Beanstalk Global went live with the AHDB and a select number of very well-known and highly regarded Farming “influencers” from the world of YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn to debate the key subjects of the day and to encourage more people to join the sector.

On the Broadcast were:

Max MacGillivray

Tom Pemberton

Joe Seels

Olly Harrison

Charlotte Ashley

Georgina Summut

Rebecca Wilson

The cross-organisation campaign to raise awareness of leadership training across the agricultural career spectrum.

Taking place between 16th-20th May 2022, #AgriLeadershipWeek is back! The Agri-Leadership Consortium (ALC) which originated as The Farmers Club Charitable Trust (FCCT), the Institute of Agriculture Management (IAgrM), the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB), Nuffield Farming Scholarships, the Worshipful Company of Farmers and the Council for the Awards of the Royal Agricultural Societies (CARAS) has grown to include Management Development Services (MDS), the National Farmers Union (NFU), The Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH), Farmers Weekly and the Agricultural Universities Council.

The purpose of the week is to promote the importance of leadership to develop businesses and organisations and to motivate people working in agri-food. The week will highlight opportunities for those engaged in agriculture and food to develop their professional management and leadership skills at whatever stage they are at in their careers. It will be of no surprise to many of you that our industry lags someway behind its peers in terms of leadership development and investment in leadership training, and #AgriLeadershipWeek aims to promote the importance of leadership in successful business, organisation and team development from the small family farm to the large corporate agribusiness. In a twenty-first-century knowledge-based economy, attracting and retaining the most talented human capital to our industry is fundamental.

A range of activities are planned during the week, including an extensive social media campaign, interviews with key industry leaders and a review of leadership development opportunities both within the sector and more generally. 

Jamie’s Farm supports vulnerable young people nationwide to thrive academically, socially and emotionally through a unique 5-day residential experience and follow-up programme. The programme is a blend of ‘Farming, Family, Therapy and Legacy’ where children take on real jobs with purpose, punctuated with therapeutic support. The programme is in high demand and devliered at four rural farms across the country near Bath (HQ), Hereford, Monmouth and Lewes, alongside a city farm in Waterloo. Since the charity’s inception in 2009, nearly 10,000 young people have been supported with evidence for fewer school exclusions, increased engagment at school, improved wellbeing and the development of essential life skills.

Jamie graduated from the University of Edinburgh and taught History at Haling Manor School in Croydon from 2003. He worked in the Teach First office as part of the recruitment team from 2005 to 2008, focusing on the Jamie’s Farm project during his holidays and weekends. Jamie now manages the farming, fundraising and finance functions of the charity, as well as driving our growth strategy. Jamie is committed to ensuring the Jamie’s Farm experience is available to as many children as possible. His leadership has taken the organisation from occasional visits to his mother’s smallholding in Wiltshire, through to being a nationally significant charity, running four residential farms and one city farm. He can often also be found alongside children on the farm that bears his name, delivering lambs and calves and demonstrating that there is nothing wrong with getting your hands dirty in the cause of Farming, Family and Therapy.

Jake studied History at Cambridge University, before returning to his Birmingham roots to teach up the road from where he grew up as part of the Teach First Leadership Development Programme. He has also enjoyed teaching overseas, in Palestine and Ghana, and gained a distinction in his Masters in Educational Leadership from Warwick University.

Jake joined Jamie’s Farm in 2002 and has worked hard to ensure that as many children as possible get as great an impact as possible from our unique provision across all Jamie’s Farms. This involves supporting the delivery teams at each location to maintain and improve our approach and ensuring the central machine at Jamie’s Farm is well-run to enable our programme to be effectively delivered. It also includes a spot of river jumping with visiting children at our Hill House Farm HQ, which is unbeatable as a reminder of what the farm is all about. With his appointment as Co-CEO in early 2022 Jake will lead and develop all aspects of our work with children at Jamie’s Farm while Jamie will focus on Fundraising and Farming.

Ged is a very well-known and highly regarded GSCOP Expert having specialised in this area for the past five years. He has over 26 years’ experience in retail at a senior level, from managing stores, working in supply chain and then working as a Senior Buying Manager for the world’s largest retailer. We go live with him to get his view on what he is seeing in the unpredictable world of retail supply.

As a senior buying manager at Asda / Walmart, Ged worked in some of the fastest moving categories including beer, grocery and frozen food.

