ADVISORY PANEL
AND Steering COMMITTEE
GROUNDED Australia would’t be possible without the effort and dedication of the advisory panel and committee. A huge thank you to the team.
STEERING Committee
ADVISOR
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.
COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR
Chris is the Communications Manager at national soil advocacy group Soils for Life. His focus is building momentum around nature-based thinking, and supporting teams that share this mission. He has extensive experience working in the not-for-profit sector, delivering internal and external communications across multiple channels. When not tapping away at a keyboard, Chris is focused on family, mountains and growing food.
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.
PR ADVISOR
Fran hails from Aotearoa New Zealand where she resides having previously worked in the UK regenerative food and farming space for many years, including Groundswell Festival. Bumping into Matthew at last year’s festival, they immediately agreed that the energy and optimism could be replicated Downunder. Fran is a communications and events specialist bringing people together around soil, food and farming. She brings her wealth of experience in community building and her international network to support Grounded Australia.
EVENT / PROJECT MANAGER
Georgina is a regeneration systems consultant and knowledge broker. With a background in large scale international climate program design and acquisitions across Africa, Asia and Latin America, Georgina currently focuses her efforts on amplifying the voices of the Australian food and fibre industry. Supporting land stewards understanding of regeneration and ability to engage in systems thinking and commercial opportunities that foster ecological regeneration. Her current focus is on strengthening the existing and next generation of Australian farmers working hard to not only survive but thrive across our rich, diverse and complex landscapes.
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.
CONTENT ADVISOR
Josh Mullens is the host of the Drover podcast which explores planetary and human health. The podcast features guests including Matthew Evans from Fat Pig Farm, Leslie Hughes from the Climate Council, Blair Beattie from Farmer’s Footprint, Mat Goddard from Aquacultr, and Rachel Lowry from Bush Heritage Australia. Drover is available wherever you find your podcasts. Josh also runs Drover Productions which helps business in climate, nature, health and wellbeing with their strategy, storytelling and marketing.
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’.
TREASURER
Matthew Tack is a Chartered Accountant who left the corporate world to start a new life running a certified organic apple orchard and mixed farm in the Huon Valley in Southern Tasmania. With his partner Coreen and his two children they run 46 hectares, including 10,000 apple trees, cattle, pigs and sheep. Their family vision is to create an inspiring example of productive regenerative agriculture that produces highly nutritious food. When he is not farming Matthew loves to fish, run and drink coffee.
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Matthew is a trained chef turned farmer, writer, broadcaster and food activist. He co-owns Fat Pig Farm, a mixed enterprise on 70 acres south of Hobart in the Huon Valley. For over seven years he ran the on-farm dining room at Fat Pig with his partner Sadie where a team of talented cooks, growers, waiters, farmers and washer uppers took paddock to plate to its ultimate conclusion and grew just about everything served on site. In the process, they improved soil health, sequestered carbon and produced enough food for about 10 000 meals a year. He has been the host of six seasons of Gourmet Farmer on SBS, fronted two documentaries For The Love Of Meat and What’s The Catch, and is the author of over a dozen books on food, including his ethical meat manifesto On Eating Meat, the groundbreaking SOIL, and his most recent revelatory book, MILK.
SPEAKER LIAISON
Nadia loves having her hands in the soil. She has spent years learning from growers around Australia. She managed the market garden at Fat Pig Farm for 4 years, co-managed Rocky Top Growers Collective for two years and is currently working with Felds Farm, where they are growing a diverse range of vegetables for a weekly CSA box program and for restaurants in Hobart. A skilled educator, farmer and advocate, she is passionate about growing and eating plants; about soil health and understanding the ecosystem under our feet; in supporting people to connect to their local food system and as well as empowering them to grow a little of their own food.
BRAND AND DIGITAL ADVISOR
Niall brings expertise in branding, design, web and digital marketing strategies.
Owner of brand and marketing consultancy AN IMPACT, Niall specialises in empowering organisations dedicated to making a meaningful impact in sectors crucial to global welfare: Agriculture, Renewable Energy, and Non-Profit.
Based in the Coal River Valley, Tasmania, Niall’s journey learning to be a vigneron, vintner and small acreage farmer allows him the perfect work/life balance away from screens and websites each day.
FARM SITE MANAGER
Ollie started at Victoria’s Ravens Creek Farm in 2013 by spending weekends helping with jobs around the farm. Then, in 2015, he traded in a corporate life to take a full-time role at Ravens Creek. In 2018 Ollie, his wife, and daughter packed their bags and moved to Tasmania, setting up Ashbrittle Farm in the Huon Valley, producing pastured eggs for retail, cafes and restaurants. Ollie now works as the Producer Liaison for Sprout Tasmania, a not-for-profit supporting small-scale farmers in the state. His role sees him run field days, curate events and workshops and manage a scholarship program that provides education for producers.
PARTNERSHIPS AND BUSINESS LIAISON
Sam Bartels is an agribusiness strategist based in Hobart who’s on a mission to elevate, amplify, and connect the people, businesses, and ideas either side of the farm gate that are actively improving the food system. Despite her city roots, Sam has been a passionate ag-nerd since day dot and now uses what she calls her ‘dual citizenship’ to serve as a conduit wherever she can. Over the past 15 years working in the ag sector, Sam has been engaged across a range of industries and arms of the supply web, and throughout this time has built specialised expertise in development, strategy, and stakeholder engagement. Sam will be helping us find partners that are as excited about Farming Better as we are!
ADVISOR
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.