SPEAKERS
4 + 5 DECEMBER 2024
Each of our wonderful speakers is usually going to talk on each of the two days on Fat Pig Farm in the Huon valley, ensuring single day pass holders don’t miss out. Sessions will vary on each day so it’s okay if you want to see your favourite person present more than once.
FARMER AND AUTHOR
James Rebanks is a farmer based in the Lake District, UK, where his family have lived and worked for over six hundred years. His No.1 bestselling debut, The Shepherd’s Life, won the Lake District Book of the Year, was shortlisted for the Wainwright and Ondaatje prizes, and has been translated into sixteen languages. His second book, English Pastoral, was also a Top Ten bestseller and was named the Sunday Times Nature Book of the Year. Heralded as a ‘masterpiece’ by the New Statesman, it won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing and was named Fortnum and Mason Food Book of the Year; it was also shortlisted for the Orwell and Ondaatje prizes, and longlisted for the Rathbones Folio award.
FARMER AND AUTHOR
Helen Rebanks is a farmer, a businesswoman, a teacher, a conservationist and a working mother – and a cook. She lives with her husband James and four children in the Lake District and has been cooking and baking for more than 30 years, both professionally and in farmhouse kitchens. Her love and enthusiasm for food and farming is completely infectious, and her cooking is utterly delicious. She and her family work as a tight-knit team that have made their farm globally important with their farming innovations. They advise internationally and host events regularly at the farm to share their expertise and encourage others to farm sustainably.
FARMER AND NUTRIENT DENSITY EXPERT
Dan Kittredge has been an organic farmer for more than 30 years and is the founder and executive director of the Bionutrient Food Association (BFA), a non-profit whose mission is to “increase quality in the food supply.” Known as one of the leading proponents of “nutrient density,” Dan works to demonstrate the connections between soil health, plant health, and human health.
FARMER AND FOOD ADVOCATE
Angela is the CEO of Eat New Zealand, Aotearoa’s not for profit food movement, dedicated to connecting people to their land and ocean, through their food. Their constituency includes many food businesses; farmers & fishers, community organisations, small & medium food producers, hospitality & tourism operators, chefs and eaters.
Their activations include a national hui on the food system in Aotearoa, a cohort of 135 next generation food leaders called the Kaitaki. They run Feast Matariki, a celebration of our indigenous food ways and stories and work with local, regional, and national government on local food systems.
Angela is a 2024 semi-finalist in the New Zealander of the Year Environmental Hero award. She has been considered as one of the Top 50 Most Influential & Inspiring Women in Food & Drink in NZ by Cuisine Magazine for the last two years in a row.
She is also a NZ Food Waste Champion, a coalition determined to halve food waste by 2030 in Aotearoa, recognising the impact it has on climate change. She has a national profile in local food systems and was Aotearoa’s Arable Food Champion in 2022, an award given in recognition of her work towards a local grain economy. She is part of a leadership group considering a values-based framework, or national food strategy for Aotearoa.Angela co-owns The Food Farm in North Canterbury, a Permaculture property where she grows her own food with her family, and they teach others to do the same. She writes a monthly column in Lifestyle Block Magazine. Angela is a communicator, a community-builder, an educator, and food-grower with her hands in the soil daily.
CROPPER AND MALTSTER
Stuart is a registered grain grower, having managed farming practices to produce high quality cereal grains for the past 25 years on his family’s property in Barellan in the Riverina, NSW.
As Founder and director of Voyager Craft Malt, Stuart has been able to bring together his passion for Agriculture, Education, Sustainability and Craft Beer and Spirits in a highly unique and innovative business. Through Voyager Craft Malt, Stuart has been able to promote, support and encourage farmers on their regenerative farming journeys by linking them with passionate brewers and distillers to achieve a wide range of positive outcomes for people, their communities and the environment.
NUTRITIONAL PSYCHIATRY RESEARCHER
Felice Jacka OAM is Deakin Distinguished Professor of Nutritional Psychiatry and Director of the Food & Mood Centre at Deakin University, and founder of the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research. She is an ISI Highly Cited Researcher (2020-2023), putting her in the top 0.1% of publishing scientists worldwide for impact. In 2021 she was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her services to Nutritional Psychiatry. She has written two books for commercial publication, including the very popular children’s book “There’s a Zoo in my Poo”. She works with international organisations such as the World Economic Forum, and has had a significant impact on policy globally, as well as clinical practice in psychiatry. Her research has been regularly featured on multiple major media platforms, including TIME Magazine, the OPRAH Magazine, New York Times, and many others, as well as international documentaries and Australian television series.
