By Samantha McLeod

In a world chasing speed, status, and convenience, Gagan Singh chose to slow down and return to the soil. What began as a personal reckoning has now grown into a grassroots mission to repair how we eat, connect, and live.

“I couldn’t unsee it,” said Gagan Singh, known online as @just_gagan and the founder of Instaberry (instaberry.ca), “We're living in one of the best times to be alive, and yet, we're miserable. We have so much, but we’ve let the quality of our lives collapse because we’re chasing money, ego, and status.”

Gagan holds a degree in Marketing and Business from Simon Fraser University, a foundation that now powers his mission with strategy and insight.

Growing up in Abbotsford, once dubbed the murder capital of Canada, Gagan's childhood was marked by violence and emotional distance. He disconnected from his family early, throwing himself into work and ambition. It wasn’t until burnout and illness forced him back home that he began to see what truly mattered.

“My family helped me get healthy again. I realised they weren't disposable,” he said without rancor.

His family is from Punjab, a land of deep agricultural heritage where farming is a lineage and a livelihood in equal measure. Gagan’s ancestry is grounded in the act of seeding, tending, and harvesting over the centuries.

“Punjab means the land of five rivers,” Gagan explained. “It’s near Mesopotamia.”

He wasn’t referring to a map per se, but to memory of ancient belonging that flows through his soul. The Punjab he speaks of lies close to where the Indus Valley once flourished, one of humanity’s earliest farming civilisations. To be from that soil, Gagan implies, is to go forth across the globe carrying the wisdom of the land, its cycles, its memory, its knowing.

“We grow everything,” he said, “milk, vegetables, grains. In India, people in other regions drink goat’s milk, but we had full-fat cow’s milk, butter, yogurt, and lassi. Our food is rich because our land is rich.”

“There is a spiritual connection that we have to the land and the food,” he continued, “It’s ineffable.”

Immersed in those traditions and the flavours of abundance that shaped his cultural identity is what fuels his drive to reclaim food integrity.

After COVID fractured his social network and sense of belonging, Gagan left Canada for two years. Living on $20 a day, he travelled through communities where material wealth was akin to famine, while human connection was the feast.

“The people didn’t have money, but they had each other. They worked with their families and neighbours to survive. And they ate better. They were happier,” he said.

Meanwhile in Canada, he noticed that anxiety, disconnection, and poor diet dominated. Access to healthy, local food was often seen as a luxury rather than a right.

In many parts of the world, produce markets are sown into everyday life, but in Canada they’ve become niche experiences, often reserved for the rich and middle classes.

The irony, Gagan observed, was that those with the least elsewhere in the world were often eating fresh, seasonal, local food born of necessity and shared knowledge.

Returning home, Gagan took over his father's neglected eight-acre blueberry farm. That led to his founding of a new model: selling direct, organising town halls, hosting farmer’s markets, and building what he calls a “community-run distribution system.”

“I'm not waiting for the system to catch up. I’m creating artificial innovation in a field that has potential, but no momentum,” he said emphatically.

His marketing background plays a huge role, but now it’s in service of people, not profits. For Gagan, the work is about good karma, honest money, and doing what is right for the community.

“Do good first, and the money you need will come,” is his mantra. “It’s energy in motion.”

Support from the government has been cautious but growing.

“They’re all watching,’ he said, “But I’m not asking for anything yet. I’m building a unified voice first…Farmers and consumers coming together.”

When it comes to systems and regulation, Gagan operates in a space where tradition, innovation, and necessity often collide. He moves with pinpoint focus on his ultimate goals, adapting quickly, building first and refining as he goes. It’s responsiveness, nurtured in mindfulness and sprouted by the support of his community.

The emotional root-system of his mission is simple. If people grow even one thing, potatoes, herbs, anything, then they gain respect for the process. That respect connects them to farmers who have been doing this for millennia.

He sees it happen often. First-time growers, anxious and unsure, are soon overwhelmed with joy when they harvest their first crop.

“Eating the food, you grew yourself is spiritual. It changes you,” said Gagan.

His goal is culture repair and food production. Through Instaberry and his Farm Innovation Hub, Gagan hosts brainstorms sessions, builds momentum, and works toward a future where small farmers are respected and supported.

“I don’t have all the legislative solutions yet,” he explained, “But I listen. And I learn. If we want new systems, we have to understand why the current ones exist.”

He believes success in farming is about community, family, and sustainability before yield.

Even just stepping barefoot on the dirt, or picking blueberries, or mingling with farmers, the work is growing. So is the team. Slowly, and with purpose.

"The land is healing us as much as we heal it. That might be the real revolution,” Gagan said in closing.

To follow his journey or join the movement, visit instaberry.ca or follow Gagan on Instagram @just_gagan.