The final episode of Season 2 of the Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast brings us to Dryden in Northwestern Ontario where we meet Benjamin Feagin Jr., Co-Founder & CEO of a social enterprise that is tackling the challenge of food security through advancements in hydroponics. Ben introduces us to AgriTech North and challenges our assumptions about organic food systems, sustainability and workforce development, and how indoor agriculture should be tackled in rural and remote communities. In conversation with Frontier co-hosts Braden Kemp (Fundspoke) and Tracy Morningstar (CCIB), Ben explains why we should decentralize R&D infrastructure, while carefully timing and managing strategic investments in innovation.

• On CEA- Controlled Environment Agriculture (UNDP)
• Canadian Organic Standards (Government of Canada)
• Canada Organic vs. USDA Organic – The Organic Council of Ontario
• City of Dryden, Ontario, Canada
• Grand Council - Treaty 3 and The Northwestern Ontario Métis Community.

The Executive Producer of the Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast is Robert Washburn. Special thanks to Daniela Scoppa, Heather Cannings and John Hayden. This project is made possible with the support of FedDev Ontario and the Government of Canada.

For more information on our podcast, including co-host biographies, click here.

The Canadian Council for Indigenous Business (CCIB) builds bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, businesses and communities through diverse programming, providing tools, training, network building, major awards, and national events.

How do you stop frost formation with bacteria? In this latest episode of Nventure's Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast, we dive into more mind-bending breakthroughs in Canadian agricultural biotech. Join us for a fascinating conversation with Dr. Collin Juurakko, PhD, Founder and CEO of Advanced Agriscience, as co-hosts Braden Kemp and Tracy Morningstar explore the origins and applications of biological frost disruption and how it could potentially stabilize vast swathes of global agriculture.

Resources and links

• Background study on Bacterial Ice Nucleation: A Factor in Frost Injury to Plants (1982)
• Science: Fighting the Biotech Wars (Leon Jaroff, TIME, 1986)
• Deborah Henderson (Director, Institute for Sustainable Agriculture at
• Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Langley, British Columbia)
• Virginia Walker’s Lab at Queen’s University (Department of Biology)
• Steve Lindow (University of California, Berkeley – Plant and Microbial Biology)
• Entrepreneurs First start-up accelerator (Toronto)
• Bioenterprise Innovation Advisors (including Mike Manion)
• Sydenham, Ontario (Wikipedia)
• B Corp certification
• Cryopreservation

The Executive Producer of the Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast is Robert Washburn. Special thanks to Daniela Scoppa, Heather Cannings and John Hayden. For more information on our podcast, including co-host biographies, click here.

Bioenterprise is Canada’s engine for food and agricultural technologies, a vibrant community of entrepreneurs, researchers, accelerators, and partners committed to driving industrial innovation. Learn more at bioenterprise.ca.

Data, predictive analytics, dynamic communications and digital twins make up the virtual landscape of modern dairy farms. Bringing it all together into a comprehensive platform for some of the largest cattle operations in the world is veterinarian, computer engineer and entrepreneur, Shari van de Pol, polymath and Founder of CATTLEytics. “Dairy farmers we work with are some of the most incredible, innovative, understanding, hard-working people out there, and that’s one of the reasons I love doing what I do,” Shari says. In this episode of the Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast, co-hosts Braden Kemp and Tracy Morningstar explore how Shari and her team successfully introduce advanced technologies into the dairy industry.

The Executive Producer of the Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast is Robert Washburn. Special thanks to Daniela Scoppa, Heather Cannings and John Hayden. For more information on our podcast, including co-host biographies, click here.

DELIA is Nventure’s Women Entrepreneurship Loan Fund backing women-owned ventures across Canada. Visit our website to learn more and apply today.

The approach to an environmentally sustainable future runs through dangerous territory. Trying to get better, we make things worse. Solving one problem, we create another... and another… how then should green products be designed and introduced?

Today’s episode of the Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast brings you an in-depth conversation with Morgan Wyatt, PhD in chemical biology and serial innovator. As Tracy characterizes Morgan's entrepreneurial philosophy, he exemplifies trust, a promise and an outlook built on a firm resolve to “stop disrupting nature.” From Greenlid to Botanical Symbiotics to Advanced Biofibre Technologies and more, Morgan’s prolific enviro-entrepreneurial career spans the realms of bio-manufacturing, ag-tech and materials science. Today, Tracy and Braden take you to the frontier of product development for the real circular economy, in conversation with Morgan Wyatt.

