GROUNDED 2024 SPEAKERS
GROUNDED 2024 was held at Fat Pig Farm in Tasmania. Below are the speakers that took part and contributed to a hugely successful event.
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.
AGRICULTURE INNOVATOR
Terry McCosker is one of the great innovators of Australian agriculture who has had an inordinate impact on agricultural practises over half a century. On this basis the Central Queensland University conferred on Terry, the degree of Honorary Doctor of Agribusiness, in March 2015 and he was awarded an OAM in the 2021 Queens Birthday honours list for his contribution to agriculture. Terry is a Churchill Fellow, a Fellow of the Tropical Grasslands Society, has chaired the Australian Beef Expo, and sat on numerous advisory committees. One of his greatest lifetime achievements has been to effectively bridge the gap between the contesting paradigms of traditional agriculture and regenerative agriculture, helping to ensure the long-term survival of Australian agriculture and its farming families. His most recent interest is in soil health and soil carbon.
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
Georgia is a strategic leader with over eight years of experience in agriculture and food innovation, spanning corporate, research, and start-up environments. Currently the Chief Operating Officer at the Zero Net Emissions Agriculture CRC, she leads operations focused on accelerating emissions reduction technologies and solutions for the agriculture sector. Before this, she worked in operations at Vow, a cultured meat start-up. Throughout her career, Georgia has consistently embraced a farmer-focused approach, transitioning from a background in infrastructure to spending over four years working with the horticulture sector on research, development, and extension investment strategies. Her work is driven by a deep passion for the intersection of human and planetary health, recognising that a sustainable future depends on nurturing both our ecosystems and the communities that rely on them.
RESEARCHER
Piotr Trebicki, a researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney, specialises in pest management, plant pathology, and climate change resilience in agriculture. Focused on pests and diseases in food crops, his research investigates insect vectors of plant pathogens and their impact on plant growth, food production and biosecurity.
ORGANIC DAIRY FARMER
Sophie Gregory, alongside her husband Tom, runs a 1,400-acre organic dairy farm on the Dorset/Devon border. Their farm integrates dairy, arable, and beef production, focusing on sustainable and organic practices for over nine years. They manage a herd of 400 cows, including Friesians, Jerseys, and Shorthorns, selected for efficiency and milk quality. Sophie is dedicated to community engagement, hosting school trips and farming discussion groups. She encourages newcomers to agriculture through apprenticeships and work experience. Sophie is a Nuffield Scholar researching organic dairy’s future and serves on the Arla Board of Representatives. She received the 2021 Women in Dairy Award.
HEMP PROCESSOR
Tim has been involved in the hemp industry since 2016, and has been actively building the Australian supply chain for hemp foods. His business interest is focused on hemp foods, and he currently owns and operates a hemp food manufacturing facility in Tasmania where he produces hulled hemp seeds, hemp protein concentrate, hemp seed oil, and hemp meal flour. He has an understanding of the entire supply chain including genetics, agronomy, harvesting, processing, products, research and markets. Awarded a Churchill Fellowship, Tim travelled the globe to study the industry, visiting 9 countries across Europe, Africa, Asia and North America, and has been on the board of the Tasmanian Hemp Association as well as the Australian Hemp Council.
FINANCING PARTNER
Bridget Helgerson is SVP of Operations at Steward, the first lending platform built exclusively to support the growth of regenerative agriculture. A financing partner to projects throughout the food systems value chain, Steward arranges capital in support of agricultural practices that sustain lands, regenerate natural resources, and strengthen communities. To date, Steward has lent more than $45M across 103 projects throughout the United States, and the company is now exploring the market in Australia.
Bridget joined Steward in 2020 after spending seven years as a Certified Public Accountant with PwC in Los Angeles and London. She supported the early development of Steward’s lending service and now leads the company’s finance, accounting, and investor relations functions. At Steward, Bridget is able to weave elements from her financial background with her personal values around boosting our regional food systems.