Ged has been training for over 10 years, the last five years training suppliers, helping them work better with Retailers. Ged delivers training & consultancy that supports delegates & businesses to make the most of the relationships they have their key retailing partners. He offers insight into what makes a retailer tick and how to use this to improve profitable relationships.

His experience across store operations, supply and buying has given him a unique approach to buying with an understanding of the full supply chain. His experience gives him a pragmatic and insightful approach to having successful and profitable relationships with Retailers.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our August broadcast we were delighted to be joined by Xander Beks, CEO at I4Nature Global Cooperative in the Netherlands to discuss “reshaping the future of food”.

Xander is driven by his passion for navigating complex issues within multi-stakeholder environments. He finds great satisfaction in advancing transition or transformation processes alongside these diverse players, particularly when collaborating with new generations. This is exemplified by his work with I4NATURE, a cooperative he co-founded to address climate-related challenges. Whether at a regional, international, or cross-sectoral level, Xander adeptly devises strategies to drive change collaboratively.

Xander is trained as an agricultural, military, and social institutional engineer. After graduating from Wageningen University, he accumulated extensive experience at the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality, leveraging his background in mixed farming. His expertise spans working with various organisational systems in agriculture, including education, labour markets, and government, from local to international levels.

Since 2012, Xander has led I4NATURE, focusing on meaningful consultancy, future leadership, capacity building, and strategic events. This initiative evolved from a youth program at the Ministry into a cooperative. He has developed numerous programs, fostered international collaborations, and established networks aimed at adapting to a rapidly changing world, particularly through initiatives like young boards and I4NATURE-stage, a network for young people.

In 2016, Xander joined the Dutch Armed Forces as a reservist, specialising in energy and sustainability challenges within military engineering. He also contributes to international forums, such as the Consultation Forum on Sustainable Energy in the Defence and Security Sector.

Recently, Xander has become rooted in the Alblasserwaard region, working on his wife’s family dairy farm. Here, he integrates his activities and knowledge to promote growth without increasing herd size, adhering to principles of generative agriculture and rural landscape values.

Currently, Xander is seeking deeper insights through the Nuffield program to guide the future direction of the farm and its organisation. He aims to develop learning networks for farmers focused on future-proof agriculture, furthering his commitment to sustainable practices and education.

In our June broadcast we were delighted to be joined by Amie Burke, Inclusivity Programme Manager at IGD. With a vast experience in the agriculture and food sector Amie will share with us why diversity is so important and provide some insights and learnings she is seeing through the IGD membership which demonstrates best practice and enhances the bottom line.

Amie has spent 15 years working in the agriculture sector, from banking to business improvement across the whole supply chain. After 4 years travelling internationally helping clients with their sustainability goals, auditing and providing solutions for supplying farmers in places like Brazil, Guatemala, China, Madagascar and Vietnam, Amie took a role with AHDB to focus on people sustainability in UK farming. Supporting the development of new apprenticeships, hands on workshops developing leadership skills and delivering accredited training for upcoming managers provided insight and experience for Amie’s current role with IGD as Inclusivity Programme Manager.

As a passionate LGBTQ+ member, Amie takes her knowledge and emotional intelligence to deliver insight, best practice and a reverse mentoring programme for FMCG industry; helping to inspire change and support businesses to create inclusive workplaces where everyone can thrive. She was recently named in The Grocer’s Power List as a top 10 activist making grocery a better industry for the LGBTQ+ community.

In our March Broadcast, we were delighted to be joined by Lucy Wager.

Lucy is an accomplished food industry professional and entrepreneur with 19 years of experience in the industry. She began her career as a Concept Technologist in food manufacturing at Bakkavor before moving on to work as a Product Developer for leading retailers such as Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s. In 2012, Lucy launched Pudology, a first-to-market chilled plant-based dessert brand that went on to achieve national success.

Today, Lucy focuses on working with early-stage Food & Drink businesses, providing guidance on all aspects of product development, food safety, compliance, and general support through the challenges of concept to launch. As a respected food industry professional, she also writes and delivers training programs for development, marketing, and commercial teams across the industry.

Lucy is dedicated to inspiring and educating the next generation of food industry professionals and entrepreneurs, helping them navigate the challenges and opportunities in the industry. Her passion for innovation, food safety, and food security for all continues to be a driving force in her work. She is committed to making a positive impact in the food world for many years to come

The London Produce Show and Conference (LPS) is back! It is organised and hosted by the creators of the award-winning New York Produce Show and Conference (NYPS).