• Greenlid website (and their original Dragons’ Den pitch)
• Botanical Symbiotics, Advanced Biofibre (in development)
• McMaster University’s Entrepreneur-in-Residence program
• Brock University
• Bast Fibre Tech
• Next Canada (tech start-up accelerator)

• Nventure seed-funded Advanced Biofibre Technologies through the thriveFORWARD initiative, with the support of FedDev Ontario through the Government of Canada’s Jobs and Growth Fund (JGF).

The Executive Producer of the Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast is Robert Washburn. Special thanks to Daniela Scoppa, Heather Cannings and John Hayden. This project is made possible with the support of FedDev Ontario and the Government of Canada.

For more information on our podcast, including co-host biographies, click here.

The fifth edition of Nventure’s StrikeUP Canada conference for women entrepreneurs takes place on February 27th, 2025. Register now to join us for an interactive, educational and inspiring online program headlined by Jillian Harris. Co-presented by the Scotiabank Women Initiative® and EDC in partnership with WEKH, Futurpreneur, BDC and the Government of Canada, and supported by WBE Canada and Brilliant Catalyst at Ontario Tech University. For more, head to strikeup.ca.

Co-Hosts Braden Kemp (Bioenterprise Canada) and Tracy Morningstar (Canadian Council for Indigenous Business) are joined today by Ming Sun, President & COO of Nature Recombined Sciences, makers of ApiSave™—a natural botanical extract for improving bee health. They delve into the world of biotech entrepreneurship and explore the importance of protecting the world’s most important pollinator.

“Is it dangerous for honeybees right now?” Sun asks. “Yes, it is. It’s not just one disease or pathogen but all of the antibiotics, pesticides and chemicals. Coupled with indirect factors such as climate change, this is putting bees in a position of catastrophic loss.” This is where Nature Recombined comes in, developing plant-based solutions that are showing very promising results. We discuss safe and natural anti-microbial biosynthesis and more, in this latest edition of the Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast.

• ApiSave official website
• Why bees are essential to people and planet (UNEP, 2021)
• How far bees fly in a day (Canadian Honey Council)
• Overview of Bee Pollination and its Economic Value for Crop Production, Khalifa et al., Insects (2021) via NLM. See also: Naeem & Selamoglu, From Flower to Food: Honey Bees and their Role in Crop Production (2025). pp. 56-63.
• Varrora Mites (Province of Ontario)
• Building Bee Awareness (Alberta Motor Association)
• On celebrities and bees: Angelina Jolie (National Geographic); Morgan Freeman (Forbes)
• Veterinary Health Products regulation in Canada

The Executive Producer of the Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast is Robert Washburn. Special thanks to Daniela Scoppa, Heather Cannings and John Hayden. This project is made possible with the support of FedDev Ontario and the Government of Canada.

For more information on our podcast, including co-host biographies, click here.

Through Bioenterprise Canada, The Engine is Canada’s leading agri-tech alliance, uniting innovators, partners, and investors to drive groundbreaking agri-food advancements and commercial success. Learn more at bioenterprise.ca.

Co-Hosts Braden Kemp (Bioenterprise Canada) and Tracy Morningstar (Canadian Council for Indigenous Business) are joined by Brad McKay, Founder & CEO of Meals On the Move (MOM). Brad’s company is a Toronto-based Canadian start-up preparing to deploy an array of robotic micro-factories designed to optimize food catering services for institutions like hospitals and care facilities, each within a defined geographic area and population base.

Brad is passionate about the potential of automation, and in this episode shares his ideas on entrepreneurship, sources of inspiration, and explains why the changes he is pursuing in the food services industry will ultimately free up time for his customers to focus on caring for people.

“It really turns upside down how we make food in Canada,” Brad explains. “Our model creates a small factory close to the customer so that the cost and environmental impact is very small. It’s miniaturizing the way we manufacture food. And we couldn’t do that without robotics.”

• MOM official website.
• Makers of food services cobots (collaborative robots) mentioned in this podcast include Hyphen and Miso Robotics. Read more about the latest deployment from CHIPOTLE (press release).
• Salad chain Sweetgreen acquires Spyce (TechCrunch).
• Denis O’Riardon feature in FORA.
• Clayton Christenson’s The Innovator’s Dilemma (Wikipedia).

