Speakers

George became Chief Executive of the Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) 27 years ago in January 1997, having worked at the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF) in Whitehall, London, and in the Country Landowners Association (CLA) headquarters.

George has represented the TFA on the Rock Review Tenancy Working Group and the Tenancy Reform Industry Group, since its formation, and was a member of Amaeth Cymru, the Welsh Government Strategic Framework Partnership Group for agriculture. He is a National Trust Specialist Volunteer on land-use and Governance issues, a Trustee of the Arthur Rank Centre and a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies.

In 2022, George was presented the Farmers Weekly Lifetime Achievement Award and at the 2023 British Farming Awards, the Outstanding Contribution to British Farming. He is also part of the leadership team of the Reading Elim Pentecostal church.

Philip Lymbery is Global Chief Executive of the international farmed animal welfare environmental organisation, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF). He is visiting Professor at the University of Winchester in the UK, President of the Brussels-based umbrella body of nearly 100 leading animal welfare societies in Europe, Eurogroup for Animals, and is a founding Board member of the World Federation for Animals (WFA), a global membership organisation to represent the animal protection movement at intergovernmental level.

Philip is also a Leadership Fellow of St George’s House, Windsor Castle and Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.

He was appointed UN ambassadorial ‘Champion’ for the 2021 Food Systems Summit in New York and was appointed co-lead of the Summit’s Sustainable Livestock Solutions Cluster.

Philip is an animal advocate, naturalist, photographer, and author. He regularly writes and speaks internationally on animal ethics and the global effects of industrial agriculture (factory farming), including its impact on animal welfare, wildlife, soil and natural resources, biodiversity and climate change.

His most recent books include Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat (Bloomsbury, 2014), Dead Zone: Where the Wild Things Were (Bloomsbury, 2017), and Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-friendly Future (Bloomsbury, 2022).

Cultivated Meat to Secure Our Future (Lantern 2023) co-edited with Michel Vandenbosch

Sue is the Chief Executive of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. Sue leads the organisation in its mission to bring people together to act on the climate, nature and health crises, through fairer and more sustainable food systems, and a just transition for rural communities and the countryside.

Sue’s background is in combined research and practice in leadership and organisation development for systems change, working with leaders across public, private and not for profit organisations, especially on complex partnership projects.

She is a Trustee of CoFarm Foundation and is an independent Governor at Royal Agricultural University. Living on an organic farm in Wales, Sue and her family raise livestock and farm for conservation.

Based in Cornwall, Tom is an organic farmer and has worked as a livestock nutrition consultant for over 25 years. He farms around 600 acres with his wife, Nicola, where they put regenerative and biological farming into practice, running an Angus suckler herd and growing organic oats, barley and fodder beet.

Tom’s view of regenerative farming changed fundamentally in 2017 after working in The States with the ‘father of biological farming’, Gary Zimmer of MidWestern Bioag.

Passionate about the wide-ranging benefits of good grazing management, diverse cropping and soil health, Tom believes regenerative farming practices offer a win-win when it comes to farm profitability, public ecosystem services and the wider environment.

Tim Martin is the co-founder of Farm Wilder, a social enterprise that markets meat from farms with exceptional wildlife, and supports farmers in working more regeneratively and restoring biodiversity. Farm Wilder sells online, to butchers, and to restaurants across the South West and London.

Tim is also a freelance film producer, making films about wildlife friendly farming for Farm Wilder and its partners, as well as executive producing international wildlife films, previously for the BBC Natural History Unit and most recently for Netflix, with the Emmy award-winning series Island of the Sea Wolves

Matt worked with his Cornish butcher for 10 years in London, setting up a supply chain to London restaurants. His idea was to return to farm red ruby cattle and sell to the same restaurants via his butcher.

A chance visit to a brilliant jambon producer in Extremedura gave him a eureka moment. The meat from iberico pigs is so good because they walk a long distance in their earth life and then put on fat very quickly when entering acorn fields.

Matt realised there was potential to do something similar with cull ewes. He now mob grazes these older sheep, using them to increase productivity and biodiversity in his sward. His mantra is ‘watching is working’. His sheep get, on average, an extra six months of life.

They arrive on the farm very plain, and leave with a flavoursome fat cover. He sells to a good number of London restaurants via his butcher and business is growing rapidly.