As the largest produce event in the United Kingdom, it gathers high volume buyers and sellers from across the UK and around the world for unparalleled education and exceptional opportunities to network and build relationships. LPS22 provides a highly focussed environment for business development, sourcing opportunities and a unified forum for working together to boost produce consumption and to build a better industry.

The model has proved extremely popular and the NYPS and LPS are now well-established international trade exhibitions and conferences for the fresh produce industry, set in the heart of two iconic cities. As such, the LPS has taken the NYPS model and adapted it for the evolving demands of the UK marketplace.

It is the only annual produce show in town, and it has been successful in attracting exhibitors and attendees from more than 50 countries to the English capital city in its first three years.

We go live with Jim Prevor to find out more on The London Produce Show 2022 and why it is must attend event.

Jim is widely recognized as a leader in assessing the state of the perishable-food industries and analysing the prospects for the retail and foodservice venues in which perishable foods are bought and sold. His comments and insights on a broad range of subjects — including food safety, genetically modified organisms, irradiation, consumer dynamics, the state of food prices, sustainability and the competitive dynamics in the fresh-food retailing industry — have been seen and heard on CNN, the Fox Business Channel, the BBC, NPR, many network affiliates and over 100 newspapers, magazines and associated websites, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, The Times of London, The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times.

He has also spearheaded the establishment of a network of live marketing events, including The New York Produce Show and Conference, The London Produce Show and Conference and The Amsterdam Produce Show and Conference, as well as conferences including the Global Trade Symposium and the “Ideation Fresh” Foodservice Forum. He has also been in the forefront of student programs, leading efforts such as The University Interchange Program and The Fresh Careers Fair.

As the fourth generation of his family to be active in the food business in the United States, he has served as a director of his family’s company, which was an importer, exporter and wholesaler of foodstuffs, including produce, deli meats and cheeses, fresh eggs and frozen poultry. At various times, the business also owned supermarkets and convenience stores, a restaurant chain and various farming operations.

The Evening Standard called Mr. Prevor, “…one of America’s most revered commentators on the food industry,” and The Sunday Telegraph called him “One of America’s most influential commentators on the grocery market,” while The Times of London has identified Mr. Prevor as “…one of the most influential commentators on the supermarket sector…,” and The Minneapolis-St. Paul StarTribune named Mr. Prevor “a well-respected authority on food safety.”

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our October broadcast we were delighted to be joined by Dr Stephanie Fitzgerald, Health and Wellbeing Consultant at Soyo Ltd. 

Stephanie is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, Neuropsychologist, keynote speaker and published author.

She has worked in Mental Health for two decades and began working as a Health and Wellbeing Consultant in 2013. She has supported many companies across varying industries including Rail, Atomic Weapons, Civil Engineering, Premier League Football and the NHS. 

Most recently, Stephanie developed the Global Mental Health strategy for Rolls-Royce, a global organisation with over 45000 employees. Stephanie also supported Rolls-Royce employees through the devastating impact of COVID-19 and the largest restructure in the company’s history.

Stephanie specialises in delivering practical, evidence-based interventions, focusing on sustainable improvement. She is passionate about ensuring people are happy, healthy, safe and engaged in the workplace, and believes everyone can and should enjoy work.

Join this online broadcast for tips and inspiration to improve your workplace wellbeing.

We went live with some well-known names in the farming industry to share thoughts from the AgriLeader Forum 2023 event and to discuss the topic of leadership and management. 0.37% of people are embarking on leadership and management development so what are the main drivers and barriers to getting more people in this area and what are the mindsets, traits and skills of a good leader?

With the AHDB and on Beanstalk Global, we were joined by: Joe Seels, Olly Harrison, Charlotte Ashley, Georgina Sammut, Rebecca Wilson and Izak van Heerden (AHDB)

Fairmiles: Flying Food for Good

How do we take a fair approach to Net Zero which allows us to decarbonise airfreighted fresh produce without stopping vital market access for developing world producers?

Listen to this key round table that went live on Friday 15th December 2023 with a number of key people attending in person as well as a significant number that dialed in via Zoom and on social media. The discussion included:

• The impact of airfreighted fresh horticultural products from developing countries.
• Climate Justice considerations for corporate Net Zero strategies
• Recommendations for industry

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In this months' AHDB Talking Leaders broadcast, we sit down with Kat Thorne, founder of The Morning Game Changer, to explore how cultivating positive habits can lead to sustained high performance without risking burnout. 

