, you know, the start and then the end consumer. And I think along that journey, what I've been able to share with you and then our team is, you know, how to really do the best we can to understand the process of agriculture, understand what it is to give back to the land instead of just being an extractive and you know, we put a seed and we take and we take and we take. Well, what does that process look like when we actually look at land stewardship and what can we give back to the soil? What can we give back to the plants? And then how can we do it in a way that minimizes, you know, our impact? And then again, as a business owner, is giving back to the soil gives me bigger plants, gives me bigger profits, helps me reduce my pests. And the concept of a healthy plant is like, and a healthy soil is like a healthy immune system. So we have a healthy immune system. Um, you know, it's kind of like you don't become dependent on, we'll say, pharmaceuticals in the sense of, well, we have a healthy immune system of the soil, the plants can fight off pests better. Um, we have healthy plants in the human body, the human body can fight off bacteria and other disease better.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

And I don't know, you and I have talked about how our curriculum already caters to all of this, but we just don't teach it from that lens. And I think what we've done over the last two years is build those dots and connections from a biology curriculum, a science curriculum, um, even math and then the and all the other things that in our is in our curriculum that already should teach these things, but maybe not as directly as we are trying to connect it together for them. Let's talk about a bit of that because I do believe that sometimes people think, oh, now I have to do another new thing. But I think what we're gonna say is you don't have to do a new thing, it already exists. Yeah. You just need to change your lens, right?

SPEAKER_03 5:46

No, absolutely. And I'd say one one interesting fact about me is like I never went to school thinking that I was gonna be a farmer and didn't go to the University of Guelph. And during my time between, we'll say, K and 12, never um never learned really anything about agriculture outside of having you know great grandparents that have big backyard gardens. And that was one of these experiences where I love being in the garden. And it was this tomato plant and watering the tomato plant and finally eating it that made this connection to then where I am today, which I call myself an agripreneur. Um and the the journey has been so rewarding. But with that is almost this experiential underlying statement I was going to ask you, because uh you start you founded STEM Minds ahead of, we'll say, the institutional curve, which was looking at what is happening in industry today and what are the skills that were kind of missing out, and my reference is usually like, you know, big institutions are like big business, they're kind of like the Titanic where they carry a lot of weight, but they can't turn as fast as small businesses, which are more like speedboats, and you're pivoting and finding opportunity here and there. Um, when you when you founded STEM minds, what was the kind of state, you know, of STEM? Maybe you can just share briefly, because then it ties into today where we're seeing a trend in agriculture, but there's a lot of catching up to do, and that's where we found our sort of niche. But maybe again, going back to STEM minds, do you see any similarities?

SPEAKER_00 7:12

There's this huge, huge similarity. And that's why I think working with you has just been absolutely inspirational and fun. Um, you know, when I my bragg was in tech. So I I grew up, you know, loving computers and technology, and I had a great career in tech. Um, you know, but when I was looking at my kids, they just weren't building the skills that I knew they would need if they had to thrive in the world that we were living in. And that's where in 2016, when I launched Stem Mind, it was a lens of how do I teach kids the skills they need to thrive in the world we're moving in, which is very tech enabled. And so the lens wasn't all about teaching coding or robotic, it was more about building those foundational skills. If they had, no matter what tech got thrown at them, they would know how to work with it. And that was the lens for STEM Minds. And you know, we did really great. I mean, I launched the courses on AI and blockchain in 2019, when AI wasn't even that big mainstream world. So I knew we were ahead. And I remember when we launched those courses, even the team would say, Why are we talking about blockchain in 2019? Or why are we talking about AI? And I would keep saying, the market is going to move there. We've got to prepare our kids before the market moves, because then they will be ready to adapt, adopt, and pivot. And I found the same thing with the whole concept of agri tech. Because with my kids, my my journey was always intertwined with my kids. It's just when we would sit as a family and talk about climate and environment, and you know, and it was what can we do? So in our own backyard, we started doing, you know, rain car uh rain barrels, we put composters in, we started growing stuff. And so when I met with you, it was just like that instant, that connection that came in. I said, okay, this is exactly the same challenge that you and I talked about in the sector that was very similar to what I saw when I launched M Mine. So this means we are, if we start addressing Agri now, before we lose this entire generation who doesn't want to be in this sector, we will address the issue early on. And I think over the last two years, the number of schools we work with, kids we work with, I think we are showing the difference. It works. We just need to connect the dots for them. And to me, that journey of evolution, of taking those ideas and sees and then growing them with the kids, with now with adults that we're doing is just absolutely fascinating. I love every moment of it. And I'm so glad that you and I connected, we met, we shared our values in building what we're building today.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

