A social entrepreneur driven by health, faith, community, and lifelong learning
Many vegans in Vancouver will need no introduction to Stevan Mirkovich, one of the passionate partners behind Planted, which acquired the Veg Expo and hosts the Planted Expo. The event has run in Vancouver, Toronto, and Seattle, and will be back in Toronto May 10-11, 2025.
A former Christian minister, Stevan is also a gifted speaker who can strike up a conversation with just about anybody. Trust me. Ask him about vegan businesses, health insurance, fitness, coffee, sourdough, and pumping gas in winter in Edmonton.
While not planning for future events, you might find him behind the counter at his plant-based social enterprise cafe, Feast & Fallow, which is just a few blocks from the Oakridge Skytrain station at 305 W 41st Avenue & Elizabeth.
This interview originally aired on September 17, 2020.
Justin Manning: Awesome alright, so we’ll get started ladies and gentlemen with our special guest here today. We’re gonna go through a brief introduction and then we’ll dive right into our conversation with our special guest.
Veg Expo is entering its seventh year in Vancouver, BC with increased popularity and growth year after year, Veg Expo receives about 20,000 attendees every year hungry for plant-based education and of course plant-based food. Last year in 2019 the Expo introduced a food truck lounge alongside its 200 vendors which had attendees eating their hearts out in between listening to some of today’s most inspiring and knowledgeable speakers. Next year’s 2021 Veg Expo opens up in Toronto on January 30th and 31st and back to Vancouver for another two-day event at the Vancouver Convention Centre on May 29th and 30th. Veg Expo is Canada’s premier plant-based and sustainable event bringing together businesses and community, this event is a celebration of all things plant-based and sustainable for the health of our people our planet and the animals we share it with operating from deep love of faith and compassion breaking down the stigmas and myths that many people encounter as they transition to a better way of eating. Ladies and gentlemen help me welcome the Owner and Chief Relational Officer of Veg Expo, Stevan Mirkovich.
Stevan Mirkovich: Thank you Justin, thanks for having me and glad to be here today. Sorry I’m joining you from my car, such as the life I live but nonetheless I hope you can hear me I’ve got a great connection. I can see you all fine folk. It’s really great to be here, thanks for the invitation.
JM: Absolutely we can hear you loud and clear so welcome to Veg Networking Vegan Entrepreneurs Group, a place for plant-based professionals to connect and collaborate for a brighter future.
So we understand that there’s two things that were a precursor to your origin story of finding the plant-based lifestyle – one being a sports injury and then I believe that the other one was the birth of your first child, and so with that being said:
Do you remember any specific books or information when you did transition to plant-based that really caught your attention?
SM: Yeah, totally. I read a lot, and the book that has stuck with me—it’s like 15 years old now, believe it or not—is Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, published by Little Brown. It was an absolutely game-changing book. But before I dive into that, let me give some context.
I’ve been a vegetarian since I was 18, which was just after the sports injury you referenced—the one where I completely destroyed my right knee. After that, I gained a lot of weight really quickly because I kept eating this very rich Eastern European diet. I literally gained 60 pounds in one year. You hear about people losing a bunch of weight in a year; well, I gained it. By the time 2003 rolled around, I was nearly 90 or 100 pounds heavier, even though I’d already transitioned to vegetarianism because I knew it was healthier. I was also toying with veganism on and off for about 18 months before finally pulling the trigger in 2003. That’s when I started dealing with food addiction issues.
Back to the book, though—Eat to Live introduced me to the concept of a nutritarian way of eating. Instead of thinking about food the way I’d grown up—mostly focusing on taste, texture, and recipes—Dr. Fuhrman got me thinking about caloric bang for my buck. I loved the idea: what gives me the most nutrition for the least calories? I went down that road, but I soon realized I had other things to work through. I dabbled in what I now call “junk food veganism,” which was really rooted in my addiction to food. I was using food to cope without even realizing it.
It wasn’t until that second moment you referenced—the birth of my firstborn, who’s now almost 13—that things really clicked. He was about 18 months old and running around the house, and I was chasing him. I was completely out of breath, even though I wasn’t at my heaviest. I was maybe 20 pounds lighter than my peak weight, but I was still 230 pounds on a 5’11” frame, wearing a size 46 jacket and size 40 waist. I was a big person. When you look at me now, you see a jawline—I didn’t even know I had a jawline back then. You can look at my before-and-after pictures and think, Is this the same human being?
I lost my first 50 pounds in 2011 and maintained that for a while. Then, in 2016, I decided to cut out the last few things holding me back. That’s where Dr. Greger’s influence came in. I realized there were just a few more changes I could make to get where I wanted to be. After that, I couldn’t keep the weight on—I was eating like a horse, and it just kept melting off. That was four years ago now.
