meet our project collaborators

Michelle Houlden has 30 years of design and visual communication experience at The Western Producer, serving as Creative Director until 2023, when she left to launch her own Saskatoon-based design company, Maverick Studios. Michelle has deep rural roots and brings a wealth of agricultural knowledge to the table. She was instrumental in redesigning and producing the Saskatchewan Seed Guide for the past several years. She also developed from concept to production two big publications: Yield Saskatchewan, an annual growers’ supplement, and GrowPro, a quarterly agronomy-based magazine. The American Agricultural Editors’ Association and the Canadian AgriMarketers’ Association have recognized her work internationally.

 Matt McIntosh is a farmer and freelance journalist based in Southwestern Ontario. He actively covers an array of agricultural and scientific subjects, with particular focus on technological, production, environmental, and wider societal issues pertaining to food and farming. A regular contributor to both domestic and international publications, Matt also holds a background in public outreach, media relations, crisis communications, and media training. He has worked with a variety of organizations and companies in these and other capacities, as well as content creation.

Matt is the current president of the Eastern Canada Farm Writers' Association, having served on the board since 2018. Matt operates under his brand, "The Rural PhilosoFer." 

Sarah Groot is a Calgary-based freelance multimedia journalist and communicator. She works for a variety of clients including the Globe and Mail where she covers events, creates photo essays and original stories. She primarily focuses on writing and editing, visual media, communications plans and audits, marketing, web editing and analytics.

Groot has an honours graduate of SAIT’s photojournalism program a degree in  communication and media from Royal Roads University in Victoria, B.C. 

 Melanie Epp is a freelance agricultural journalist from Ontario, Canada. She writes about everything from poultry to potatoes and dairy farming to grain production. She writes regularly for more than 25 publications in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

Melanie served as president of the Professional Writers’ Association of Canada (PWAC) Guelph Chapter for two years. She also served as the first vice-president of the Eastern Canada Farm Writers’ Association and as board director of the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation. Currently, she is secretary of the Belgian Guild of Agricultural Journalists and is its executive representative for the IFAJ.

Currently, Melanie lives in Belgium. She has been writing professionally since 2009.