MARKET GARDENER
Stan is a small-scale vegetable grower at Fat Carrot Farm in Oyster Cove, Tasmania. With his partner Briony, they grow with deep care for all the biological systems on their property and admiration for the long line of people who bred and grew the vegetables before them. They supply restaurants and a CSA subscription. Prior to becoming a farmer, Stan led the microbial ecology research group at CSIRO in Hobart. Prior to that, in the early 90’s, he was a cook and was most influenced by a stint at the Uraidla Aristologist, one of the first farm-to-table restaurants in Australia.
AG SCIENTIST
Professor Matthew Harrison is an award-winning scientist based at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture in Launceston. Matt is Director of the Carbon Storage
Partnership, a $26M enterprise that is developing skills, practices and technologies for sustainably reducing greenhouse gas emissions. For 20 years, Matt has worked
with farmers and advisors to co-develop sustainable farm management practices for improving carbon storage in soils and vegetation while improving biodiversity, productivity and enterprise profit. Matt has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and in 2023, he was awarded the South Australian Livestock Research Council Excellence Award, the Vice-Chancellor’s Sustainability Award and the
Premier’s Tasmanian STEM Researcher of the year.
MARKET GARDENER
Head Gardener at The Agrarian Kitchen, Mitch Thiessen has a tangible passion for working outdoors and nurturing plants, coming from a long line of apple farmers and passionate gardeners. Mitch comes to gardening after years working as a qualified chef. His interest in quality, local food and regenerative farming led him to working with farming legend Tony Scherer of Rocky Top Farm. For four years he was mentored by and worked closely with Tony, learning many aspects of mechanical and hand-scale market gardening.
Mitch is a natural teacher, honed whilst working as a Kitchen and Garden Specialist within the MONA 24 Carrot Garden project, an initiative that connects primary schools with local food production. Mitch’s deepest interest lies in building healthy biological systems, which are productive, but are also restorative and sustainable, an approach he has woven into the design of the kitchen garden of The Agrarian Kitchen.
FARMER
As a farmer for most of her life, Celia Leverton has a deep passion for producing food and fibre, while building land health and biodiversity, farm viability, and farmer and community wellbeing. She has practised permaculture and regenerative farming on her farm for the last 20 years, using methods that increase landscape function. Celia also consults and teaches regenerative grazing, market gardening and permaculture. In former lives, she has been a rural journalist, dairy farmer, sailing instructor and home-schooling mum. Celia is the founding President of Regenerative Agriculture Network of Tasmania which provides training, research and advocacy in creating positive farming outcomes. In 2023 Celia travelled to the UK, Germany and the US on a Churchill Fellowship researching how to increase successful regenerative farming outcomes.
CEO
Emma-Kate (EK for short) has spent the best part of the last 20 years fighting the stupidmarkets through her delusional belief that running a local, ethical food supply chain could viably compete in an oligopolistic system. Her naivety and stupid persistence has sent her to the wall financially but she relishes in the knowledge that despite these challenges, she’s made lots of awesome farming-foodie friends,
meaning she never goes, and probably never will, go hungry.
Now, she’s the Co-CEO of the Food Connect Foundation, a not-for-profit advocacy and advisory service that aims higher at food systems change, with the ultimate goal
of putting the bastards out of business.
RESEARCH FELLOW
Dr. Megan Verdon is a Senior Research Fellow at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, which sits within the University of Tasmania, where she leads the ‘Animal production and welfare’ research group. Megan’s research strategy is to ‘Redesign livestock systems for the benefit of the environment, the people and the animals involved’. She started her career in the pig industry, but for the last 6 years has been working almost exclusively with cattle including calf rearing, dairy beef systems, and virtual-fencing technology.
FARMER
Kylie created the brand Magners Farm in 2017 based in mid Co. Tipperary. The farm now supplies regeneratively farmed produce across Ireland. Their eggs and pork can be found in Michelin starred restaurants, five star hotels and specialty grocers. She is also the author of Soil Sister, Farming for our Future, a Break EU Fellow in 2022 and winner of the 2020 EU Horizon Teagasc Newbie Farmer of the Year for Ireland. Kylie is also an accomplished horsewoman and has ridden horses all her life. She successfully competed at national events and worked for Olympic gold medal winners in Australia and Japan.
