2025 Speakers
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Patrick Holden CBE
Founder and CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust, previous director of the Soil Association, Founding chairman of British Organic Farmers and Patron of the UK Biodynamic Association SUSTAINABLE FOOD TRUST (UK)
Between 1995 and 2010 Patrick was Director of the Soil Association, where he played a leading role in developing the organic standards and market. He is the founder and CEO of the Sustainable Food Trust, whose mission is to work internationally to accelerate the transition towards more sustainable food and farming systems.
He has farmed for over 50 years on a 300-acre mixed organic dairy holding, now the longest established organic dairy farm in Wales, producing a raw milk cheddar from 85 Ayrshire cows.
He received a CBE for services to organic farming in 2005 and is Patron of the UK Bio-dynamic Agriculture Association. He became an Ashoka fellow in 2016 and was awarded an honorary doctorate for his international work in sustainable agriculture by the University of Wales Trinity St David in 2022.
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Ian Wilkinson
Founder at FarmED
Ian runs two very different agricultural organisations, Cotswold Seeds & FarmED. With over 40 years agricultural experience, & his wide breadth of knowledge, particularly in seeds & sustainable farming systems led him to being a regen ag communicator setting up FarmED, delivering events & courses to a range of audiences, especially those in the early stages of agricultural transition. Ian’s passionate about people & how a business or organisation is only as good as the team that works within it.
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Abby Rose
Farmer, Co-founder of Vidacycle, Cocreator at Farmerama
Abby Rose is a farmer and soil health advocate, the co-founder of Vidacycle: making apps that support a more regenerative approach to farming, including the Soilmentor Regen Platform created with Nicole Masters. Abby is the co-producer and co-host of Farmerama: an award-winning podcast sharing the voices behind regenerative farming. Based in the UK, Abby splits her time between her family farm, in Chile, and visiting farms on multiple continents to learn how to build a more ecological farming future. Abby was named one of 50 New Radicals by The Guardian and Nesta in 2018 for her work developing simple apps that help build ecology, profitability and beauty on farms around the world.
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Henry Edmunds
Farmer and Owner at Cholderton Estate
Farmer and owner of the 2,500-acre Cholderton Estate on the Hampshire–Wiltshire border, Henry has spent nearly five decades pioneering organic and regenerative farming. His wildlife-rich estate, located near Stonehenge, has been organic for over 20 years, achieving productive farming alongside exceptional biodiversity and soil health.
A Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, Henry is recognised for his work in biodiversity-led agriculture, heritage livestock, and climate-positive land management. He regularly speaks on regenerative farming, ecological stewardship, and sustainable rural enterprise.
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Josiah Meldrum
Co-founder and Director at Hodmedod
Josiah Meldrum is co-founder of Hodmedod, a Suffolk company whose aim is to encourage us to grow and eat a wider range of British grown pulses, grains and seeds – creating healthier and more diverse diets and farming systems. Working with farmers Hodmedod has pioneered ‘new’ crops for the UK, such as lentils and revived long-forgotten staples, like naked barley, central this has been finding engaged markets to support primary production.
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Nick Viney
Artist, Regenerative Farmer in Dartmoor, Restorer of Nature using Feminine Principles.
30 years blending Art & Agriculture. Nick supports females seeking change. She embraces complex natural systems, food forests, fungi and fun. Leading us once more towards abundant mindsets, unimaginable yield, resilient communities and beauty.
Nick is trying to be a good shepherd, wanting to be a good ancestor. Looking ahead and enjoying the challenge.
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Tim Parton
Farm Manager at Brewood Park Farm, FarmED
Tim Parton is a farm manager in South Staffordshire and a world-renowned regenerative farmer/speaker/ advisor Tim farms using biology and nutrition, to replace synthetic inputs, he does not use fungicides, insecticides, growth regulators and very few herbicides. Nutrition is key when growing plants that have a functioning immune system, to fight off pests and pathogens. Once you get a soil working, miracles start to happen. “We are what we eat. Let the regeneration begin today”
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Calixta Killander
Founder and Owner at Flourish Produce
Calixta founded Flourish Produce in 2017. At 80 acres, Flourish is a beacon of biodiversity with more than 750 varieties of crops in cultivation, a focus on rare varieties from across the world, an agroforestry field, a heritage grain project, rotating herbal leys and flower fields. An integral part of the Flourish ethos is to build strong, longstanding partnerships between the farm and their customers. Flourish has organic certification and will receive biodynamic certification in September.
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Ben King
Founder at Pesky Fish
Ben is the Skipper of Pesky - a daily landings market of regenerative seafood, built on a network of over 80 British boats and producers. In 2022, Pesky developed the first regenerative framework - enabling every buyer to use their consumption to help regenerate the ocean's fish stocks and marine environments. As part of Pesky's 'Project Jersey' they are expanding their supply chain with the specific goal of building a fully regenerative fishery - one where consumption will regenerate shellfish stocks, increase fishing revenues and grow processing jobs on the island.
