For this episode I sat down with Stacey Toews, husband, father, humanitarian, ecological steward, and my friend. Stacey is undoubtedly one of the greatest humans I know. He is kind, generous, passionate, intelligent, talented, and a person who makes me better just by being in his company.
Stacey is co-founder of Level Ground Trading, a Victoria-based company engaged directly with small-scale farmer groups. Annually they purchase the harvests of more than 5,000 organic, family farms. Level Ground sources everything from coffee and tea to dried fruit, cane sugar, and spices. The 23-year-old company emphasizes bright futures for farmers, sustainability in business, and being ‘the coffee that connects you’.
We explore his company ethos and Stacey’s decades’-long journey in educating about beyond fair-trade practices. We discuss entrepreneurial disappointments and successes.
We also look beyond Level Ground into Stacey’s personal life and pervasive passion for sustainability. Through his small-scale family farm in and his YouTube channel, Sustainable Stace, he is educating people about growing their own organic food.
Stacey and his wife Laurie have 4 children, 3 of whom were adopted from Haiti. We talk about how adoption and fatherhood have impacted Stacey and helped him to learn to calibrate his intensity.
And we also briefly talk about Stacey’s love for cycling and running, and now his new passion of longbow archery. Last year Stacey joined me on a retreat where we made our own longbows out of Pacific Yew, and we regularly shoot together.
If Stacey does not inspire you to cultivate the best version of you, then I missed my interviewing target.
Episode Links:
Level Ground Trading: https://levelground.com/
Sustainable Stace: sustainablestace.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youcangrowityourself
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sustainablestace/#
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDsYtrjT8beVeQ6twgvFYMw
Canadian Foundation for the Children of Haiti: https://www.cfchcanada.ca
Factfulness by Hans Rosling: gapminder.org
One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka: https://onestrawrevolution.net/
Pacific Rim College School of Permaculture Design: https://www.pacificrimcollege.com/faculties-programs/program/permaculture-design-and-resilient-ecosystems-diploma/
Bow Building Leadership Retreat: https://www.anchorpointexpeditions.com/bow-building-retreat
Learning Links:
Continuing Education Permaculture Courses: https://www.pacificrimcollege.com/faculties-programs/school-of-continuing-education/continuing-education/
Online Permaculture Courses: https://pacificrimcollege.online/course-category/natural-building/
Permaculture, Place-Making, and Planet Repair with Mark Lakeman: https://www.pacificrimcollege.com/workshops/event/permaculture-place-making-and-planet-repair-3/