Yeah, and I think that that drives a lot of what we continue to do, which is the that sort of why, you know, and as just before we we came in here, as mentioning to the team about, you know, Canada right now, like the whole nation is going through the largest transition of an aging farming population, as well as the transformation of agriculture where it comes to not only different types of seeds and breeding and uh crop protection, as well as technology and processes, because it seems more and more that you know, every farmer's got to produce more with less. Um, except the challenge, I guess, is this whole gap between what is perceived as ag or as a farmer or as ag industry or agri food in general, um, to then the people that are actually consuming it. And our system just kind of scoots around a lot of these where, you know, we say challenges, but opportunities, right? Like climate change is a challenge, but climate change is an opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 10:49

Um, an average age of farmers being about 59, 60 years old is a challenge, but it's an opportunity, right? Us having higher, um, higher costs of gasoline, utilities, electricity, um, fertilizer costs, that's an opportunity, right? And I think we miss those opportunities to innovate if we are not aware of them. Right. And so then it actually niches a whole lot of things where um, you know, even for us, like ag robotics. Well, we're not manufacturing robots or many of them, maybe just a couple, right, here in Ontario, where we've got so much land and we've got uh the highest concentration of greenhouses in North America.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

So there is innovation happening, unfortunately, kind of is pigeonholed. So how I guess for us, it's like, how do you make it more mainstream?

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:33

Uh, because a lot of the time is what we hear on the news is oh, uh Toronto, Toronto is in a food emergency, right? Or now it's a state of a food emergency, and Kingston is in a food emergency, and one in eight families in this country are food insecure, and food bank usage is doubling, tripling, um, not only just because of COVID, but now post-COVID and the whole economics of the world. Yeah. Um, all these things are shifting and you know, it seems very reactionary. And I think what we're doing, which is exciting, is we're we're trying to be as proactive as possible and get the word out. So not only is it, you know, career opportunities or tech is cool and ag is changing, but it goes right back to purchasing power right at the grocery store and then being aware of local food systems and those those amazing people behind it that uh you also brought a very interesting perspective earlier in our conversation about like with immigration, with a lot of talent coming into the country.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Um, and many of them come with the background in farming and agriculture, but when they come here, there's no place to use it or no place to connect with it. Let's talk about that. Because I at the end of the day, I think we're all doing this as for this generation, which is obviously the young kids as they go through the schooling, but also young adults who are in this country or coming into our country. And then how do we continue to foster and build from the skills they bring in here that maybe you know can fill in some of the gaps we haven't thought through?

