About
Welcome to SOW & GROW
Sow and Grow is a podcast by young farmers exploring the forces that shape Canadian agriculture and the solutions needed to build a more just and ecologically sustainable food system. Throughout the eight episode arc series, host Maddie Marmor, together with producers and co-hosts Stuart Oke and Aliyah Fraser, will break down how the climate crisis and farm crisis interact, inform, and influence one another.
The team will take their shared, lived experience of farming during a time of crisis into the centre of many of the conversations with guests, including activists, policy advocates and of course other farmers, farmworkers seed keepers and food providers as they suss out how to respond to both crisis’s with care, responsibility and food sovereignty informed action.
Farmers are making real decisions to mitigate, adapt and transform in this climate of crisis, and they need our support and our cheer as they struggle, often everyday, to do so.
This series is for them.
podcast Team
Madeline (Maddie) Marmor— Host/Producer
Maddie is a landless farmer born in downtown Toronto. She has been farming for the past 7 years on farms throughout Ontario and has grown food on the current and traditional lands of the Houdensaunee, Anishinabewaki, Attiwonderonk, Mississauga, Odawa, Wendake-Nionwentsïo, Petun, Saugeene - Ojibiway nations.Over the years she has come to recognize the privilege and political significance of farming on stolen land, knowledge which has informed her dedication to food sovereignty and agroecology. She is a member of the National Farmers Union and sits on the Climate Justice collective for the international social movement La Via Campesina.
Aliyah Fraser — Co-Host/Producer
Aliyah is a Kitchener-based farmer who owns and operates a quarter acre market garden called Lucky Bug Farm on rented land in Waterloo Region where she grows a variety of produce for a small CSA program. The farm operates within the Haldimand Tract in Kitchener, Ontario and is on the traditional territory of the Mississauga, Anishnabeg, Attiwonderonk (neutral) and Haudenoshaunee peoples. She imagines a food system where more people have access to ecologically grown food, where there is less waste and where there's a better understanding of the labour it takes to get food from the farm to the table. Aliyah also has an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies in Urban planning from the University of Waterloo. She believes that food and housing are human rights. She lives in Kitchener, Ontario with her partner Thomas and cat Frankie.
luckybugfarm.com | @luckybugfarm
Stuart Oke — Co-host/Executive Producer
Stuart is a young farmer from Eastern Ontario who, alongside his partner Nikki, owns and operates Rooted Oak Farm, a 12 acre organic vegetable and cut flower farm. After years of renting land Rooted Oak in 2020 relocated to Eastern Ontario, and the traditional territory of the Anishinabek, Huron-Wendat, Haudensaunee and Oneida Peoples. In addition to loving food and taking pride in growing food that sustains people, the farm was founded on the idea that farming is a political act, one capable of creating great change. Stuart is a former Youth President for the National Farmers Union and Vice President for Canadian Organic Growers. He chairs the National Farmers Union climate committee and is a contributor to Canada's Sustainable Agriculture Strategy. He also works on the Farm Resilience and Mentorship Program with the National Farmer Coalition Farmers for Climate Solutions.
www.rootedoak.ca | @rootedoakfarm
Kate Garvie — Editor/Producer
Kate founded Heartbeet Farm in 2018 after spending four years working on organic vegetable farms across Ontario. She first learned about ecological agriculture at Trent University during her undergraduate degree. After completing a Master's of Environmental Studies, Kate returned to farming with a better understanding of the connections between food sovereignty, indigenous solidarity and climate justice. She is passionate about building a local food system that is environmentally sound and socially just.
heartbeetfarm.ca | @heartbeet_farm