While there’s a current trend where “hot girl” social media influencers pose with adorable but artificial intelligence-created barnyard animals to farm clicks, there’s one actual farmer in South Surrey who has grown more than just followers across his social media platforms.
Tyler Heppell, a fifth-generation farmer who quit a high-paying sales job to return to his family’s South Surrey potato farm, showcases farming and agriculture on his TikTok, Instagram and other social media accounts, educating followers about how farming works but also raising awareness about important issues, such as the importance of having — and keeping — good farmland available for farmers.
@heppellspotato What happens when there is more dirt clumps than potatoes. This only happens once a year, our field got wet last night and the heat wave turned the field into dirt clumps #farmtok #potatotiktok #farmer #harvest #agriculture #problemsolving #howitsmade β¬ Chill Day – LAKEY INSPIRED
He’s also pioneering a more proactive approach to his family’s 100-plus-year farming legacy in the area, building a more resilient — and more modern — business model that uses digital agritourism to cut out middlemen and build a loyal customer base as well as new connections.
Growing more than potatoes
When thinking about local agriculture, many may picture fields, crops, a tractor and a farm stand rather than TikTok engagement metrics, but with Heppell now at more than 811,000 TikTok followers alone, creating content as a “farm-fluencer” is helping to drive Heppell Potatoes’ bottom line.
Having been featured in articles as far away as the New York Post, who dubbed him a “total spud stud,” Heppell has been highlighted in stories across B.C. and Canada as well as the U.S., and is also featured in BC Agriculture Council videos on Facebook and YouTube.
Heppell remains modest about his online popularity, but admits more followers means more of a chances to share his message, and connect with people around the world.
“I think people just need to have a better understanding of how their food is made,” Heppell said at his family’s farm last week. “I think right now, especially in North America, we’re some of the pickiest eaters in the world, and I think if people understand how much work actually goes into their food, they might have more appreciation for it and hopefully, more leniency … (understanding that food) doesn’t need to look so symmetrical and perfect.”
One of the reasons he and his family first started their Ugly Potato Day events in 2022 was to help battle local food insecurity, but also to help combat food waste and highlight the fact that food doesn’t have to be pretty to be delicious as well as nutritious.
“That’s why I always encourage people to garden too. Because you learn that it’s hard to grow food that looks perfect. And guess what, the food that that looks weird still tastes the exact same as the ‘perfect’ food,” Heppell said.
The Heppells had 12 people come out to their first Ugly Potato Day in 2022, but as word spread — and social media followers increased into the hundreds of thousands — several thousand people started to show up at each event, where the farming family offers free potatoes as well as squash, carrots and other vegetables that might be misshapen, bruised or oddly shaped — produce deemed too “ugly” for the grocery store — to anyone able to come and pick it up.
Now, with several other farms participating, Ugly Potato Days are held at the fairgrounds in Cloverdale to accommodate the thousands of people who show up for the free “ugly” food.
Heppell strikes a unique note in creating content that is not only educational, but fun as well — for adults and kids, who follow @PotatoTy for his videos about “marshmallow” farming, or to find out how farmers harvest, sort and clean their crops, the machines they use (harvesters, destoners) or about what certain crops are, like kalette (a hybrid between kale and Brussels sprouts).
@heppellspotato This new Veggie could be the next superfood Craze #kale #vegetables #harvest #farming #agriculture β¬ original sound – πππͺππ¨π¨π€πͺπ£ππ― 
He visits other local farms to find out how mushroom farming happens, or a local cranberry harvest — and even whether there are spiders in the water during cranberry harvest! — and offers local trick-or-treaters potatoes as well as candy on Halloween (they almost always pick the potato).
Followers on social media can also find out how much it costs to grow one crop, and how much farmers need to grow in order to make money from one crop, and learn that one bucket of honeynut squash seed costs $3,800, and that a four-acre crop needs to yield approximately 30,000 pounds worth of sales for the farmer to make money when other costs such as land, fuel, fertilizer and equipment are factored in.
‘Farm-fluencing’ helps agri-educate, raise awareness
In addition to the weather, farmers face other issues each year, including the rising costs faced by everyone else in B.C. and Canada.
“For example, this year cardboard went up 12 per cent. A lot of the stuff we sell is transported in in cardboard,” Heppell said, noting that the increased cost is something their farm doesn’t pass on to the consumer.