SPEAKER_03 12:57

No, absolutely, right. And I think when I think about that challenge, opportunity, is a lot of people are coming to this country who came from agricultural societies, we'll say, as societies are evolving, and now it's kind of like agriculture used to be a part of everybody's backyard, right? And the the Italian community is who's, you know, who's got the most tomatoes or the biggest tomatoes or zucchinis or whatever. But then it became a sharing economy. Well, we're seeing that same trend of people who are coming from uh South America or Asia or Southeast Asia who have ag in their family's history, or hey, I grew up on you know a small farm or my family had a small farm and we did this and then went to market. Well, then they come to North America or to Canada in general and say, oh, well, I need to get an engineering degree. So I can become an engineer or a software developer or designer or whatever it might be. But then we're seeing the trend of them sort of saying, well, well, I have this new skill, but I'm still passionate about food and agriculture. Um, and so there's a love and a passion that's there that can contribute. Unfortunately, I think we also have the societal challenges of, well, where can they find land? Can you buy land? Is it a farm that's now 200 acres that you can buy when you're used to farming five acres? Um, where then we talk about, you know, the fundamental challenges around zoning and relocating and while they're living in an urban center, but there's minimal place to grow. And that's where you actually see the reflection in these very vibrant community gardens across the GTHA, um, which are people who are bringing their own heritage basically to this tiny little area that they've got the privilege, you know, to grow in some wait on wait list for years to have that. Um, but if we look at, you know, the big opportunity that I see is, you know, um, as I mentioned, is like RBC released a statistic that says we need 123,000 new agri or skilled agri-food workers uh by 2030. Well, instead of just bringing in new people, we'll say, to fill these roles, we already have the people here. They're just not being exposed to what this means. What is this opportunity? Um, and kind of like, you know, like our um our families came here, right? Both of us, we had immigrants, immigrants came to a different country for an opportunity. And then we have this tendency here where it's like, oh, I don't want to move out of Toronto, even though my cost of living is extremely high, and maybe have a really good job that's um, you know, out uh in Gray County, and maybe this is where I can get a piece of land. Well, it's kind of changing that, you know, I want to say that the two-prong is changing the perception of, you know, you can live a meaningful life, and it doesn't just have to be in a big city. Yeah. Um, but at the same time, uh the opportunity has to be presented.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

But we but you and I have also talked about the opportunity that does exist. If everyone with, you know, big with lawns with a small little area for growing vegetables at home or little plot that can be in a school be converted into a community garden servicing the community. I think the little things that can be done, which may seem small, but if everybody does it, that collection becomes really big.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 16:05

And I think that's the movement we need where everyone is comfortable dedicating a small portion of their backyard or their school community garden or their business plot into growing food rather than just plants for the sake of having plants.

unknown 16:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Right?

SPEAKER_00 16:20

And then you also talked about once with me, and I thought it was fascinating, you know, why can't we just grow fruit trees around the roads and the highways? Like imagine having apples and pears and cherries, you go pluck and eat. Like it may seem like so far-fetched, but couldn't we do that?

SPEAKER_03 16:36

Yeah, well, again, you go to any other, you know, not necessarily any other country in the world, but like if you have a hungry neighbor or somebody's suffering from food insecurity or can't afford something, why why can't you walk down the street and pick an apple or pick some cherries? Why can't we have, you know, these these, I say these create these states of abundance, right? And just funnel, because you know, we're talking about um, we'll say opening up space to plant things. Um, where a number of months ago somebody asked me this question, like, do you know where uh where did a lawn and growing grass originate? And I was like, I I actually have no idea. And he he said, Well, it was the British monarchy that started growing grass because everybody else had to grow food on their land, and they had accumulated so much wealth and prestige that they could grow grass just to have an open space that was green.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 17:32

And so now we look at what's happening today, and people are committed to their grass. No weeds, fertilizer, proper cuts, special mowers. Um, and that's like the the front, the front end, I guess, which is like the aesthetic of you know having a nice house in a community or whatever. And and no doubt these people should be proud about what they have, and everybody should because they've probably worked for it and earned it. But then you also think, well, what if I had like vegetables growing on my front lawn and it took the same amount of water to water the grass? And guess what? I opened it up and my neighbors could come and pick stuff. Or I pick what I need and I leave a little basket, and here are the extras. And so your neighbor just like those community little book libraries. Well, maybe it could be a little community food library. Yeah, um, because you never know who your neighbors are who might need, you know, who need some food.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

So I love that perspective. Um, this is I want to touch a little bit on you know something you talked about earlier, which was these opportunities, right? As we are, you and I are exploring this sector and not only just training our high school students, but young people or job seekers into um what the agri-food sector is and the value chain and the opportunities in there. There are absolutely amazing employers in this nation whose doors could be opened for these people to get jobs and opportunities and bring their skills and talent to it. I feel like there's a gap, there's a disconnect. And I don't have an answer right now, but I just feel we need to explore that a bit more.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