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Claire McKenzie
Director at Six Inches of Soil
Claire is a film producer of independent environmental documentaries ‘Six Inches of Soil’ and ‘From the Ground Up’, both exploring our current farming system. She has a background in TV production, charity fundraising and event organising. She has set up environmental community groups both in London and Cambridgeshire – with food and farming at their heart. With a passion for holistic health care she has been a trained therapist for 15 years, specialising working with those affected by cancer and a trustee at Cambridge Cancer Help Centre. Also a Food Ambassador for Love British Food and when she can works at Sweetpea Market Garden (film featured in Six Inches of Soil).
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Andy Neal
Soil Microbiologist at Rothamsted Research
Andy is a Soil Microbiologist at Rothamsted Research. He is interested in understanding the feedback between plant primary productivity, soil structure and soil microbial metabolism, providing evidence that soil is a dynamic biological process. A regular public speaker, his work has been featured on national radio, New Scientist Live events and regular podcasts. Andy is a co-author of the recent British Ecological Society report “Regenerative Agriculture in the UK: an ecological perspective”.
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Dr. Inga Wolframm
Inga Wolframm is a writer, scientist and sport psychologist focusing on equestrian sports.
An accredited sport psychologist, she’s a Senior Lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Van Hall Larenstein, the Netherlands, teaching and supervising on the Bachelor Program “Equine, Leisure and Sport”. She’s also a Council member of the International Society for Equitation Science (ISES).
She holds a PhD on “Psychological Traits and States in Equestrian Sports” from the University of Essex and now spends time researching psychological, physiological and social processes in the rider (or, in fact, any other human in equestrian sports), including horse-rider interactions, coaching and judging.
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Maria Benjamin
Wool entrepreneur and Founder at Dodgson Wood, The Soap Diary, Lake District Tweed, & The Wool Library
Maria runs multiple ethical businesses utilising farm commodities and skills gathered from her and her partners farm in the Lake District. Including The Soap Dairy, utilising their Jersey Cow Honeysuckle’s milk, Lake District Tweed, bringing provenance-based textiles back to the Lake District using wool sourced from within the different districts, and off-grid accommodation development within their carefully farmed land.
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James Robinson
Farmer at Strickley Farm
James Robinson farms 300 acres of organic land in Cumbria with his family. The farm is home to 250 head of organic Dairy Shorthorn cattle and the land is made up of a mix of pasture and meadow, interspersed with a range of habitats, such as hay meadows, wetland, ancient hedgerows and woodland. The family won the 2022 FWAG Silver Lapwing Award in recognition of their commitment to farm conservation.
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Annie Landless
Regenerative Organic Farmer at Ampney Brook Farm, Worm Mother, Beekeeper, Soil test trainer at Vidacycle
Annie farms at Ampney Brook Farm in the Cotswolds, a 600-acre mixed regenerative organic farm producing heritage & population grains, Pasture for Life certified beef, woodland pork and no-dig fruit and vegetables. Alongside this Annie trains farmers in how to use simple soil tests to visually assess soil health with Soilmentor. She loves a chat about herbal leys, mob grazing, grain networks, earthworms, beekeeping and producing good food for local customers.
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Andy Gray
Farmer, Butcher, Mobile abattoirs expert
Andy Gray is the owner and chair of M C Kelly Ltd, a catering butcher and wild deer processor in mid Devon, supplying locally sourced meats to 450 customers across Devon and Cornwall. In the meat trade since 1981, Andy has managed slaughterhouses since 1991 and brings deep knowledge of the supply chain as both farmer and slaughterman.
He sits on the Abattoir Sector Group, lobbying the UK Government on local slaughter, chairs the Devon County Agricultural Association, and is a trustee of the Westcountry Rivers Trust. Andy is currently designing small-scale slaughterhouses in the Isles of Scilly, Orkney and beyond, and is adapting his venison line to process lamb.
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Tom Fairfax
Farmer at Mindrum Farm
Tom farms at Mindrum in the Cheviot foothills, running 100 Shorthorn x Angus cattle, 1,000 Suffolk Mule ewes and an arable rotation alongside woodlands and agroforestry. He began a regenerative transition over five years ago, completing organic conversion in 2022.
Blending traditional knowledge with modern practice, Tom now works with natural systems to restore the land’s productivity, aiming for a farm that is profitable, diverse and full of life. He takes a holistic, observation-led approach, draws on wide agroecological and scientific perspectives, and hosts on-farm research to explore new ideas.
Tom also collaborates with other farmers and organisations to support regenerative transitions and put profitable agroecology into practice.
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Harry Farnsworth
Carbon Bank at Rabobank
Harry joined Control Union (a leading international certification body) in early 2020 to lead the launch and ongoing running of their regenerative agriculture initiative – regenagri. Regenagri is a membership scheme to support farms transitioning to and using holistic farming techniques. It offers a complete solution for the monitoring of regenerative practices and monetizing of environmentally minded farming, as well as certification against the regenagri standard criteria.
