MALAYSIANSKINI | Michael Simon, an established veteran of the local entertainment scene, has been creating and producing content for television for over two decades.

Despite being busy in a very competitive world, Micheal ventured into another field six years ago - the “left field” choice of agriculture.

This former Universiti Sains Malaysia alumni started his professional career as a copywriter in Penang. After a year of writing and proofreading, he applied and got the job as an assistant producer at TV3 and began a steady climb in the world of television. 

“It was then when I discovered producing TV shows was something I would love to do for a living. After six months, I was promoted to a producer role. I produced and directed most of the Entertainment lineup then from shows like Sinaran Passport Kegemilangan and Melodi right up to Muzik Muzik and Juara Lagu.”

Eight years later, he was headhunted by Channel V International to become a producer for their new operations and got to travel the world and interview superstars as well as produce shows.

After a couple of years of that, Simon got a call from record producer turned TV man Ahmad Izham Omar who offered him the opportunity to work in Media Prima’s brand new channel then, 8TV.

“I loved the idea. It was a chance to help build a channel from the ground up. I gave a 24-hour notice of resignation to Channel V and joined 8TV a day later. It was a fantastic experience and we produced great work, including shows like Malaysian Idol and Latte @ 8. 

"After two years at 8TV as their Urban English Network Manager, I decided to pursue my dreams of starting my own TV production business.

“Izham was great enough to let me go but got me and my team to produce the first season of One In A Million from the outside. That’s how I started Homegrown Productions," recalled Simon.

"That year, I also managed to sell the Raja Lawak format to Astro, which became one of their super flagship shows. A couple of years later, I pitched a channel concept to Telekom Malaysia for their IPTV business, Unifi TV and we got it approved. 

"We run a channel on Unifi TV called Inspirasi and it has been on for nine years now. The channel features all homegrown talent, promoting local food, music and lifestyle. It is the first youth channel in Malaysia.”

A different sort of homegrown

To say Simon was a busy man would be an understatement.

But new passions tend to creep up on you when you least expect it, and this urban boy from Green Lane in Penang suddenly felt the temptation to delve into farming.

“Around 2015-2016, when my fourth child was born, my wife and I started getting serious about the food we feed our family. The only way I felt completely safe is if I were to grow my own food. 

“So I researched organic vegetable farming and went headlong into growing our own food. We had such a big harvest the first month we started that we had to give a lot away. And when I saw the demand, I knew it was a viable business option.”

He then entered the inaugural Khazanah New Entrepreneur Outreach - a competition looking for new startups.

“I entered to find out more about this new way of business, where people can get mentoring and are exposed to investors and raising money. We had a great accelerator - 1337 Ventures and I learnt a lot from them. In a sea of tech startups, we won the competition. 

“That was the proof that I needed.”

Homegrown is Simon’s brand and is the name for both his television production company as well as his organic farm, Homegrown Farms.

“To me, farming and TV Production are actually similar - in one company I produce TV shows, in the other I produce food! 

“I’ve always wanted to find the common ground between TV and farming, and I think I’ve found it. We’re producing a lot of agriculture and food content, which are great marketing tools for a farm. We’re probably the only farm that has the backing of an award-winning TV production company.”

Focus on aquaponics

Referring to his farm, Simon said, “I’ve always wanted to farm organically and produce healthy and chemical-free food. 

“Apart from planting in our homemade compost, we also focus on aquaponics - a sustainable and organic way of farming. In aquaponics, you use fish as your nutrient bank.

“The water from the fish tank, ammonia, is converted by naturally occurring bacteria into nitrates, which is essentially nitrogen. This nitrogen is taken up by the plants and the water is filtered back to the fish tank. The plants are happy and the fish are happy. It’s a very natural way of farming.”

Simon said that this way of farming uses 95 percent less water than conventional farming. 

“It’s one of the most sustainable ways of farming and there is no toxic runoff that is poured into the drains as waste - which kills off a lot of life along the rivers. And as opposed to hydroponics, which is a mono-crop system, we can grow a multitude of plants on an aquaponic system.”

He and three workers handle the farm work, from the growing to the packing stages.

During the first lockdown, his wife Ivy, like millions of people across the world, started baking bread at home.

“She baked really great-tasting bread and then I decided to build a micro-bakery on the farm. Today, apart from the vegetables, we also offer various sourdough bread to our subscribers.”

When asked if he prefers being referred to as a TV producer or a farmer, Simon simply said, “I’d rather be known as an entrepreneur.”

“Actually way back when I registered the production business, calling it Homegrown, I did remember thinking about starting a farm later on called Homegrown. And yes, farming and producing our own food has always been something I had wanted to do.”

Things have not always been smooth sailing and he admitted the movement control order (MCO) affected his production company.

“We couldn’t produce enough content for our channel on Unifi so payments were stopped. I was suddenly faced with the reality of losing my staff and business. That was really scary as we ran through our reserves very quickly. 

“Thank God, we managed to raise the money to carry on operations and by March, we will have our payments reinstated,” he said.

His farm, on the other hand, was doing really well through those daunting times.

“We actually grew in terms of sales during the MCO as many people wanted vegetables delivered directly to them. The only problem I’m facing is scaling the farm. It would need more capital to be raised and more manpower to be trained. I guess that’s the next challenge to overcome.”

Since he has taken up farming, many people think he was bowing out as a TV producer.

Simon, however, denies this.

“We’re doing well as a production company and we really haven’t stopped growing. This year we have a couple of big projects lined up and to tell you the truth, going public has been on my mind for some time now.

“I guess I’ll need to learn more about this process and talk to the right people for advice. But going public would be the ultimate achievement for us as a company. Why not?

“As for farming, I see it going on the same trajectory as the production company. One day, Homegrown Farms will be a chain of decentralised urban farms which is a trusted household name that feeds people affordable, healthy, pesticide-free, organic produce. Then we’ll make it public. Why not?”

MALAYSIANSKINI is a series on Malaysians you should know.

Previously featured:

Filmmaker Linus Chung on family stories and his pet snake

Brian Gomez and his Merdekarya dream

How an epiphany turned Muna Noor into a nature advocate

Fighting Orang Asli stereotypes one snapshot at a time

He lost 20 paintings to the flood, but Mark Lee's not giving up

Meet Dr Vincent, the first professor of urology at Cambridge in 800 years