No, it's it's definitely something I think is a challenge and prevalent, right? Where like agriculture and agri-food, I guess it takes so many different shapes and forms from the ma and pa operation to, you know, the hobby farmer, to the small-scale vegetable grower, to the commercial, you know, cash cropper, to the small-scale greenhouse or the commercial greenhouse. And with that come all sorts of different structures and habits and tendencies when it comes to, oh, I work through this agency, this agency just fills the pipeline of people, I just need human labor versus those other organizations that are looking at their organizational chart and saying, oh, I need a specialty technician for here and I need a specialty marketing person. And then sort of from what I observe, like, you know, there's a couple specific uh hiring databases for farm and ag workers. Um, but most of the time you'll find these things on like Indeed or Goodwork, and they're just sort of generally cascaded, you know, job titles. Um but I feel like what it lacks is people understanding the feeling of working in agriculture. It's not easy work, but at the end of the day, if you know that your role is going to nourishing another human and you keep doing that hard work and you know, the exchange is money for energy. That's sort of how I look at things. And um, if we can kind of create a better narrative of how fun and passionate the people are in ag, I think that will actually be a draw, as opposed to, you know, like in everything there's push and pull factors, right? Sometimes the push factor is like, oh, I I just need a job and I happen to do agriculture in the past, where the pull factor is, you know, agriculture could be a really meaningful career. And I could have a great time and work with a great group of people. Um, and maybe I don't make as much, or maybe I do make as much. Um, but building that idea of like, what is the ag community look like? One that stands behind each other, that works together, um, and that farmers really are like a farmer is an entrepreneur, right? We say, oh, an entrepreneur is an well, a farmer is an entrepreneur because they have to know how to weld and do plumbing and do their do their purchasing and they know exactly what seeds to buy or how to apply stuff and fix their tractor and you know, have the GPS system that works on the tractor and communicate with sales and market. Like these are these are people inherently who are some of the smartest people on the earth. And unfortunately, we we sort of downplay the role of the farmer in a lot of situations where I think what we're trying to do with with our work is um shift that perception and also make it fun and cool.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

That you know, you don't have to just have your hands in the dirt. You could still contribute to agriculture, but maybe you're a drone technician, right? And helping us do drone to map, but you're still contributing.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

I was gonna say that's the fun, the the the missing piece is the fun part. I mean, at our living lab in King City in your forum, we've got robots. That are 3D printing style robots. We've got autonomous robots that can wear, till and seed, and do things with it. We've got drones that can do geo mapping and can do so much multispectral imaging so you can do a health crop with it. We've got IoT experimentations happening. How can we use sensors and code them to automatically water or do things like that? So Agri is very tech enabled. We are also looking at how do you take pictures of crops and then, you know, using AI models, you know, is this healthy or not? But how should I fix it? Like we're doing a lot of cool stuff. And I know when kids walk in and when people walk in and they see this stuff, that aha moment comes in. But unless you're there, you can't feel the aha. You can't feel what this is like, right? So I think it's it's important for people to recognize that agri tech, agri food, this whole sector is very, very innovative. It is ripe for more innovations to happen. And the more people love being in that sector or exploring it as a career choice, I think we will collectively as a society thrive more. We will have more solutions than problems. We will take challenges and convert them into opportunities. And I think things are happening, but more needs to happen.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