Felice has led the field internationally in establishing the role of diet in mental and brain health across the lifecourse. She leads a team of 50 researchers and staff at the Food & Mood Centre, with multiple studies of various aspects of diet – fermented foods, different dietary strategies, pre and probiotic formulations, polyphenols – and their impact on mental and brain health. She leads studies focused on the prevention of mental disorders in children, real world trials of diet and exercise support for serious mental disorders, and FMT (poo transplants) for major depressive disorder. She has a particular interest in the human microbiome (gut, oral, skin) and how it contributes to mental health. More recently her focus has included food systems, regenerative farming, soil microbiology, and the relevance of all of these to mental and brain health.
BROADACRE FARMERS
Ian and Di commenced their farming journey in 1994 purchasing 1630 acres of land in the West Australian wheatbelt. After years of conventional farming, the Haggerty’s realised that their system was vulnerable to dry seasons. Input costs were steadily increasing without corresponding increases in productivity. Soil tests showed adequate nutrient levels, but tissue tests revealed nutrients were not getting to plants in appropriate balance, despite a comprehensive mineral Fertiliser program. To top it off, rainfall from the year 2000 had been less than half the annual average {down from 325mmpa to 200mmpa} often falling in 3 to 5 mm events followed by windy weather, meaning much was lost to evaporation. Maximising crop production in dry years had become a real struggle and hard pans in their soils were severely restricting root growth. So, the Haggerty’s started to research biologically-based farming systems with the aim of increasing their soil’s microbial population, nutrient availability and moisture holding capacity. What followed was a massive learning curve combining and adapting some of the world’s best ecological knowledge with much ground truthing and extension in harsh Western Australian semi-arid agricultural zone conditions. Over time the Haggertys have developed a farming system they term Natural Intelligence Farming which focuses on harnessing the dynamic, natural relationships that exists between all the organisms in the ecosystem. Optimising microbiome integrity of soil, plant, animal and ultimately human microbiome is front and centre with this approach. The Haggertys are now the fortunate stewards of over 65000 acres of land producing wheat, barley, oats, rye, triticale, mixed legumes, multispecies pastures/hay, merino meat, wool and breeding animals.
GRAZIER
Chris Henggeler is a student of eco-system function; his study takes place out there in the field where physics and biology blend in complex and dynamic life-shaping processes. Since late 1985, on a patch of desertifying country abandoned by its earlier inhabitants and ignored by Industry, Chris believed more was possible. There was sunshine and there was rain, critical ingredients for biodiversity and rural productivity; the key he believed was management.
Since arriving in Australia 1979, Chris has spent most of his time living in north Australian rangelands. Over the decades he increasingly became aware that to a great extent the challenges facing Australian agriculture (in the broadest sense) today are human made. He is passionate in his quest to see New Australian species (including humans) play their parts in providing solutions instead of being framed as part of the problem. Biosecurity begins with Water-Security; we all have roles to play in providing both.
REGENERATIVE VITICULTURIST
Nick Gill is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading regenerative viticulturists. He’s spent the last three decades developing ideas and businesses across Australia and New Zealand including Penfolds & Seppelts in the Barossa Valley. His journey has culminated in the development of Greystone Wines in North Canterbury, NZ’s only regenerative organic vineyard achieving carbon zero status. This has led him to consider regenerative agriculture & thinking across sectors and he was recently a board member of NZ’s farmer-led network Quorum Sense. Nick co-owns The Food Farm with his wife Angela Clifford, a permaculture property where they teach other people about growing food and consult to others working on their own version. He sees The Food Farm as an aspiring intergenerational small farm, producing a wide array of sustenance for an extended network of people.
SOIL SCIENTIST
Craig Liddicoat is a microbiome researcher using DNA-based techniques to survey soils, environments, and the human gut, to better understand the beneficial connections between microbial communities, soils, plants, biodiverse ecosystems, and human health. His current focus is investigating the restoration of health-promoting soil biodiversity for the People, Cities & Nature research program in Aotearoa New Zealand. Craig is based at Flinders University in Adelaide.
ORGANIC DAIRY FARMER
Chris Eggert is a fourth-generation dairy farmer at Wauchope, on the mid-north coast of NSW. In 2000 the family made the change from traditional farming methods to organic farming. Since then, the business has been on a path of education, discovery and regeneration with Chris believing in using animals as a tool to heal the land and increase productivity.
Farming changes that Chris has implemented over the years include making compost from their own mulch and manure, changing to once-a-day milking driven by solar power, using a grass-based system which includes multi species cropping in winter and summer.