My vegan origin story started with health, but it grew from there. I worked my way into environmentalism and then into animal rights. Now it’s even bigger—it’s an entire worldview for me. It’s a deeply profound connection. I don’t want to sound too “woo,” but there’s something spiritual, transcendent, even esoteric about the whole thing. It means so many things to me now. But it all started with blowing out my knee, gaining a lot of weight, and asking myself: How do I regain a sense of health?
JM: Well Stevan, it’s a wildly eerily similar plant-based vegan origin story to myself with my left leg injury out of a marathon ballooning up to 60 pounds in a year so it’s very eerily similar it’s totally crazy. When you talk about the esoteric not woo-woo to me, I’m sure we’ve all seen the picture.
In terms of your entrepreneurial origin story, was there anything before Think Green? What was your entrepreneurial origin story?
SM: In terms of business, risk, finances, and the traditional definitions of entrepreneurialism, my journey really took shape in the nonprofit world. I am a minister with the United Church of Canada and have been an ordained minister, living within the Christian realm. I still do and still have faith. Over the years, I’ve started all sorts of projects—not the classic business ventures where you take on significant financial risk to get something going—but through these efforts, I learned the art of innovation. I learned how to take an idea and bring it to life, primarily by working with people. That’s the heart and soul of the nonprofit world: collaboration and a humanitarian approach to creating meaningful impact.
That’s also why I’m so drawn to social enterprise. I love the whole concept—whether you call it conscious capitalism or something else. I’m not a fan of labels, but I deeply respect people who engage with the world in ways that lead to collective flourishing. It’s about taking a positive, collaborative approach and moving away from that dog-eat-dog mentality that so often defines business and competition.
I could probably trace this back to grade six when I helped change the bylaws at my school to allow middle school students to vote in student association elections. I rallied people together and made it happen. It wasn’t about bringing a product to market or selling something; it was about birthing an idea into the world. That’s been a recurring theme in my life—I’ve started all kinds of events and initiatives, driven by a passion for creativity and doing meaningful things.
That said, I’m very new to the for-profit business world. My experience has always been rooted in ideas, people, and collaboration rather than traditional entrepreneurial ventures.
JM: That grade-six story, though, does feel like a spark—rallying the troops to “change the laws,” so to speak. These are the kinds of moments that shape our entrepreneurial origin stories: those offhand, seemingly small events from when we were young that reveal our care for people and community. For me, that spark lit something that’s continued to burn, and I’m grateful for it. Absolutely amazing to reflect on those moments.
Now granted this is a loaded question because of the current times that we’re in but:
When it comes to your industry, have you noticed any trends?
SM: In the event industry at large—not just vegan trade shows but big experiential events like Veg Expo—there’s a unique magic. Veg Expo, for example, has been described as a feeding frenzy or a sampling frenzy, where people come, eat, and try everything all in one day. That energy is amazing and truly the heart of it.
Everything has been on hold due to COVID, but I’ve noticed some shifts. The plant-based world, in particular, is asking deeper questions: What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be humane, even in how we disagree? What does it mean to be collaborative and genuinely care for everyone involved? Plant-based businesses are so cause-driven, and I deeply resonate with that.
That said, I don’t necessarily need another project—I already have plenty on my plate. One of my personal growth areas is learning how to curate my time better. For instance, I’m in my car right now delivering sourdough bread because I love baking it. I’ve also got a café project coming to fruition, which is a social enterprise I’m working on with the City of Vancouver to get off the ground. There’s a lot happening, but it’s all deeply fulfilling.
As for trends in the industry, I see a more collaborative spirit emerging. People are caring about much more than just business, and I think that’s beautiful. Veganism and plant-based living are inherently rooted in relationships. It doesn’t take long on this journey to realize the interconnectedness of everything and how our actions ripple outward.
I hope this trend of collaboration and compassion allows the plant-based industry to continue setting benchmarks for others. It’s inspiring to see the orientation plant-based business owners and advocates bring to the table, one rooted in genuine effort and care.
Even the more combative aspects of veganism—the vitriolic opposition to anything associated with animal products—seem to be softening. More people are recognizing the humanity on the other end of these arguments. No matter how much you disagree with someone’s choices or lifestyle, treating them with love and respect is essential.
This shift toward a kinder, more collaborative approach is a wonderful trend, and I’m really happy to see it.