Yeah, and I think there's again, there's two-pronged, right? There's sort of we're going through this early adopter age, right? With new technologies, new processes. You know, over the last decade or so, the rise in North America of like the market farmer and people realizing that they could grow $100,000 worth of produce and sell at the farmer's market and sell to local restaurants. This is this is possible, right? Um, but moving beyond, you know, just the act of people getting into agriculture as a more meaningful way of life, then we have the early adoption of technologies that are starting to come in and saying, oh, well, we have these robots that were now used in this industry, that now we're just shifting the use case into agriculture. Um but, you know, as you're sort of, you know, as we were saying, it's like there's the push and the pull factor. Right now, there's the excitement of creating new technologies. The scary reality is these are going to be so necessary that it's this is out of necessity to feed our country because people are not even thinking about agriculture. Well, how do you just produce more with less without other types of automation, labor assist, or robotics? Um, and so at least for us, you know, what what I think we're doing that's knock on wood here has been quite successful is um sprinkling these, sprinkling the seeds um into you know students and our our you know our community members' minds. Um, if only we had more of these kinds of locations. Um, because traditionally, you know, when people go uh we go to the, you know, we go apple, we go to the apple farm, right, to go apple picking, or we go to the sunflower farm or the lavender farm to take our Instagram pictures, uh, or we go to the animal farm, which is more of like a petting zoo to see the animals. Well, these are all unique farm experiences, but I have not been to a farm like ours that actually starts giving people the knowledge as to, oh, why was this, why was this planted here? What is it? What's the importance of the soil? How do we tend to it? What do we think about it? Um, and I think that, you know, for me, and selfishly between both of us, I think it's really cool because then it sort of peels back the layers of the onion as to like, oh, well, I saw this and oh, you know, whatever. Oh, who there's a cool goat. Oh, nice goats. I like taking pictures with goats. I actually do. Um, but do we think about that goat for what its role might be in the environment?

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

Could it be eating certain things? Does it eat and then um you know, we can get we can get milk from the goat. Can we get fur from a goat? Not quite, but sheep, sheep play a different role. How like we sort of you know skim over a lot of things of like, oh, here's animals. Well, animals play a role in agriculture, not only for you know, dairy or fur or wool or meat products. Um, but then for us when we we do our stuff mainly with crops, is then we get people to think, well, oh well, here's a nice row of lettuce. Well, how much is that row of lettuce worth? And let's go on the internet and let's see what the market price of the lettuce is and let's count the density of lettuce planted per square foot, and let's talk about what fertilizers and inputs and time went into this. Oh, can this be a profitable crop? Yeah, totally different way. We we sort of challenge, I think, that the way of thinking, which it's probably the educators uh in both of us, but I selfishly, and sorry, I'm going out of tangent here, but I think it's so meaningful for us to probe those questions to get people thinking about things so that again, whether or not it's a career in agriculture, at least they go to the grocery store themselves or with their parents, or as they get older, they've got their own purchasing power. Understanding more means you vote, uh you vote with your dollar, right? With you can vote for a farmer or vote for a business or just vote local, yeah, as we're as we're all doing right now.

SPEAKER_00 26:59

Well, so then let's just put together our our top five asks, right? So we're gonna ask teachers, connect your curriculum to this sector because you already have all the the criteria for teaching in there, and hopefully that will inspire kids to want to do more. And if you want to do something live, workshops, come see, come to our farm and let's just show you how it works, right? The second thing we're asking is employers to look at the talent pipeline that's here today and say, can we nurture them to be here for us in the future? On the tech side, there's so much innovation in technology. Ask all those young people who are exploring tech careers to look at agri as a viable career choice. We're asking community, you know, if you have land in your home, use it to grow crops, help your neighbor. Uh, we can deal with food insecurity that way. What other things can we can we kind of wrap up for today in terms of things to think about, things to do, actionable small things that are that are not that major, but the small things collectively, if everybody does it, will make a big difference.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

