Before Benjamin Feagin Jr., a member of the Northwest Ontario Métis Community, and his husband, Fabian Velez, moved back to his hometown of Dryden, Ont. in 2021 to help care for his aging grandparents, they did some research on what type of business they might want to start. Feagin, who has been studying and working for the past 20 years in both Canada and the United States, is in technology development and scaling manufacturing processes, and Velez is a botanist.
“We wanted to do something that would combine our skills, challenge us and have the biggest social impact, while still being financially sustainable,” says Feagin, Chief Executive Officer of AgriTech North. The social enterprise they launched in 2021 is working on technology to help grow fresh produce year-round in communities where people traditionally pay much more for food than consumers in Canada’s large cities. It also is B-Corp certified, meaning it meets the highest standard for for-profit companies in its social and environmental performance.
People in northern communities take it for granted that the food they buy will be bad within a day, whether it’s tomatoes or bread, Feagin said. “It’s not until you leave and come back that you realize how bad it is. It’s not necessarily a problem of proximity, because Dryden is along the highway where all of the transports pass by. There is a very broken distribution system in our country and a lot of gaps to fill,” he said.
AgriTech North was the big winner of The Bears’ Lair, a reality television show that premiered in September on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN). Feagin and Velez pitched their early-phase startup on Episode 4, winning the Bears over with their mission to reduce the cost of fresh produce in Far North Indigenous communities by 25% and increase availability year-round.
Competing with 17 Indigenous ventures for a share of $180,000 in cash prizes, they took home $100,000, a membership for a year with the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business and a free year of Shopify. Jelly Marketing kicked in a digital marketing course worth $4,000 for all of the participants, who also benefited from group business training and individual coaching from the panel of business experts.
As one of the program’s lead sponsors, Scotiabank has the opportunity to have a representative appear as a guest judge. This year, Ray Noonan, District Vice President, North BC & Yukon, Scotiabank, will appear on Episode 4 to offer guidance and advice.
“Indigenous entrepreneurship and economic development has been a focus of mine for many years in the roles I have had in the Scotiabank Group. Being a part of Season 2 of The Bears’ Lair is a great opportunity to take that passion to the next level and on to a new stage,” Noonan said.
“It’s not your conventional entrepreneur show. We don’t take a stake in the business,” said Geena Jackson, Executive Producer of The Bears’ Lair. “Whether it’s hiring, teaching, giving back to elders, giving back to youth, really making a difference in this world, that’s what this show is about,” said Jackson, who was Small Business Officer for British Columbia’s Squamish Nation for 13 years.
Photo: Geena Jackson, Executive Producer of The Bears' Lair
There, she learned firsthand how important support is for entrepreneurs. The 4,100-member-strong Nation set up a trust through which it helped 550 members expand or create new businesses. “When you look at the membership versus the number of entrepreneurs supported, you see how progressive Indigenous communities can be if they have a cheerleader, somebody that’s dedicated to the dreams of that community,” Jackson said.
“All of the barriers to entrepreneurship faced by Indigenous Peoples — the residual effects of colonialism, residential schools, being on a reserve in the first place, which puts them at a financial disadvantage — makes the inspiration to showcase who we are as people, the adversity that we faced in the past and where we’re going with the future even more important,” she said.
Tight budgets and COVID restrictions that made travelling and bringing people together difficult also made getting the show on air last year a challenge, Jackson said. There were about two weeks to reach out to 120 applicants, and another week to narrow the field to 18, and those entrepreneurs were left to make their own way to Vancouver on short notice for 10 days of filming, she said.
The show heads into its second season with an expanded team of Indigenous professionals to vet applicants in the thousands, not hundreds, who hope to make their pitch to the Bears. Returning judges Jackson; Tabatha Bull, President & CEO of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, Anishinaabe and a member of Nipissing First Nation; and Dave Tuccaro, Founder, President & CEO of Tuccaro Group of Companies and a member of the Mikisew Cree First Nation of Fort Chipewyan, Alta., will be joined by Clint Davis, former President and CEO of Nunasi Corp. and an Inuk from Nunatsiavut.
AgriTech North’s founders didn’t face barriers to raising capital. Rather, they chose to eschew angel and equity investment, and launched with 30% public funding from federal and local government grants, loans and their own equity. “We observed during market research that more than 70% of what’s grown in Ontario greenhouses is exported to the United States, because, as some equity investors told us, ‘that’s where the money’s at’,” Feagin said. “We want 100% of AgriTech North’s produce to stay local.”
The vertical farming operation is housed in a retrofitted 4,400-square-foot former municipal building. A 1,200-sq.-ft. greenhouse is being added to that and there are plans for a further 2,000 square feet of indoor vertical farms to be added in the next year or so. The operation employs six full-time and four part-time or seasonal employees and a couple of contractors who work half time or more.
Feagin said supply chain and equipment quality control issues during the pandemic set their progress back eight months and could have shut them down if it weren’t for the $100,000 from The Bears’ Lair. Food security is a very capital intensive industry with low margins and a long-term payoff, he said.
“We’re focused on innovation and reducing costs, so we have more overhead than your typical vertical farm. We’re putting money in now for gains later,” he said.
All of the barriers to entrepreneurship faced by Indigenous Peoples — the residual effects of colonialism, residential schools, being on a reserve, which puts them at a financial disadvantage — makes the inspiration to showcase who we are as people … even more important.”
The show was more than a financial lifeline. Feagin said he and Velez made valuable connections with other business owners that might otherwise have taken 10 years. Also, the feedback they received helped focus their business plan and funding applications and identify where the gaps were, and they continue to get guidance from the Bears. “We went back to Geena [Jackson] for advice when we needed more capital to grow and she put us in contact with several different options,” he said.
At full capacity, AgriTech North can produce 400 kilograms of produce a week. The current output is around 250 kg, which it sells directly to consumers or business to business.
“We don’t have the margins we need to sell into the big name grocery stores,” Feagin said. “Only about 30% of the sticker price ends up going to the farmer and our costs are too high to hit that mark.”
In cities such as Dryden and Kenora, they have been able to price their produce competitively with local supermarkets and have been able to drop prices below that of supermarkets in more remote communities such as Sioux Lookout by taking control of the distribution chain.
“Even though our produce is the best quality, we don’t sell it as a premium item. We want to make switching to eating healthy a no-brainer — food not coated in pesticides, fungicides or herbicides — and that’s what we’ve been able to achieve to date,” he said.
AgriTech North will need to grow beyond a small vertical farm business if it is to create financially sustainable, net-zero energy, independent, year-round food operations for rural and Indigenous communities in the North.
The company is developing new technology that could help northern communities set up independent year-round food growing operations. It also is developing a first-of-kind hydroponic and aeroponic food sovereignty training course for local Indigenous education institutes so communities can learn the processes before running their own in their community.
