Series - Editorial Fellowship: Community Transitions and Resilience

This Indigenous founder moved back home to Northern Ontario to help solve food insecurity — here’s how he’s doing it.

Author Neha Chollangi
Talking to AgriTech North’s co-founder Benjamin Feagin Jr. on how they work with the local community to embed themselves in the region as a sustainable solution to food insecurity

Why It Matters

With historically unprecedented inflation rates in Canada, northern communities are facing some of the most drastic increases in food prices. Initiatives seeking to boost food security in these regions need to make meaningful connections with local communities — to go beyond quick fixes and establish sustainable, long term solutions.

This journalism is made possible by the Future of Good editorial fellowship on community resilience, supported by Co-operators. See our editorial ethics and standards here. 

Back in January 2021, Benjamin Feagin Jr. was looking to move back to his Northern hometown in the traditional territory of Anishinabewaki and Michif Piyii (Metis) peoples (colonially known as Dryden, Ontario) to be closer to his family and his fiance. The pandemic had hit the region hard, exacerbating issues like food insecurity — but hunger has been in this community for as long as Feagin Jr. can remember. 

When he moved back to Dryden, Feagin Jr. and his fiance, Fabian Velez, a grower himself, set out to build a social impact organization together that could combine their interests: technology and agri

 

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