No, big time, right? And I I think from my side, you know, in the community of farmers is um every dollar, you know, I think I've told this to you before, is like, you know, Andy Boy lettuce grown in California, different conditions, labor, etc. Um, you know, you could spend $3.99 and buy, you know, three romaine hearts of Andy Boy lettuce, and the dollar value at the grocery store is $399. Not much else is really transacted in that. But if if you spend $399 at a farmer's market, that farmer, the odds are is treating the soil health. They have a small family. They they, you know, we'll say they care for the climate. Not that other farmers don't, but when we talk about the almost the intrinsic value that encompass that $399 that you buy at a farmer's market is probably worth $10 to $15 of value that you're actually bringing to our climate, our local community, keeping money in the community versus us going to the dollar store the uh grocery store and strictly looking at something that is again $399. So my one thing is the purchasing power is very important. The more we know, the more we can make educated decisions that support a system that we believe in, right? But if we don't even understand the system, there's no way that we're gonna spend our dollars and all we're looking at is the transactional value of the price tag versus any of the other details on the late the label of how healthy is this and where did it come from, who owns this, dah, dah, dah, right? Um, so that would be that'd be one thing. The other thing that I think you've already mentioned is, you know, we're here not to put anybody down. We're trying to elevate uh awareness, right? We're trying to actually empower teachers because we can't be in every single classroom. So, you know, we'd love to connect with teachers that are interested, right, and whether or not it's through the lens of climate change and sustainability, or through the lens of teaching a math or accounting class, or through the lens of teaching a robotics, or teaching a science class, a physiology of plants or properties of light or properties of soil. Like we're here to share as much as we can to really selflessly empower that next generation, because from probably both of our perspectives now is we we don't really have a choice, right? Until we we've already got as many problems as we have in terms of food insecurity. Yeah. Um, that then goes back to sometimes the more you know, the more change you can make, and whether or not that change is again going down a career path in ag or saying, oh, well, actually I've got this area in the backyard that I never thought about planting any. I'm actually going to plant some stuff this year. And instead of just default, and I know so many people that are like, oh, I've I've got a black thumb. Well, you know, you can have a black thumb, but you can still grow green plants. It's not really hard, and you know, especially growing outdoors, like the plants grow themselves. They just need some water.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:51

Right. So the more we can empower people, and I think that that's what we we've done is to sort of basis of inspire people, empower them that they can make a change, equip them with the right knowledge, as well as potentially directing them to tools or systems. And then through that, you know, process, we're we're we're shifting mindset, we're helping, you know, commute communities and stuff. So it's uh it's exciting. It's an exciting time.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Yep, it is.

SPEAKER_03 31:14

I think for both of us.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Yeah. And there's so much more to look forward to. I mean, this is just the start. Um, we hope that as we continue this program, we will come back and we'll share more. Um, and hopefully, you know, get more people thinking about it and and helping us address the food and security challenges of today.

SPEAKER_03 31:33

Yeah, and I was gonna ask you a sort of a closing question because I have I have my own take on it. But what maybe the best way in one way to frame it is like, what made you, coming from a tech background, interested in agriculture? Or was it food? You know, was it the process of farming, or is it the process of eating and being, you know, together, we'll say, as a as a family, or what might be for me, it was more on the climate side.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Um, the conversation in my family on the dinner table was always around what we can do to affect climate change. And I know I can't change big policies and I I can't do big things, but I can do small things. And the small things started was what can I grow? But I didn't know enough. I mean, I've always grown vegetables in my backyard, but I just didn't understand, you know, why I was doing it, what was the connection to soil. But when I met with you, it was just that the dots that connected from me. I'm like, oh my God, the opportunity of doing what I'm doing, but in a in a more meaningful, impactful way was huge. So you inspired me to think beyond what I thought I was doing and how I've evolved my thinking, my respect for the soil, the land. I I didn't know any of that. And and you know, getting my hands dirty in soil was never an issue for me, but now I love it even more. You know, when you talk about worms in the soil, I would have cringe with worms before, but now I understand how much worms add to our soil. When I see ants, it's like, oh no, they're good for the soil, they're creating airways for them. Like I never understood it. And I didn't connect the two. But you made the connections for me, and I'm so glad that you did do it because now um I feel like I'm so much empowered with knowledge that I can appreciate it more. And I know with all the skills that I have that I can make a difference by applying those skills in different ways. So I think you've done a really good job, uh Brendan, in inspiring, empowering, but also always making the time to connect with people and to show them the connections with authenticity. And I think that's the power you bring, you know, to this conversation, to the impact you're bringing to the our community and our country in that way, right? So well done. Keep doing it.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Well, I mean, I think just as you had mentioned, you know, it starts off with a sort of small act, right? Almost like that concept of like random acts of kindness, but this is a random act of um whether or not it was for climate change, but it's also, you know, as you you evolve, you're like, oh, this is my own sovereignty. Yeah. If I know how to grow food, if there's a crisis, I know how to grow my own food.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 34:10