FARMER
Will is a seventh generation sheep and cropper from Bothwell in Tasmania’s Highlands. An agricultural scientist by trade, Will has a PhD in improving omega 3 fats in sheep, runs a drone business, and is focused on promoting soil health using precision technology in agriculture. Will is a strong believer that farming has to increase yields while maintaining or improving land, all while making a decent living. He is a strong believer in the value of community and family in ag, and helps run events that bring hope and support to farmers in his district.
EXECUTIVE MANAGER
Carmel is the Executive Manager of Agribusiness Sustainability at the Commonwealth Bank and a Director of Soils for Life. She leads CBA’s work supporting growers in issues related to ESG and sustainability, such as developing the CBA Agri Green Loan and partnering with Ruminati for the benefit of customers.
Carmel is an advocate for the profitability and resilience benefits for farmers from natural capital enhancements and low net emissions farming.
She holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics Hons I from the University of Sydney and has been with CBA for 22 years.
INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER
Tanya’s childhood was spent immersed within the grassland, forest, mountain and ocean ecologies of south-east Australia, and the rural communities living and working within them. This background sparked a deep curiosity for exploring avenues to rethread kinship across people, culture and landscapes. It is a learning journey that has taken her across diverse terrain, including an undergraduate degree in Community Development and a Masters of Agricultural Science. Learning and living alongside rural, remote and urban communities, her work has spanned facilitating multicultural food gardens and music, dance and story collaborations to developing regional collective impact initiatives and leading multi-sectoral research projects.
All of which eventually led Tanya back home to the multi-generational family farm where she now works alongside her family as part of a generational transition. Current adventures include developing values based supply chains for wool, wrangling sheep dogs, delving into silvopasture systems and exploring multiple avenues to transition broadacre, export-oriented farms to sites of regional nourishment.
Tanya also works off-farm with the not-for-profit Sustainable Table where her focus is on forming and nurturing reciprocal relationships, capable of connecting the world of investment and finance in enabling ways to the work of land, freshwater and ocean stewards.
PHILANTHROPIST
Jim is a big believer in building partnerships and working together – something he came to realise growing up and living on farms. Jim developed extensive knowledge of organisational structure and management over his 40 years building businesses, while also supporting a wide range of conservation organisations. In 2018 all accumulated business profits were donated to establish Rendere Trust, a stronger vehicle to drive conservation outcomes. As a philanthropist Jim has found his niche — connecting people, providing organisational support and providing funding to make the environment sector more effective. And with such great recent results over the last three years, it is working.
SEED PRODUCER
Rob is passionate (some might say ardent) about seed and the Tasmanian seed industry. He has over 40 years’ experience in the seed industry, including production, processing and marketing through Ardent Seeds and research with Tasglobal Seeds. He currently chairs the Tasmanian Seed Industry Group.
He has studied and researched various aspects of the seed industry both locally, nationally and internationally. He has an interest in new and novel germplasm which are both resilient and productive in the Tasmanian environment. This interest works well with supplying seed in to the rapidly expanding regenerative agriculture market.
ORGANIC FARMER
Tony started growing vegetables in Santa Cruz, California in 1973 and was one of the first to try and make a living transitioning to organic. The first few years were pretty lean as the market was small, but it slowly grew to be a profitable venture. Before leaving California, he started an organic wholesaler business that sold and transported vegetables from coast to coast.
Tony then moved to Perth (Western Australia) in 1990 and has been in Australia ever since. He moved to Tasmania in the late 90’s and started Frogmore Creek Vineyard, which was the first certified organic vineyard in the state.
Tony was one of the founding partners of SPROUT, which is a non-profit whose aim is to assist people starting farming that have no previous knowledge in what they are about to do. In 2018 Tony was awarded Tasmania’s Senior Australian of the Year as an organic farmer.