Kat is a positive habits international keynote speaker, teacher and consultant. Her life story of workaholism, breakdown and burnout inspires global audiences to make one small habit change. After losing everything in 2016, she had no choice but to start again. 

With ONE SMALL HABIT CHANGE.

Former Global Commercial Director & CEO, Kat now works with organisations, leaders and individuals around the world to create one small positive habit change that actually results in increased wellbeing & resilience.

Kat shares practical strategies for maintaining consistency, balancing productivity with recovery, and preventing burnout, all tailored to the unique challenges faced by farmers. Viewers will gain valuable insights into how simple, actionable changes in daily routines can improve both well-being and long-term success in farming

AgrigateOne’s goal is to be perceived by all relevant stakeholders as the easiest, fairest and most reliable way of procuring agricultural goods. They want to ensure that farmers, growers and producers using AgrigateOne consistently have better bottom line results in comparison to other similar farmers and growers not on their platform. This is based not only on more favourable sales terms, but also improved ability to make data-based decisions within farm management. Their intention is to ensure that buyers have access to a wider range of information regarding their potential product base and are able to make better, more favourable, more informed procurement decisions.

We go live with Greg Whitaker - CEO & Founder and Wian Potgieter - General Manager, UK & Europe to find out more and to hear from some of their key growers and clients as to why they endorse and highly recommend AgrigateOne.

Farmers and growers are normally exposed to a wide range of risks arising from weather variability, natural hazards, and pests and diseases. Agricultural and fresh food production relies heavily on the natural resource base and climate conditions. Similarly, shocks to the market from both domestic and international sources, like supply shortages due to drought or fluctuations in exchange rates, can result in price volatility. These risks directly affect the economic returns from agriculture, the livelihood of our farmers and growers, and in the long run, the capacity of farmers to invest and innovate.

But, what we have all experienced in the last 12 months is totally unprecedented.

Feed, fertiliser, fuel and labour costs have all risen dramatically squeezing margins from profit into loss. With all sectors forced to rein in inputs this will lead to reduced yields and production. Left unchecked, there could be double-digit cuts in output across all sectors of UK food production. Those output cuts could bite as early as the autumn, with wide-scale shortages an even greater likelihood in 2023.

Surging energy prices are central to the potential cutbacks in output. Farming systems depend heavily on energy for fertiliser manufacture, food storage, crop drying, milk pasteurisation and for heating everything from glasshouses to livestock sheds. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, energy costs have gone through the roof.

Fertiliser prices have risen as high as £1,000/t in recent weeks, compared with £250/t a year ago. Farmers are facing key purchasing decisions in the coming weeks and months. New season buying starts from June for arable growers, while livestock and dairy farmers often buy at first-cut silaging. Ukraine also grows about 10% of the world’s wheat, and exports have slowed to a trickle since February. Next season’s grain crop is shrouded in uncertainty with men of working age fighting and millions fleeing the country.

How this will affect the harvest and what the knock-on for next year will be is hard to gauge..

But the dire situation facing food in the UK cannot be blamed on the Ukraine conflict alone. Input prices and post-Brexit policies were already causing pain long before the Ukraine conflict. The war has only worsened an already serious situation and shone a light on how much our food supply is increasingly in the hands of other nations.

We go live with the AHDB and a number of key industry experts for an insightful panel discussion. This is with the key aim to shine a light on this hugely important subject and give direct guidance to the sectors as to how the risks can be potentially mitigated.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our March broadcast we are delighted to be joined by Steve Dunkley from HSBC Business Banking  who will discussing “Driving growth in Agriculture – strategies for success”.

Steve is HSBC’s Regional Agriculture Director for Business Banking in the north.

He has worked in the farming sector for the last 30 years, from the family farm in the Yorkshire Dales to careers in both consultancy and government. 

Join us as we discuss different approaches to collaborative working and explore how teamwork and collaboration can drive business success.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our March broadcast we are delighted to be joined by Dr Awal Fuseini, Halal Sector Senior Manager for the AHDB.

Awal works closely with levy payers and key stakeholders in the Halal sector to create a better understanding of the requirements of Halal meat production. His role involves introducing various initiatives aimed at promoting English beef and lamb as versatile and convenient products to Halal consumers. Awal also collaborates with Halal certification bodies to understand the requirements of the major export markets with a view to facilitating the export of English beef and lamb to the global Halal market, with particular focus on the Middle Eastern and Sub-Saharan African markets.