Right. Um, but then when you talk about these small acts, I I use a sort of an analogy in the sense of like uh Earth Day, right? And you're sitting at your house and you turn your lights off and you're like, I'm sitting here with my lights off because you don't see the collective difference. It's the same thing as going to a big sporting event and you're one person who's clapping versus everybody who's clapping. Everybody who's partaking in that activity together makes the roar of a crowd, as opposed to the one person who's clapping alone who you won't even hear. Um, and so I think that movement you know spans not only the climate movement, but moving into agriculture and growing, gardening, whatever you want to call it, into this actually movement of sovereignty. Yeah, because when you are sovereign, you can have control over what you do. Yeah, right. And when it comes to food and food security, there's food security or food insecurity and there's food sovereignty. And right now we are food insecure and we're not sovereign in terms of what and where our food's coming from. So we are seeing this movement. And you know, in today's day and age, is getting a student or kid off an iPhone is tough. But if you put the farm on the iPhone, maybe one time they'll look up and they'll make that kind of connection. I think that's what you bring to the table because sometimes that can be very uh science-y, science-y-minded, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:31

No, but but your science is really important because I think it validates, it brings the authenticity to the conversation. And I and I do want in the closing comment, maybe you tell us. Um, you know, you've been doing this uh whole with your whole heart and soul for you said almost 10 years. Where do you see this go for yourself? Because I know you're putting a lot of energy, effort, and and thoughts in what you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

I've been fortunate, well, I don't say fortunate. Sometimes the more you know, the worse it gets. But um, you know, I've been fortunate to have been ahead of the curve and looking at agriculture. And the start was bring the farm to the city to reconnect people to food. Well, we were growing quote unquote organic food in a steel box on top of concrete, uh, less than two kilometers from the CN Tower. That's where it all started. This idea of we have technology to grow food everywhere, but we also live within these different constraints of what um what can you grow? You can't grow food in your backyard and sell it at a farmer's market because it's a residential property, not a commercial property. You can't use your backyard as a business. Um, so there's all these other limitations that sort of are hindering the evolution of the food movement. Um, where I'm seeing a lot of my work outside of our you know, our educational practices and this farm as a platform uh and living lab, it's actually been much bigger than just an educational hub. It's been a demonstration to developers, to policymakers, um, and people who work, you know, in the zoning and planning departments to say, okay, let's design our future communities with agriculture, I call it infrastructure. So, yeah, we have a park, we have a tennis court, maybe there's a pool or a little recreation center. Well, let's look about agriculture as a part of this community, as the lifeblood that brings people together. And frankly, there's no excuse because we can have rooftop farms and we can have indoor vertical farms and urban environments. We can have designated space, whether or not it's a community garden or it's supporting a small-scale farmer who then has their customers right there and doesn't have to go to a farmer's market and fight for market share. So it's actually, you know, again, sort of our seeding, we're seeding the minds for jobs and career opportunities, but we're also seeding the minds of the decision makers to say, well, why can't we start to create a world that we all want to live in that builds these sort of equitable communities and basically goes backwards to the concept of village living in order to leapfrog forward to be sovereign, food secure, and actually have a bit more of a cohesive community.

SPEAKER_00 38:03

That's amazing. Do you want to talk a bit about your uh your program, Justin Acre? Because I know that's such a powerful initiative as well.