Nventure seed-funded Meals On the Move as part of the first round of the thriveFORWARD initiative, with the support of FedDev Ontario through the Government of Canada’s Jobs and Growth Fund (JGF).

The Executive Producer of the Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast is Robert Washburn. Special thanks to Daniela Scoppa, Heather Cannings and John Hayden. This project is made possible with the support of FedDev Ontario and the Government of Canada.

For more information on our podcast, including co-host biographies, click here.

Nventure delivers local, regional and national programming in support of innovation and entrepreneurship as pathways to future prosperity. Head to nventure.ca to learn more.

Today, our exploration continues with Co-Hosts Braden Kemp (Bioenterprise Canada) and Tracy Morningstar (Canadian Council for Indigenous Business) in conversation with Anthony Wingham, Co-Founder of Nuez Acres: a British Columbia-based Indigenous company formulating cosmetics products from pecan oil. In this episode we touch on the history of the pecan tree, adapting pecan oil for beauty products, the “seed to skin” sustainability approach at Nuez Acres, and how their work is part of a broader “waterless revolution” happening now in the cosmetics industry.

• Nuez Acres official website
• Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Milkweed Editions, 2013). On pecans, see in particular, p.13
• State of Chihuahua, Mexico (Wikipedia). See Pecan South Magazine backgrounder on pecan farms in Mexico and, as an introduction, the Milwaukee Public Museum entry on the Tarahumara
• Definition of “anhydrous”
• Toxic-Free Cosmetics Act (Washington State, USA)
• RangeMe
• Some of the other companies mentioned by Anthony: BASF, Sephora, L’Oreal
• What Is Dropshipping and How Does It Work? (2025) - Shopify
• Futurpreneur, Connected North, Export Navigator, Export Development Canada
• Other Indigenous-owned Canadian beauty brands: Satya, Yukon Soaps, Loakin, Skwalwen, Cheekbone Beauty
• Canton Fair
• The “Two Michaels” (Wikipedia)
• National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association (NACCA) and NACCA Youth Business Advisory Council

The Executive Producer of the Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast is Robert Washburn. Special thanks to Daniela Scoppa, Heather Cannings and John Hayden. This project is made possible with the support of FedDev Ontario and the Government of Canada.

For more information on our podcast, including co-host biographies, click here.

CCIB builds bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, businesses and communities through diverse programming, providing tools, training, network building, major awards, and national events. Click here to learn more.

Season 2 of the Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast is finally here, as we begin an exploration of Canadian ag/biotech and agri-food innovation with Co-Hosts Braden Kemp (Bioenterprise Canada) and Tracy Morningstar (Canadian Council for Indigenous Business).

Did you know that period pads can contain heavy metals and carcinogens, and that they sit in landfills for hundreds of years? Meanwhile, in favour of plastic, gigatons of agricultural residuals are wasted. Useful natural fibres are being left behind in fields, season after season. But our first guest, Rashmi Prakash (CEO of Aruna Revolution) is working with farmers to reclaim this biomaterial, using it to create natural menstrual products that will help make the circular economy a reality.

• Aruna Revolution – Bioenterprise Canada
• Aruna Revolution Wins 2024 Green Pursuit Challenge (Dairy Farmers of Canada and Bioenterprise)
• UC Berkeley Public Health – Study on toxicity of tampons (2024)
• Who are the Cattails? Stories of Algonquin Anishinaabe Food Systems, by Kaitlyn Patterson, Canadian Food Studies (2021). See also: Medicine in your backyard: How Indigenous peoples have used medicinal plants | CBC News, NativeTech page on cattails, Indigenous Goddess Gang on ‘feminine hygiene’ industry.
• Rashmi Prakash – University of British Columbia (UBC), School of Biomedical Engineering, Capstone project innovations.

The Executive Producer of the Frontier Entrepreneurship Podcast is Robert Washburn. Special thanks to Daniela Scoppa, Heather Cannings and John Hayden. This project is made possible with the support of FedDev Ontario and the Government of Canada.

For more information on our podcast, including co-host biographies, click here.

NCFDC is now Nventure. Learn more at nventure.ca.

Nventure is presenting the 5th edition of our annual StrikeUP Conference digital conference for women entrepreneurs on February 27, 2025. We'd like to take this opportunity to invite Frontier listeners to attend (it's free and full of great content, networking opportunities and more).

StrikeUP is co-presented by Scotiabank Women Initiative and EDC in partnership with the Government of Canada.