Awal previously worked as an auditor and certification manager for one of the largest Halal certifiers in the UK, he is a trained British Retail Consortium (BRC) and ISO 9001 third party auditor. He has also made a significant contribution to academic literature through the publication of a book on Halal meat production, and numerous peer-reviewed papers in reputable scientific journals such as Meat Science, Veterinary Record, Animal Welfare, CAB Reviews, Food Ethics and others. Awal holds a PhD in animal welfare and meat science from Bristol University, his research interests centre around improving animal welfare at slaughter and evaluating consumer behaviour.

“Women in Food and Farming” is a group of professional women in food, agriculture and the land-based industries at all stages of their careers, who get together to discuss business issues, support each other via mentorship and advice, and help generate networks of contacts that might be useful to themselves and their businesses.

Founded in 2011 by Christine Tacon CBE, the group started back in 2011 with just five women and has now grown to over 500 members. Christine is known to many as the first Grocery Code Adjudicator and head of the Co-op’s farming business, she has just been appointed Chair of Assured Food Standards which operates the Red Tractor Assurance scheme amongst other roles.

Beanstalk is very proud to offer our extensive platforms to allow Women in Food and Farming to continue their conversation and debate and to encourage new members ongoing to join them, be that on a virtual Broadcast basis.

MDS is the UK’s foremost provider of management training for the food industry. Founded in 1986 as a not-for-profit membership organisation, we create a pipeline of well trained, capable leaders to work in all aspects of the food supply chain.

Their membership includes some of the industry’s leading businesses: forward thinking companies committed to developing high-calibre individuals. MDS offers members the opportunity to build their own leadership pipeline whilst contributing to the success of the industry. Thier members provide opportunities for MDS trainees to learn ‘on the job’ in roles with real responsibility, often managing specific projects or filling seasonal peaks. Their close collaboration with members ensures a broad range of suitable secondments as well as allowing ongoing input into the development of programmes.

In this month's broadcast the WIFF Team invited a number of current MDS Trainees to discuss the importance of Networking.

These included:Arunima Amar, Hollie Earles, Katie Gray, Harvey Griffiths and Francesca Pritchard.

Join us in our first phase of FRESHPPACT as we talk to representatives of Waitrose & Partners, Blue Skies and the University of Northampton Centre for Sustainable Business Practices about their forthcoming trip to Ghana! This critical mission to Ghana will seek to further define the challenges around plastics in the supply chain, helping us to ensure we find the most suitable and impactful solutions that can benefit the whole industry.

We go live with them all on the next stage of the exciting FRESHPPACT adventure to find out more prior to a key trip to the key Blues Skies site in Ghana.

On the panel we have:

• George Barrett - Sustainability Manager (Circular Economy) , Waitrose & Partners 
• Dr. Ebenezer Laryea – Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Northampton
• Hella Lipper-Morse – Head of Technical, Blue Skies 
• Lana Mo – Head of Innovation at Blue Skies
• John Oldham – Purchasing Manager, Blue Skies
• Ben Thomas – Senior Environment Manager, Waitrose & Partners

The Fresh Produce Impact Hub, known as FRESHPPACT, will collaborate with retailers, manufacturers and agribusinesses operating within food supply chains rooted in developing or emerging economies to identify shared high-priority social and environmental challenges, and work with research partners to accelerate the adoption of the most promising solutions through a process of rapid evaluation, testing and adoption.  

FRESHPPACT is being implemented by Blue Skies and supported by Waitrose, which has been awarded a UKAid grant to develop the operating model and launch three challenge funds to find solutions to problem plastics found in agricultural mulch, workwear and packaging.

Solutions may include new technology and business models that mitigate plastic pollution through material substitution, accelerated biodegradation and improved manufacturing and remanufacturing processes.

The UKAid grant has been made via the Sustainable Manufacturing and Pollution Programme (SMEP). The SMEP programme is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and is implemented in partnership with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The grant has been awarded for an initial period until April 2022. 

FRESHPPACT is inviting expressions of interest from organisations who would like to be involved in launching the challenge funds and/or identifying solutions. Expressions of Interest may come from, but is not limited to retailers, fresh produce companies, research organisations (including universities) and solutions providers.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB that will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our July broadcast, Jon Parry, principal of Gurteen College, Ireland, will be joining us.