ADVISOR
With the bush in her bones and business in her head, Jade Miles is a poly-jobist right down to her toes (which are probably barefoot and muddy). She’s been a local food advocate and educator, founded the Beechworth food coop and North East local food strategy. Her seven series of podcast Futuresteading has 140 episodes spanning 7 seasons and a book of the same name. Together with her husband and three kids, Jade runs Black Barn Farm, a biodiverse orchard, nursery and workshop space in Northeast Victoria. She has, set up locally supplied cafes in Cambodia and Vanuatu all the while dipping back into the odd spate of strategic development work for values aligned businesses such as Sustainable Table where she is currently CEO.
ADVISOR
Eli is a skilled communicator, a builder of bridges and a person who loves to bring people together to work towards a common cause. He understands the reality and challenges of farming, and is deeply committed to soil and landscape restoration, and to seeing regional communities benefit from the opportunities that regenerative approaches to agriculture offer. Eli has over a decade of experience in the non-profit sector working on climate and sustainability research, policy and engagement. He has worked in roles at Farmers for Climate Action and ClimateWorks Centre, as well as roles in energy systems, community building, government policy development, advocacy and law. He is, not just incidentally, the CEO of Soils for Life.
SPEAKER FACILITATOR
Laura Dalrymple is co-owner of Feather and Bone, a Sydney-based, whole animal butcher sourcing directly from local, regenerative farms. For 16 years, she’s built the retail side of the business and advocated for the virtues of regenerative agriculture and more educated consumers, including writing a book,’The Ethical Omnivore’, published by Murdoch Press in 2020. She’s motivated by the urgent need for consumers to become active change agents in the collective quest for a more balanced, sustainable relationship with nature. Stories make the world go round and ignorance jams the wheels. Whatever you do, don’t call her a ‘foodie’.
MARKET GARDENER
My growing journey began in southeast Queensland with an introduction to the principles of regenerative agriculture and the immersive experience of a Permaculture Design course. I then came to Tasmania to study a Bachelor of Science majoring in Geography and Environment, through which I explored the realms of political ecology, human geography, food sovereignty and environmental management. I began growing at Fat Pig Farm, first as a garden assistant under the incredible Nadia Danti, who guided and educated me in the ways of this beautiful patch of land. I now run the 1.5acre market garden here using organic and regenerative principles to produce seasonal, nutritiously dense veggie boxes in collaboration with Inés and David from Sparrow Foot Farm in Franklin. We each provide half the vegetables in each box and sell direct to consumer through a CSA-inspired subscription service to the broader Huon Valley community.
CHEF
Peter Gilmore is an internationally recognised Australian-born chef who has headed up the kitchen of Quay restaurant in Sydney since 2001. Quay has received an unprecedented 22 consecutive Three Chef Hats awards in the Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Food Guide and was also listed for five years on the World’s 50 Best Restaurant list. Peter also leads the kitchen at Bennelong, located in the iconic Sydney Opera House, where he passionately showcases the richness of Australian ingredients in his cuisine, inspiring diners for nearly a decade.
Peter was one of the first chefs to embrace the back-to-nature food movement. This movement saw him work closely with farmers to source produce, such as heirloom vegetables, not found in the main marketplace. Nature’s diversity, texture, and harmony of flavour influence Peter’s philosophy regarding his food.
He has published three cookbooks: Quay: Food Inspired by Nature, published in 2010; Organum: nature, texture, intensity, purity, published in 2014; and From The Earth, published in 2018.
CEO
Jennifer Robinson is passionate and driven to see small-scale farming thrive in Tasmania. Jen is the dedicated CEO of Sprout Tasmania, who advocates for the people in this vital sector of agriculture. Coming from an operational management background, working in both the private sector and higher education at UNSW before moving back to Tassie with her family, Jen has relished in being immersed in this incredible industry, being able to see first hand the amazing work farmers do and how dedicated they are. Jen has a deep love for Tasmania and its people and gains immense pleasure in sharing their stories and being their collective voice to drive change in the food system.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Associate Professor Nigel Swarts is the Horticulture Centre lead at the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture. His research is in the field of tree physiology and specifically tree crop nutrition. Nigel leads collaborative projects on orchard floor management to promote soil health and another on tree crop production systems. Nigel is currently supervising five PhD students. Nigel has a background in conservation biology and natural resource management with research focusing on rare and endangered orchids from across Australia.