SPEAKER_03 38:09

Yeah, well, you know, I'll put a little plug in here. But the Just an Acre initiative is something that really uh was inspired after we we got the market farm set up. And it was this idea that um, you know, cash croppers who are growing, you know, primarily like corn and soy up in this area. Um, and they're making about 200, 250 bucks an acre. And we have a program right now where it's just an acre. So let us have just an acre, and we will demonstrate that we can do a regenerative process. So we're regenerating the soil by you know using local sources of waste and sort of the circular economy approach to take uh manure as well as some peat moss from different operations in the York region area. Use that to help regenerate the soil, and through that regeneration process, growing a select number of vegetables and showing that these landowners can make $10,000 an acre as opposed to $250 an acre while regenerating their soil, while working together as a collective. And we currently have six different partners who are part of the Just an Acre project over this next couple of years. We've got some in production this season, uh, we'll have the rest in production next season. And these people who are larger landowners are committed to essentially, you know, uh, farm one grows three crops, farm two grows three crops, farm three, four, five grow three crops each. Well, then we've got 15 crops that are grown at scale. That's then starting to flood the system a little bit more with local food, which then with that volume, we can actually go into bigger, more mainstream markets, as opposed to sort of being pigeonholed, which is a lot of the small-scale farmers I work with. It's very tough, you know, to go to this farmer's market and that farmer's market and promote yourself and then drive to this restaurant. So we're thinking about what is what is a structural way that works within the existing system to evolve that. Um, and then the plug here is as we're starting to build the just an acre network, before we're getting to these agri hoods and agri communities, um, we'll need farmers, right? And the evolution, just as you had mentioned earlier, that perception even skilled trades, right? Took almost 15 years for people to be like, oh, a plumber and electrician is a really good paying and highly regarded career, not like a bottom of the barrel, you know, blue collar this. Well, I think agriculture and landscaping is also it's gaining traction because it's hard work, but it's so meaningful because you're literally feeding people, right? Just like you're putting electricity to heat somebody's home.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:38

Well, and I'd say the last thing, um, just not that you've asked the question, but one of my things that I think sort of surmises a lot of different the work that we do is we've seen so many different people um of different ages, races, political beliefs, you name it. Um, but everybody gets together around food. And that's my whole thing is, you know, when I got into agriculture, never thought about it. But food is food is the catalyzer, right? Goes back to our Thanksgiving of why do we even have Thanksgiving? You know, is it just a time to eat turkey? Well, we were not eating turkey all the time, um, much more of a westernized kind of thing. But it was the act of a great year and a season and a harvest season. But then the Thanksgiving dinner or whatever it might be brought people together, right? Brought us together to thank, be thankful for each other, thankful for this abundance. And so, you know, my whole thing is like no matter again, whatever age, race, religion, political belief, you all have to eat. So for us, that process of agriculture not only, you know, I'm gonna brings us back to our roots most of the time, where probably almost every single person who's listening to this podcast, as well as ourselves and our families, if you go far back enough, we were farmers. Yeah. So everybody has it in them. We just lost it along the way. And so I think what we're doing is trying to inspire to at least reflect and not necessarily again, you need to be a farmer, you need to be a farmer. It's the more you know, then again, you can make decisions and whether or not agriculture is in your future. Maybe it is, but at least now you know. Yeah. And maybe it's a bit more respect to drive a little slower behind the guys that are driving down the road, you know, during uh seed during planting and harvest season or whatever it might be.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

Yeah. Amazing. You know, you've always been inspiring and authentic, Brendan, in what you do. So I'm grateful that of our partnership and look forward to the impact we can collectively make and have more people join us in this movement. So thank you.

SPEAKER_03 42:27

And really excited that uh today's, you know, today's podcast sort of kicks off our series. Oh, right. You know, how are we going to feed a hungry nation? Right. It's it's the whole concept of feeding a hungry planet where nine billion people all need to eat. There's a lot of people that aren't eating, which is a scary thing. But in our developed, one of these best countries in the world, we still have such a problem when it comes to food insecurity. And I think that, you know, part of what we're doing is our our small, our small piece, right? It's a very big pie. Um, but I think you're really excited that over these next sessions we'll be able to talk a bit about some of these key themes that we're seeing, right? Key themes right through education, through the social impact of food, through how people are interacting with food and then then the farming community. Um, so we're excited, I think, to probably have some guest guest speakers as well. So it won't just be you and I.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 43:15

But uh, but really excited we've had the privilege to to sit down and sort of share a bit about ourselves and our story.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

Yeah. Well, thank you very much for your time and uh look out for the next one. Absolutely.