JM: Yeah compassion for others in collaboration with others at least in terms of me because I frequent veg expo often and I’ve been noticing that collaborative culture starting to grow and grow and grow so we look forward to where that’s gonna go. So question number five of eight: we’d like to start the next question by first congratulating you and Jonny for becoming the new owners of Veg Expo, so kind of similar to the last question but where is Veg Expo going in the near future and beyond,
Is there anything that we don’t know about yet because of you and Jonny becoming the new owners that you’re excited to share?
SM: I think some of the stuff has been obvious sort of on social media, taking the event from one day to two days taking it from just Vancouver to hopefully other cities in Canada. We’re actually going to be announcing a different date in Toronto so thank you for announcing the January dates but we just got word from the event centre in Toronto that they don’t think our particular event will be feasible in January, none of them want to, I feel really bad for the Vancouver Convention Centre. I feel really bad for Enercare and the Metro Toronto Convention Center and all the convention centers like it’s tough like if one event is struggling i can’t imagine an organization that is based on events you know like it’s really hard and i feel for them so those are some of the things but we’re actually going to be rebranding so moving away from the language of badge, just because it’s not what’s on trend right now in terms of the language that is being used—everybody’s shifting towards the word “plant” which you know has its pros and cons but we see it as more pro, there’s a lot of benefits to using the words “plant-based” in the bigger scheme of things so we’re actually going to rebrand Veg Expo. So that’ll be coming down here really shortly—the organization will be called planted so it’ll be the planted expo.
One of the things we’ve been working on because of COVID is a learning community. When we got in touch with people who attended Veg Expo over the years and talked to people at these kinds of events, we found that many of them are veg-curious. Those of us immersed in the vegan community, like I’ve been for nearly 20 years, sometimes forget what it’s like to be new to the plant-based or vegan movement and wanting to adopt more of that lifestyle. People were asking, “Where do I go next?” Those of us in the community can easily rattle off names, books, and resources, but I have so many friends and family who are still, at best, curious, or at worst, completely unaware.
We wanted to create a resource library of courses that are highly accessible and celebrate some of the best voices within the plant-based community in Canada and abroad. We wanted to create a place where people could go and access that. We recorded a beta course called Planted Foundations, where I’m the presenter. It’s a quick 28-episode series, with episodes ranging from 8 to 12 minutes, covering everything you need to know to go plant-based. It starts with the basics—how to read labels, stock your pantry, and do some meal prep. It touches on a variety of topics and myths people have about plant-based living.
We got great feedback from testing the waters, so we’re re-recording the whole series. We’re also working with several other voices—though I won’t name them yet because we’re planning to launch everything at once—to create a comprehensive resource library. It’ll be part of what Planted does. We’ve also considered interviews and podcasts, but there are already so many great ones out there. That’s not really where we see ourselves.
Instead, we see ourselves working to connect Canada—supporting local brands in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and beyond. We want to introduce people to the amazing products and ideas these communities have to offer. That’s a big part of what we’re doing.
Jonny is an incredible person, and I’m so lucky to be in business with him. We’re excited—scared a little—but excited. I have a lot of experience with events, so we’re confident on that front. But we’re pivoting, staying agile, and planning ahead even though we don’t know when the next in-person event will happen. We keep planning, reaching out to speakers like Rich Roll and Dr. Greger, who agreed to be part of our events before COVID hit. These are some of my personal heroes, and it’s been challenging to reschedule so many times.
Planning an event properly takes 8 to 12 months, so we have to stay ahead. Waiting until everything settles, like after the vaccine rollout, would mean delaying events even further—possibly 24 to 36 months without anything happening. So, we’re constantly communicating and adapting to keep things moving.
JM: That’s where we are—moving toward collaboration and knowledge-sharing through Planted. From my experience at Veg Expo, I’ve noticed the shift from a feeding frenzy to focusing more on education and information, and it’s amazing to see that shift deepen.
Feeding frenzy towards information and education and knowledge. I’ve also noticed that myself. So yeah, if you guys are doubling down on that, that’s amazing.
Okay, so you kind of talked about the podcast question, so I’ll change it a little bit and spin it.
In all of your experience, outside podcasts aside, if there was one hack that Stevan Mirkovich uses or talks about in terms of hacking your plant-based fitness, is there one of those or a couple of those that you would share?
SM: Plant-based fitness? How to fuel yourself for physical performance or just weight loss or health? Because they’re kind of different for me a little bit. Yeah, take it as you will, even if it’s in business—any type of hack or something that’s something that you really find works well for you that might work well for others.