As well as supplying organic milk to Norco, the farm also produces organic eggs, and direct sells grass fed beef, chicken and pork through their on-farm shop. They also host school excursions and field days. Chris’ most recent focus is in helping his son Jimmy with his micro-dairy and using the farm as a tool to help home school his 15 year old son, Billy. Chris believes in the importance of the family farm, and maintaining it as a place where both family members and employees feel important and empowered, whatever their role on the farm.
ORGANIC DAIRY FARMER
Jimmy Eggert started his own micro-dairy business at only 18 years of age. After initially starting with eight cows in January last year, he has grown the business to be currently milking 32 Jersey cows on his family’s organic property at Huntingdon on the mid-north
coast of NSW. Jimmy farms with a regenerative mindset and milks on a grass-based system with very little grain, using multi-species crops to provide the herd with a diverse, nutritious diet.
Jimmy milks the herd once a day in a 1950s six stall walk-through dairy which adjoins the small factory and produces milk and yoghurt which he sells locally and beyond. His point of difference is the minimal processing the milk receives. He pasteurises the milk at a lower temperature than the larger factories, so this maintains the integrity of the milk. He has lactose intolerant customers who have not been able to consume regular milk for years. The additional selling point is that the milk is unhomogenised so there is a layer of cream at the top of the milk and yoghurt which is also enhanced by the high fat and protein levels produced by the Jersey breed. He bottles approximately 1000L per week of his milk into glass bottles which can be returned and reused. He also offers home delivery in the local area and recognises the importance of a direct relationship with his
customers and with them appreciating where their milk comes from and how it is produced.
FIRE ECOLOGIST
Jack is an honorary Strategic Advisor to the Conservation Ecology Centre and for the past decade has led their adaptive management and applied ecological research program across the Otway region.
Jack currently sits on scientific reference groups for Zoos Victoria and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (formerly DELWP) and was a member of the Expert Panel which recently reviewed the Victorian Wildlife Act 1975. Jack is a Director for Bush Heritage Australia and Saltwater People.
Jack completed a PhD at the University of Western Sydney where he studied the predators of the Blue Mountains.
LIVESTOCK FARMER
Jacob Wolki, a passionate farmer based in Albury, NSW, is on a mission to change the modern-day dinner table. He’s working hard to ensure more families have access to healthy, nutrient-dense, healing foods – because your family’s health is important.
All animals on Wolki Farm are raised on pasture, free from cages and chemicals. Jacob’s not only working to create superior quality produce, he is working to
improve the commons for future generations.
Jacob’s mission takes a community effort, which is why he’s spreading his message far and wide – so we can all eat better without animals or the environment picking up our tab.
FOUNDER, THE YAMBULLA PROJECT
Jim is a 6th generation farmer, landscape architect and the custodian of Yambulla, 1,200 hectares of inherited land in southeastern NSW.
He is personally funding a team to develop nature positive ways of managing this land including building a governance structure that enables sharing the rewards and responsibilities of Yambulla with like-minded people. They have invited in Aboriginal knowledge holders, businesses and consultants and are developing productive, equitable and sustainable models. They are now inviting in catalytic capital investors, donors and lenders.
The project includes designing 600 hectares of land as novel forests with capacity to produce Native foods, forest products and carbon credits to support Yambulla for many generations. But also inspire and pay forward to other landowners, enabling change at scale
IMPACT INVESTMENT ADVISOR
Michael is an impact investment adviser with 20+ year’s experience working for large corporates and funds. In the last decade he has been the Chief Impact Officer for an Impact Fund and advising Super Funds, Corporates, Foundations and Family Offices on how best to invest for impact.
One area of passion and developing expertise has been in investing in natural capital – oceans and land based systems. In over the last five years he has been supporting a range of nature-based organisations as an adviser and helping them raise capital.
FARMER AND AUTHOR
I am a horticulturalist – market gardener, seed grower and nursery person – with an edible plant collecting addiction. My husband Matt and I work and live on unceded Muwinina land in south eastern Lutruwita / Tasmania. Our two daughters, now almost grown, spent their childhoods helping with chook-wrangling, seed-sowing and harvests and have beautiful relationships with food plants. We live a small, rich life and find deep contentment through taking the time to immerse ourselves in the joys and fascination of garden and table with our family and friends.
Long days working alone with plants, and long lunch breaks spent with our library of books about cooking, gardening, botany and natural history, give me ample time to get to know the plants I work with, and I began writing as a way to order my thoughts and record what I learned. Understanding edible plants and being curious about the cultures where they originated, the environment that supports them, and what they do to fuel our bodies and give us pleasure, is an endless source of fascination that I love to explore with others at markets where we sell food and plants, in my writing, or around a table with friends.
ENTOMOMOLOGIST
Shasta is a scientist and science communicator; a passionate adventurer, entomologist and educator. She has over a decade of experience speaking to professionals, communities and students, sharing science literacy and insect discoveries.