Heppell enjoys interacting with his many followers on social media (he’sPotato Ty, or @heppellspotato on TikTok and potatotyx on Instagram), and frequently gets asked potato-y questions, like why potatoes turn green, or his favourite potato recipe (a good scalloped potato dish, or warm potato salad, or traditional mashed potatoes with a yummy gravy, depending on the potato and time of year).
@heppellspotato The truth about where Green Potatoes goβ¦ #potatotiktok #farmtok #potatoes #greenpotatoes #agriculture β¬ Chill Day – LAKEY INSPIRED
“I think there’s so much opportunity in this industry,” said Heppell. “I really do want to educate the the end consumer better.
“I want to encourage more young farmers to get into the industry. I want to also encourage other farmers to start posting on social media,” he said, adding that many more people can be reached on platforms like social media.
@heppellspotato The Secret to Canada's World-Class Marshmallow Farms #marshmallow #agriculture #farmfun #country β¬ original sound – Potato Ty
“You have such a good voice on there. … We were able to get over 84,000 signatures to save our farmland. Even though it’s still up in the air, we’re still fighting it,” Heppell said, referencing an approximate 300-acre parcel of land where his family has leased and farmed 220 acres for more than 50 years, located in South Surrey’s Campbell Heights neighbourhood.
Raising awareness about that land was one of the main reasons Heppell first took to social media, he noted.
“When I came back (to farming), I noticed that some of our best farmland was maybe going to get sold and developed,” he recalled. “We really wanted to raise awareness about that, because it’s some of the most important farmland here in British Columbia — if not Western Canada — so I started posting on TikTok about it.”
That particular parcel of land, which Heppell calls B.C.’s own “little piece of California” because of its sandy soil and location, produces an estimated 30 to 50 million servings of fresh B.C. field vegetables such as nugget potatoes, carrots, parsnips, cabbages and squash from May through July each year.
Harvest begins before other vegetable fields in B.C., as this land reduces B.C.’s reliance on imported vegetables, Heppell said, emphasizing that that specific field produces Western Canada’s first such vegetables each year, at a time when B.C. is mostly relying on its southern, tariff-imposing neighbour for the same produce.
But farmers aren’t the only ones who want the valuable Campbell Heights land.
Indigenous land negotiations may impact future
Community interest in preserving the land for agricultural use rather than an industrial park was spurred by a July 2022 resolution from City of Surrey council expressing support for redesignating the properties as ‘Agricultural’ as part of the City’s OCP (Official Community Plan) review process.
That was followed by a 2023 public hearing about including the land into the federal Agricultural Land Commission, but the ALC was not aware the lands were subject to ongoing negotiations between the federal government and Kwantlen, Katzie and Semiahmoo First Nation (KKS), it said at the time, and the commission now understands the subject properties are the last large piece of federal Crown land available in KKS territory, and the Nations have been in discussions with the federal government about the properties on and off over the past 30 years.
KKS made an announcement in June of 2024 regarding the land calling for a portion of their territory, including the land the Heppells and at least one other local farmer uses — to be returned to the three nations.
“The land is rightfully ours,” Chief Grace George of the Katzie First Nation said at the announcement, a sentiment echoed by Semiahmoo First Nation Chief Harley Chappell at the time.
“This is not a conversation on food security and farming; this is a conversation between these Crown lands and three First Nations,” Chappell said.
Heppell reiterated the farming value of the land and said he and his family want to encourage the federal government to work with the First Nations “in an outside-the-box mindset where they can be rewarded with their reconciliation, but where food security is still honoured.”
Food security has always been a focus for Heppell, who also founded Ten Servings, which allows farmers to give their extra “ugly” produce to local food banks to help feed those who need it most in the community as well as cut down on food waste. People can also donate by purchasing T-shirts, hoodies or other merchandise, or support local need with “feed a family” options as well.
Heppell said will continue to raise awareness about farming and food security as the “farm-fluencer” he is, and continue to create agri-content for his accounts.
“Being able to connect with people all across the world (through social media) … I’m going to Scotland next week to meet someone I met through TikTok … there’s some good potato farms there too,” he said, adding the choice to return to his family’s farm was the best decision he has ever made.
“Living in your purpose is always worth it.”