Yeah, the big one for me was mindfulness—reconnecting with my food and slowing down during mealtimes. We live in such a fast-paced world, and convenience and price sadly often win the day in terms of how we choose to feed ourselves. My willingness to step back into the kitchen, be very mindful of what I was going to eat, and really pay attention to the way my meals came together was sort of an eye-opener. When you actually journal your meals and keep track of what you’re doing, you think through, “How much of it is processed? How much of it did I make? Do I even know where this food came from? Or am I just quickly grabbing it off the shelf or stopping in, consuming it, and fueling myself without even thinking about how I’m fueling myself?”
That willingness to slow down, chew your food, and be mindful of it was game-changing for me. Now mealtimes are sacred times. Breakfast—sit down at the table with all five of us, and we do breakfast every morning together. It’s a value. You sit there, and it’s stone fruit season right now. I don’t know how many of you love stone fruit, but I am in love with stone fruit—nectarines, peaches, plums, apricots, you name it. We live near the Okanagan, so we’ve got some of the best stone fruit in all of the world. I just love biting into a bowl of oatmeal in the morning with fresh-cut stone fruit right now. You feel all the textures. You put your hemp seed on there, your chia seeds, your flax seeds, and a few of your favorite little crunchy things. I like toasting some buckwheat for the crunch factor on my oatmeal bowl. I put all of it together and make it look pretty. Even for my kids, even if it’s a crazy Thursday morning and we’ve got to get to school—no, I put it all in little compartments so that when they look down at the bowl, it’s not just mush oatmeal with some fruit tossed in, mixed together. It’s not just “schlopp again.” Which is okay, I get it, but this is our food. This is our fuel. Look at how beautiful it is. Look at how colorful it is. This is really wonderful.
You sit there and think about, “Oh, that batch of nectarines was better than last week’s batch.” It’s just tasty and good. That’s my hack. Slow down a little bit. You owe it to yourself and to the food you’re eating, to your inner world, to stop and be really grateful for what you’re eating, to think about it, and to recognize what it’s doing for you and for the planet when you eat it.
JM: Well, thank you so much for giving us a little bit of an insight into that sacred space with you and your family every morning—all five of you. It sounds absolutely beautiful. I couldn’t agree more about that hack about slowing down.
Now, whether it’s a journal or an app or something else outside of food, maybe more in business or self-growth—are there any brands that you absolutely love right now?
SM: I’m a massive Evernote guy. I’ve been using Evernote for a lot of years. In fact, I think I might have been a really early adopter of Evernote. It’s a great organizational tool for me. It keeps my life organized—all my files, everything. All of my emails get pre-written in Evernote before I go to my email client to send it. I use the tags. I save clips from the internet, screenshots into Evernote. It’s all file system tagged. That’s been huge to just have one place where I go for all of those sorts of things—voice memos. It does a lot. It’s a really powerful tool to keep me organized.
What was the other side of that question? Other brands that I like, kind of from business?
JM: Yeah, we can appreciate asking you, who brings all these brands in every single year, it’d be hard to ask you what’s your favorite brand when it comes to food.
No, yeah. The note, or maybe—is there a particular journal that you normally use, or just a regular old book?
SM: I actually am not very good at transcribing by hand my journals. I’m an online guy. I kind of found journaling in my 30s, over the last decade. At that point, I was already sort of immersed in the digital world, so I journal—believe it or not—in Evernote as well. I have a whole section there, another notebook, and it’s my journal notebook. I go through that and collect my thoughts and find that really helpful.
Although I know a lot of people do a number of other things, probably in terms of a book and a person that I follow and love their newsletter—it’s James Clear. Atomic Habits. That guy’s brilliant. Really helped me stumble across what’s called stacking habits. If you’re looking to either break bad habits or streamline new habits, his book, Atomic Habits by James Clear is an absolute game-changer.
The whole idea is there are things in your life that you will do every day, and if you can stack new behaviors on top of things that you know you’re going to do, then that becomes the trigger, and it cascades a number of other habits built on top of that. For example, I like taking my time with coffee in the morning. I drink black coffee. I only started drinking coffee in my 30s when I stumbled across pour-overs and slow coffee. I never liked quick coffee—at events, it was like, “Oh, I don’t like that coffee.” Then I stumbled across, I try not to be a snob about it, but I sit there, and it takes me about five or six minutes to make my coffee in the morning. I’m slowly pouring over with my goose neck kettle. I wanted to develop a mindfulness practice, and I wasn’t good at doing it.
I thought, “I sit there over my coffee for five minutes, just sort of zoned out. Why don’t I take the time I’m sitting there making the coffee to also be mindful?” Now, while making coffee, I do some breath work, meditation, and clear my head for the day. It’s early before anyone else is up, before I journal. You’re smelling all of those aromas, it’s got this visceral component. You smell your coffee, you think, you breathe, and you go on with your day.