With a background in the food and beverage industry, Harry completed a Masters degree in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security from the Royal Agricultural University, where his research there was centred on regenerative agriculture. Harry also hosts the popular regenagri podcast and sits on several regenerative agriculture working groups. -
Kate Hughes
Regenerative farmer at Woodvent Farm, Bestselling author, Award winning journalist
Formerly a senior journalist and content strategist covering sustainability, environmentalism, and finance for leading UK titles, she now practices what she once reported as owner and agroforestry lead at Wood Advent Farm in Exmoor—home to one of the UK’s largest new agroforestry systems and nearly 100,000 trees. Author of Going Zero, she also chairs Sustainable Food Somerset, championing regenerative agriculture as a real-world solution to climate, biodiversity, and food system challenges.
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Sasha Marsh & Jock Pettitt
FARMERS & ENTREPRENEURS, SOIL FARM (GUERNSEY)
Sasha Marsh and Jock Pettitt, co-founders of Soil Farm, focus on holistic landscape management to regenerate soil and improve the Soil Food Web naturally. They specialise in composting, offering tailored advice for each project to enhance soil health. Soil Farm also advocates for complementary regenerative practices that reduce costs and labour while bolstering natural biological processes. Education and product sourcing for healthier landscapes are integral to their mission, available through Hedge Veg stalls and partnering organisations.
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Ben Richards
Farmer at Middle Trelan Farm
Ben Richards runs Middle Trelan Farm, a 290-acre organic dairy farm in Cornwall, milking 180–200 grass-fed cows. Runner-up in the 2024 Soil Farmer of the Year competition, Ben has spent over 20 years focusing on soil health to build a resilient, low-input system that prioritises homegrown forage.
Using herbal leys, outwintering, and rotational grazing—including pigs to reduce cultivation—Ben manages a diverse range of soils while cutting costs and improving productivity. He has also introduced agroforestry to boost feed resilience and natural drainage. -
Grace Crake
Farmer and Teacher
Grace Crake runs Sprouts Farming Club from the family farm La Cornetterie in St Martin, Jersey. She is the daughter of Billy Davies, well known in the Island for the Just William stall in the Central Market. They have a mixed farm with vegetables, chicken and pigs. Grace won Inspirational Leader of the Year at the Jersey Pride Awards 2024.
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Piers Sangan
Ecologist and Owner at Sangan Island Conservation
Piers is a wildlife ecologist and conservation land manager, with 15+ years of experience in small mammal and bat research. He’s worked on farm biodiversity plans, conservation area management, and teaches ecological skills across the Channel Islands and the UK.
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Tom Slattery
Regenerative Agri-Food Systems Finance Expert
Tom helps organisations at the forefront of innovation, regenerative agriculture, and impact investment tell powerful stories, engage stakeholders, and drive meaningful change. His work bridges sustainable agri-food systems, agri-tech innovation, and investment ecosystems—connecting farmers, funders, and changemakers to accelerate solutions. Working in regenerative agriculture and circular economies, paired with strong investor engagement and ESG storytelling. Whether working with foundations or farmer-led ventures, Tom focus on building partnerships, shaping narratives, and amplifying impact across the regenerative economy. Most recent works have been developig ADOPT innovation fund for DEFRA
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Gabby Mason
Fisher and Co-owner at Jade-S Fisheries
Gabby Mason is co-owner and first mate of Jade-S Fisheries in Jersey, where she and her partner harvest and supply sustainably sourced local seafood. A lifelong water enthusiast—whose first word was “fish”—Gabby journeyed from geologist to civil servant to fisher, now living her childhood dream. Owning their boat, fish market, and restaurant, she is passionate about championing local fishermen and sharing the island’s finest wet fish and shellfish.
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Alex Morel
CEO at Jersey Trees for Life
Alex Morel is CEO of Jersey Trees for Life, an environmental charity focused on planting, conserving, and protecting Jersey’s trees and woodlands. A long-time advocate for nature, she leads efforts to enhance biodiversity and raise awareness of trees' vital ecological role.
Previously, Alex founded ALX Training, now part of BDO Jersey, where she spent 14 years as Managing Director. In 2016, she received the Jersey Institute of Directors Award for Director of the Year (Small Organisation) and was later shortlisted for the national UK award.
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Sabine Gilley
Film Director and Editor, She Fishes
She is a Jersey born award winning filmmaker who strives to focus on Jersey’s culture and heritage through my filmmaking with documentary and experimental film. She enjoys being able to bring untold stories to light such as Jersey’s rich folklore history and showcasing the vital work local businesses and local people undertake.
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Laura Hudson
Artist, Curator, Writer, Gardener, Development Manager at CCA Galleries International
Laura Hudson is a cross-disciplinary artist, writer and curator with a drawing/painting practice that is informed by her background in experimental film and digital media. Jersey based, she is an avid gardener and seed saver, having spent a decade living on her French farm and working for an organic seed company.