Hi, I’m Mike, the guy behind Steel Pony Farm. In my early 20’s I was sitting around a cook fire with a family in rural Kenya that grew most of their own food. Getting to know them, I was struck by how far removed I was from food production. They asked me to tell them about my farm and when I told them that I didn’t have one they were confused about where I got my food. I explained that most of the food I ate was shipped from California, Mexico or China. They didn’t understand why we would ship food all over the world when we could grow it at home.

This experience brought up some big questions for me: how could I know so little about one of the basic necessities to life? Why DID we ship food all around the world when we could grow it at home? What was the cost - social, environmental, financial, nutritional, cultural - to this global system? Was there a way to do it better?

This experience led to an obsession with local food production that took me from coast to coast in Canada as I learned from experienced farmers about how they were creating an alternative to the global food system. Ultimately, it led me back to Red Deer, my home town, where I started Steel Pony Farm. My mission is to provide nutritious produce to my community while respecting the people, land and ecosystem that I work with.

I hope you will consider supporting us through signing up for our weekly food box program.