Shasta gained her PhD from the University of Tasmania in invertebrate ecology, using detailed knowledge of Australia’s insects to understand the ecosystems which humans depend upon. She worked at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, where she named beetles from the Amazon (and has one species named after her), and has spoken on the TedX stage about the
intersection of science and Indigenous cultures.
“I’m currently obsessed with Tasmanian native bees. Everyone wants to have a beehotel which is great energy. I want to know how to tailor those habitat hotels to thebees of lutruwita/Tasmanian, so all that energy does not go to waste”
NUTRITIONIST
Stacey was imprinted from a young age with the principles of sustainable ecological agriculture. This, along with a deep curiosity of the human body, led Stacey to pursue a career in holistic health. She holds a Bachelor of Health Science majoring in Naturopathy and a Masters of Human Nutrition and is passionate about providing high quality nutritional and naturopathic care to all, working especially closely with those who live rurally and remotely.
Her passion is to turn complex science into easy to implement, individualised, actionable steps and break down the silos between agriculture and health. She is endlessly blown away by the intelligence of nature and human physiology and has a keen interest in linking human health outcomes to soil health, regenerative practices and systems thinking.
FARMER, AUTHOR AND BUTCHER
Tammi Jonas is an agrarian scholar activist, farming heritage-breed pigs, cattle, and garlic with her bricoleur husband Stuart and sharing land with the young First Nations and settler market gardeners of Tumpinyeri Growers on the unceded lands of the Dja Dja Wurrung. Tammi is president of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (AFSA), co-editor and co-author of Farming Democracy: Radically transforming the food system from the ground up (2019). In 2024, she completed a PhD on the rise of agroecology and the biodiverse, non-capitalist, and decolonial practices and politics of small-scale farmers, and the importance of collectivising to deal with the problems of the state and corporate capture of our food systems.
FARMER AND AUTHOR
Tasmania’s Rachael Treasure is the pioneer of rural women’s fiction, blazing a trail for other rural writers with her debut novel, the iconic “Jillaroo” in 2002.
She is co-founder of Ripple Farm Landscape Healing Hub, a 100-acre regenerative farm in Southern Tasmania that showcases Natural Sequence Farming restoration and ecological repair. Rachael volunteers with online farmer’s market Tasmanian Produce Collective, selling her Dexter beef, Merino mutton, eggs and other produce directly to conscious consumers. Her 8th and latest novel “Milking Time” released this year is a modern-day tale of Tassie rural rebellion. She recently rescued an orphan goat, now named Barbara Gordon, and her family’s life will never be the same again!
FARMER AND BIOCHAR PROPONENT
An agricultural scientist curious about Regenerative Agriculture. The opportunity to sequester carbon from waste streams, while providing soil and plant (and human) health benefits led her to making biochar in low tech pit kilns for use in her own garden and with her FIMBY gardening customers. Co-founding The New Black Biochar, Christina is excited about the opportunity to utilise pyrolysis and biochar in circular economy systems. To understand a given regional context and match all the elements of feedstock, technology and use of the outputs is the kind of jigsaw Christina is keen to piece together.
AGRICULTURAL INNOVATOR
Bruce Maynard is a leading agricultural innovator that has pioneered the fields of No Kill Cropping, Stress Free Stockmanship and Self Herding. He transformed his 5th generation home farm by restoring full grasslands, planting 200,000 trees and 350,000 shrubs so far. Bruce has a passion for extension and adoption of No Kill Cropping and Self Herding to fundamentally change agricultural and pastoral systems toward biological restoration.
AGRICULTURAL SCIENTIST
Dr Anita Fleming is an emerging agricultural scientist at Lincoln University in New Zealand. Her field of expertise has focused on ruminant nutrition, agricultural system design, and identification of connections between pastures, livestock, and consumers. She and her team, using metabolomic techniques, have identified metabolic signatures pertaining to different pastures that are identifiable in not only grazing cattle, but in the human consumer of beef. This innovative research strategy is providing evidence of a connection between grazing management and the impact to consumer metabolism. Dr Fleming is the research manager of the Lincoln University Integral Health Dairy Farm, a farm development designed using complex adaptive design theory and an international panel of experts in soil, plant, animal, and ecosystem sciences to produce health from the ground up. Anita was drawn into agricultural science following a rural upbringing, she also runs a successful dairy business in mid-Canterbury with her husband and is a practical thinker that is merging practical on-farm experience with cutting-edge, and innovative science.
ANNOUNCED SOON
More speakers to be announced closer to the festival date.
Visit Sessions page for more information on topics.