Alex Brewster, Perthshire regenerative beef, sheep, and Organic free-range egg producer, farming over 1000ha of upland grazing. Soil Farmer of the year 2020, Nuffield Scholar, and Director of Powered Pasture Ltd. Enthusiastic about all things soil, microbiology, and mob grazing.

Rhys Williams lives on a 60 hectare family farm on the Llyn Peninsula running 1000 dry hoggets’ and 150 contract reared dairy heifers on a low input, rotational grazing system. For 15 years, Rhys worked as a lectures and manager at Glynllifon landbased College near Caernarfon and now works as a farm business consultant for Precision Grazing Ltd who specialise in advising livestock farmers on grazing management. In 2016, Rhys joined Coed Coch landowner Harry Fetherstonhaugh and Llansannan farmer Emyr Jones to establish Coed Coch Farms Ltd joint venture, a low input, grass based sheep production business running 2200 New Zealand Romney ewes plus young stock. Rhys has a passion for developing financially and environmentally sustainable farming businesses.  

Mae Rhys Williams yn byw ar fferm deuluol 60 hecter ar Benrhyn Llyn, yn cadw 1000 o wyn benyw sych ac yn magu 150 o heffrod llaeth ar gytundeb ar system pori cylchdro, mewnbwn isel. Am 15 mlynedd, gweithiodd Rhys fel darlithydd a rheolwr yng ngholeg diwydiannau’r tir Glynllifon ger Caernarfon ac mae nawr yn gweithio fel ymgynghorydd busnes fferm i gwmni Precision Grazing Ltd sy’n arbenigo ar gynghori ffermwyr da byw ar reoli porfa. Yn 2016 ymunodd Rhys gyda perchennog Coed Coch, Harry Fetherstonhaugh ac Emyr Jones, ffermwr o Llansannan, i sefydlu menter ar y cyd Coed Coch Farms Ltd sef busnes cynhyrchu defaid mewnbwn isel yn seiliedig ar borfa yn rhedeg 2200 o fogau Romney Seland Newydd a stoc ifanc. Mae gan Rhys angerdd tuag at datblygu systemau ffermio sydd yn gynaliadwy yn ariannol ac amgylcheddol. 

Alasdair MacLeod is Executive Chairman of the Macdoch Group (https://www.macdoch.com), a private investment company with offices in London and Sydney.

In Australia, his Macdoch Ag Group comprises a group of innovative businesses striving to show how a resilient agricultural sector builds natural capital and contributes to global climate solutions. These operations include beef cattle, wool growing and cropping, with experienced successful practitioners working to scale up its approach by working hand in hand with farmers and farm communities across thousands of hectares. The Group employs agri-tech, applied R&D, and empirical data to demonstrate how livestock are an indispensable part of resilient farming systems.

Alasdair is Chair is of the Macdoch Foundation, a philanthropic body whose work includes a ground-breaking farming analysis and community engagement project called Farming for the Future  (https://farmingforthefuture.org.au/). He also chairs Soils for Life, a not-for-profit entity focussed on encouraging greater uptake of regenerative farming ideas (https://soilsforlife.org.au).

Patrick Holden - The Sustainable Food Trust Patrick Holden, CBE, farms 200 hectares in west Wales producing cheese from the milk of 80 Ayrshire cows. It is now the longest established organic dairy farm in Wales. He has been advising the Prince of Wales on sustainability issues since 1982, the year when he launched British Organic Farmers. He is the founding director of the Sustainable Food Trust, whose mission is to work internationally to accelerate the transition to a sustainable food system.

Plant & Soil Health Consultant

Joel Williams is an independent plant and soil health educator and consultant; a healthy soils advocate and passionate presenter on soil biology, plant nutrition and integrated approaches of sustainable farming. Joel studied a Bachelor of Agricultural Science in Australia specialising in plant and soil dynamics and he has a keen interest in managing microbial ecology and crop & soil nutrition to optimise plant immunity, soil function and carbon sequestration. He has worked more recently throughout Europe with both conventional and organic farming systems where he integrates soil chemical & biological assessments, along with plant nutritional analyses as a joined-up strategy for managing crop production. He has a passion for teaching and sharing both scientific and practical knowledge on agroecological growing practices and he is currently on sabbatical in Canada finishing an MSc in Food Policy and authoring a book on the links between soil and plant nutrition, microbiomes and plant immunity. 

John Gilliland, a Northern Irish farmer, has been appointed as a special advisor to the UK's Agriculture Horticulture Development Board and Quality Meat Scotland. His farm has been verified to be "Beyond" Net Zero, and he chairs the farmer-led carbon farming project, ARC Zero. John has been an award-winning farmer, President of the Ulster Farmers Union, a Non-Executive Director of the Scottish Rural College, and an Energy Regulator in Northern Ireland. He is a respected leader and presenter in the Agri Food and Sustainable Land Management sectors. John also led the development of a research farm called Heartland, funded by the EU's Marie Curie Programme.

Dafydd Wynne Finch Has been farming in North Wales for 22 years in which time he has transitioned his operations from beef and sheep farming to milk production from grazed grass with each farm being operated by share milkers. He is of the view that they are economically and socially sustainable but questions if they are environmentally so.