James Clear taught me about stacking habits. His weekly Thursday newsletter is great—quick, food for thought, always something that helps you through the week. Remarkable. I could go on.
JM: It sounds like every single question we’re asking could have an hour-long discussion with you, so it’s been amazing so far, to be honest. This is our eighth and final question, and you’ve already given a lot of advice to the listeners and the entrepreneurs, whether they’re just getting into entrepreneurship, making a pivot, or whatnot. With that being said, given the current state of everything,
Is there a golden nugget you’d like to share in terms of advice?
SM: Well, I don’t know that I’m qualified, really, but something helpful… Nobody’s got all the answers. I think just living into that is important. Some people might seem like they’ve got it all together, but most people out there are just trying things. Having the right mindset to not feel overwhelmed is key. Stepping away and saying, “This is okay; this is hard for everybody right now,” is important.
Everybody’s adjusting, and it’s hard on many fronts, not just business—your personal life is affected as much as your professional life. Allowing it to be a hard time and not feeling like you have to figure it all out, pivot, or start something new is okay. It’s okay to not know, to try things, and to mess up. At least that’s what I’m living into because that’s what it’s been like for us with ownership of Veg and soon-to-be Planted.
It’s been hard. You wonder, “What is the right next step? When do you announce it? How do you move forward?” There are so many things you could do, but what should you be doing? That’s hard to determine. Living into that grace that it’s okay, it’s hard for everybody, and we’ll get through this—we’ll come out the other end having learned a lot of lessons.
There will be all kinds of Harvard Business Review case studies for years to come about what happened in 2020. This is a pivotal year in history for so many reasons. Let’s not beat ourselves up. I know that might not feel encouraging if someone is about to lose their business and may have to start over. But even that—rebirth and getting another shot at something—because one thing didn’t work doesn’t mean you’re a failure.
We are not our ideas, and we are not our businesses. That’s hard for an entrepreneur to accept because so much of who we are is wrapped up in what we do. We love it so much. But as much as I love adjectival or Planted or the plant-based space, that’s not who I am. I’m a husband, a father, a friend, a Vancouverite, a Canucks fan—there are so many other identities that define me.
We shouldn’t conflate our businesses with our value or push ourselves into situations where we are so stressed. Stress is a killer, and we can’t let it take over our lives. People will be there, you’ll pick yourself up, and there is a way through it. Lots of people have gone through this before. Humans are resilient, and we’ll find a way through.
Maybe that’s tipping my hand a bit to my optimistic worldview and the belief that things are trending in the right direction, even though it’s been a difficult year. Let me tell you—when I sat there and crafted a statement regarding Black Lives Matter, I was scared. I’m a white straight male, and I had so many demons to confront about my ignorance.
That was a difficult situation for all of us. I’ve been reading books and trying to understand. Everything gets scrutinized. You put out a statement, and it’s an honest attempt to understand yourself in that situation and hold yourself accountable to the transformation you want to see. These challenges are societal, and we’re all in it together.
We’re connected, and that’s what I would share with people.
JM: That’s wonderful. I guess we can frame it less as advice and more as personal wisdom, because you leaned into that right away, saying you’re not necessarily qualified to give advice. But you certainly have a wealth of personal wisdom and self-compassion, which was at the heart of what you were discussing. Thank you for sharing.
We’re grateful to hear your story and have you here with us today, Stevan. We’d like to give you the floor to wrap up today’s conversation. If there’s anything the people here or those listening afterward can do to help you or the Planted Expo, we’d love to give you the floor to close it out.
Yeah, this is great. We feel privileged to have had the opportunity to step into this role and take what was a great event that has grown and gotten started before the plant-based movement really gained the foothold it has today. 2020 is very different from 2014 when it started.
For us, it’s service first. All these other businesses are the heroes—they’re the ones stepping out there. We’re just the platform showcasing all the amazing things in our city, the incredible entrepreneurs, and the fantastic products moving the needle on so many issues while helping everybody flourish.
We feel privileged to have been given this opportunity. We’re excited to see where it goes next and grateful to talk to you fine folks on a Thursday afternoon. This has been really great. Thank you, Helen, Justin, Monica, Shawna, Laura—it’s been wonderful.
For anyone listening, you can find Veg Expo on the web at vegexpo.ca and on Instagram @vegexpo. Thank you for sharing your time with us today, Stevan. All the best to you and Heather. Take care, and we’ll talk to you soon.
SM: Thank you, guys. Cheers.
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