Benjamin Feagin Jr. | Indigenous Business Owner Micro-grant | Indigenous Business Owner Micro-grant

Benjamin Feagin Jr., Co-Founder and CEO (He/Him/His)
Fabian Prince Velez, Co-Founder and COO (He/Him/His)
AgriTech North

Ben is a historic ancestry Métis, has a permanent and uncorrectable visual disability of the optic nerve, and currently resides in ancestral Métis territory in Northwestern Ontario with the love of his life and business partner, Fabian. Fabian is Chicano from Los Angeles and met Ben in Portland while studying Botany and Horticulture. 

Co-founders Ben and Fabian conceptualized AgriTech North during the pandemic. They wanted to combine their R&D and Growing skills while making the biggest social impact possible after learning of each other’s experience and passion for contributing to the communities in which they live. They moved to embark on a new adventure in Northwestern Ontario to solve food insecurity in the region, giving back to the community that helped raise Ben.

Their story is one of perseverance and ancestral calling; a deep-rooted sense of responsibility for future generations has led them to overcome a long series of challenges in their start-up, developing a bustling and rapidly growing enterprise that is actively resolving food insecurity in rural and remote communities across Northern Canada. They have shown that despite there being obstacles and seeming dead ends, the entrepreneurial spirit presses on and doesn’t let artificial impedances limit what’s possible.