He currently farms 100 acres of pasture. They have a large grant to develop agroforestry next winter and have taken on 20 acres of what will hopefully turn into culm grassland using the sheep. Matt has proven he can feed a lot of people with high quality meat, increase biodiversity and help the local economy.

Lara Honnor created Skool Beanz Children’s Gardening Club run from their very own No-Dig allotment in Chilthorne Domer near Yeovil in April 2021 after being inspired by Greta Thunberg and children around the world standing up for the planet in her Fridays For Futures movement. Lara had just finished a diploma in Social and Therapeutic Horticulture and had previously worked for Charles Dowding and wanted to recreate the magic of his beautiful market garden for children.

Now in its fourth year, Skool Beanz is thriving, teaching children aged 4 - 13 how to grow delicious veg, beautiful cut flowers and how to garden to help nature with plenty of upcycled art. The clubs run after school, at weekends and holidays. Lara’s dream is to have proper children’s gardens and gardening clubs all over the country and beyond.

Niels Corfield is an independent farming advisor and trainer. He works with producers and landowners to implement regenerative systems, across all farming types.

Lucy Noad qualified as a vet from the Royal Veterinary College in 2010. She enjoyed an early career in dairy consultancy with a particular interest in animal health and welfare and knowledge transfer to farmers.
Running Woodhouse Farm in Wiltshire with her husband Robert, Lucy moved to working on the farm full time. She has spent the last decade milking, together with planning and managing the farm’s infrastructure investments and the herd expansion to 200 cows plus a switch to autumn block calving.
Lucy now spends her time immersed in all things regenerative. She works closely with First Milk and the Naturally Better Dairy Group to farm the best way she can to regenerate the planet, also engaging with other farmers and the wider industry to both learn and show how dairy can be a force for good in the climate crisis.
And she says she’s never been happier!

As First Milk’s Chief Impact Officer, Mark Brooking is the driving force behind the dairy co-operative’s emergence as a leader in dairy sustainability, steering the decarbonisation of the supply chain starting on its members’ farms.

Mark was brought up on a small dairy farm in South Devon but was encouraged to look beyond the home farm and moved in the agricultural supply chain, starting as a cattle specialist.

Early on, Mark recognised the opportunity given to farmers by successful co-operatives and was part of the team which established Milk Link, where he was membership director.
Leaving seven years later, Mark worked as a consultant in the food and fabric supply chain with organisations such as Patagonia, Textile Exchange and Ikea to develop global environmental and animal welfare standards.

By now, Mark had also taken on management of the home farm and within a couple of years, had won the regional NFU biodiversity award in recognition of the work done to improve habitats.

Mark became membership director at First Milk in 2017, seeing it as an opportunity to put into practice all he has learnt through his career. He says it is about championing how farmers can be part of a successful food chain while protecting and enhancing nature and the world we live in.

Ian Wilkinson co-founded FarmED in 2013 and is the owner and Director of Cotswold Seeds Ltd. Ian is passionate about sharing knowledge of regenerative farming methods to capture carbon and improve the fertility of our soils. He is an advocate of mixed farming systems and especially those that incorporate diverse grass leys as part of their crop rotation.

Ian conceived FarmED, a not-for-profit demonstration farm centre in the Cotswolds, to be at the heart of local, regional and global agroecological transition. Last year, FarmED won the prestigious Ashden Award for Future Farmers, among other local and national awards. Since FarmED’s official launch in 2021, by King Charles, then HRH Prince of Wales, Ian and his team have welcomed over 25,000 visitors per year, who have included thought leaders and policy makers, scientists, academics, food industry, land agents, advisors, farmers and growers and the local community.

By championing farmers, leading inspiring farm walks and providing courses and events in a neutral space for debate, Ian works passionately to highlight how we can regenerate farming and food systems that nourish people and how we can do this within the limits of natural resources.

Martin is an arable farmer and contractor in South Cambridgeshire, His special interest is in farm conservation management, and he currently runs ELS and HLS and Countryside Stewardship schemes on land he manages.

Martin is Chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network UK and looks to sharing best practices and demonstrating what can be accomplished for nature and the environment while producing great produce. With the demands of climate change, reaching Net Zero is even more important and Martin wants to champion how this can be achieved through nature friendly farming whilst supporting and help to maintain profitable farming businesses.

Silas Hedley – Lawrence is a regenerative farmer, coach & consultant with a decade of experience in regenerative agriculture. Formerly farm manager at FAI Farms and English Farm, Silas has experience in both commercial and direct selling models. With ties to New Zealand through his family dairy farm and kiwi fruit orchards, he maintains an emphasis on lean, profitable farming systems that also deliver on increasing biodiversity and soil health gains. Find out more at grassfedfarmer.com.

A sixth-generation farmer with a first-generation spirit, George Ford, along with his family, runs Nempnett Pastures. This small family farm, nestled in North Somerset, prioritises ethical and sustainable practices. George boldly transitioned from intensive, indoor pig rearing for commodity markets to raising high-welfare beef and poultry sold directly to end consumers. Inspired by nature; Nempnett Pastures balances producing nutritious food with environmental stewardship. They showcase their dedication through open farms, farm tours, and farm feasts – all fuelled by George's passion to reconnect people with their food.

Rebecca has been combining practical work as an organic grower and farmer, with research, campaigning and planning support for over twenty years. As the Landworkers’ Alliance Horticulture Campaigns Co-ordinator, she is author of “Horticulture across Four Nations” (2024), which sets out a vision for stimulating a market garden renaissance to increase UK domestic vegetable supply, and is the facilitator of the Defra Horticulture ELMS Test and Trial, “Growing the Goods. She is also a founder member of the Agroecology Research Collaboration, which aims to bring the research needs of agroecological farmers, growers and foresters to the attention of academics and funders, and build research relationships based on equality and mutual respect.

Jerry has experience in arable and mixed farming having run the family farm in Devon for 25 years. The farm was initially a dairy farm eventually converting to organic and being run as a beef, sheep and arable unit. At the same time, he converted a range of farm buildings into a holiday cottage complex, was chairman of a local farmer owned co-op grain store and became involved in the grain supply chain nationally.

Jerry is interested in a systems approach to farming and looks at farms as a whole system rather than just a mix of enterprises or a series of crops in rotation. He is also looking at options to reduce cultivations within organic rotations and the adoption of more agroecological and organic type systems in non-organic farms.

His role as Senior farming Advisor involves advice to organic farmers as well as farms looking at organic conversion and adoption of agroecological practices. He coordinates a range of Innovative Farmers trials as well as being involved in FABulous farmers, and other European projects. He has also advised farmers as part of the DEFRA funded Future Farming Resilience project.

Holly was brought up on a small organic dairy farm in Somerset, that foundation allowed the ethos of working in partnership with land and nature shape the foundations of career choices.
Holly has worked for Somerset Wildlife trust and The National Trust before returning to Farming as a tenant farmer. She farms 200 acres of permanent pasture and herbal lays with cattle, sheep, goats and chickens. She sits as a Trustee for Somerset Wildlife Trust and Vice Chair for England for the Nature Friendly Farming Network.
The farm has developed over the past five years to create a farming model that is aiming to be resilient to future climate change, with planting of wood pasture, silvopasture, water retention work and restoration of grasslands. The farm is driven to reverse biodiversity decline that has happened and is engaged in HLS and SFI.
The farm produce meats for their farm shop and seasonal food events, alongside partnership working with Good Vibe Veg, a CSA veg scheme now based on the farm.
Holly also delivers on farm education sessions for local schools and community groups to encourage a greater involvement and understanding in our landscapes for all.

My regenerative shifts began when I moved onto a small narrowboat at age 16, my first independent home! Learning hands on the cultures and practice of Earth care and People Care, I began living the question of how my gifts, passions and responsibilities can intersect. Alongside 4 years studying social change, economics and sustainability, then a Masters in Regenerative Food, Farming and Enterprise, I have been on a parallel journey with land, growing and practical regeneration. Amongst other start-ups and projects, my core work has been establishing Middle Ground Growers CIC from a single seed, an idea, into a successful regenerative farm and 200-member veg box scheme, employing 7 people and training 3 new growers every year. Combining the practical skills to start and manage a farm (the Hands), with the understanding of economics, social change and psychology (the Head), and the lived experiences of movement building, governance, community and people care (the Heart).

Nikki is Head of Research at Pasture for Life, and a first-generation farmer based in NE Scotland, where she co-runs Grampian Graziers – working with local landowners to graze cattle for ecological and biodiversity benefit, whilst selling 100% pasture and tree-fed beef to the local community.
Nikki is currently undertaking a PhD in Agroecological Transitions and has interests in Holistic Management, agroforestry, and connecting folk with their food.