Jon is the 6th Principal of Gurteen College since it’s inception in 1947. Before relocating to Tipperary, Jon held various leadership roles in the UK and has worked for more than 30 years in agricultural education and knowledge exchange (KE).

Jon was instrumental in changing how AHDB approached KE, championing a mindset change method and believing “the cup is already full of knowledge, KE just need to be the spoon that stirs it”. 

If we had a blank sheet of paper, how would we equip the next generation?

Join us to explore Jon’s insights and ideas on what we need to do to ensure we equip the next generation with the skills and traits needed to adapt to a world that is changing ever faster, and to grab the opportunities this new world will bring.

Running a campaign that involves more than 200 organisations brings valuable lessons on building and maintaining relationships.

Veg Power is a not-for-profit organisation focused on encouraging the UK to eat more vegetables. Since their inception around three years ago their successes include the award-winning 'Eat Them to Defeat Them' campaign in partnership with ITV, which included a TV ad supported by over £10m of advertising from ITV, Channel 4 and Sky Media. 

The fundamental difference with other healthy eating or public health campaigns is that the Veg Power operating model includes a strong, diverse and vocal alliance that has nationwide reach and impact – all on a very low budget. The alliance consists of individuals, groups and organisations that are passionate about the cause. It includes large and small businesses, national and local government, NGOs, community groups and schools, celebrities and influencers.  This enables them to reach a greater range of individuals and adds credibility and interest to their campaigns.  

Joining Max on this month's broadcast will be Dan Parker from Veg Power and Jack Ward from British Growers - discussing how a better understanding of the vegetable consumer can drive category growth and product innovation.

As we’re all aware, currently there are multiple challenges and pressure faced both in our industry and lives. Join our panel to discuss and gain insight into how they are riding the current rollercoaster and adapting their businesses to become more resilient, motivating the people around them, whilst ensuring they look after themselves.

Our Speakers:

• Mark Campbell, Chair
• Chris Appleton, Dairy Farmer
• Tom Rawson, Director of Evolution Farming
• Charles Anyan, FCN Ambassador & Farmer
• Max MacGillivray, Beanstalk Global – Host

About our Speakers

Chris Appleton – Dairy Farmer

Chris has been fortunate enough to return to the family farm as a fourth generation dairy farmer managing 450 autumn block cows near Lewes, East Sussex. The farm has seen significant changes over the last 8 years with a project currently underway to build a new dairy unit and expand the herd to 650 cows. Chris is ably supported by a fantastic team that prioritise the welfare of the animals, allowing all to push forwards with the next stages of development for the farm.

Tom Rawson – Director of Evolution Farming

Tom is married to Catherine and they have three teenage children. Tom’s journey into dairy farming started on his parents’ 50 cow tenanted farm in West Yorkshire when he finished Harper Adams University in 1999 having not milked a cow until he was 19 years old. In 2010 Tom co founded Evolution Farming which today milks over 3000 cows on 8 units and at peak employed over 80 staff in a variety of different enterprises. Tom also has wider industry involvement including being Vice Chair of Nuffield Farming, current Chair of The 1000 Cow Club and a Committee member of The Farmers Club.

Charles Anyan – FCN Ambassador & Farmer

Charles is an arable farmer and keen environmentalist from Lincolnshire who took up running during the Covid lockdowns. A five stone weight loss quickly ensued. Now a veteran of 4 marathons (and currently training for number 5) he still hasn’t stopped. He has found running to be a great way to look after both his physical and mental health, and is an advocate for breaking the stigma around this.

Anyan became an ambassador for The Farming Communtiy Network in 2021 and was also a judge of Britain’s Fittest Farmer in 2023.

Tim Rycroft joined the AHDB as CEO on 31 August 2021. He was formerly at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) where he joined as Corporate Affairs Director in September 2015. In September 2018 he was promoted to Chief Operating Officer with responsibility for strategy and corporate affairs as well as overseeing the federation’s policy on diet & health and on competitiveness. Prior to FDF, Tim held senior corporate affairs roles with InterContinental Hotels Group plc (as Director of Communications, Europe); Diageo plc (as Corporate Relations Director, GB and then Corporate Relations Director, Global Duty Free) and Boots Healthcare International (as Head of Corporate Affairs).  For three years Tim was a Special (political) Adviser in government, to the Minister without Portfolio and then to the Secretary of State for Health. Tim has also worked in corporate communications consultancy.

He has joined the AHDB at a time of significant change. As the AHDB chair, Nicholas Saphir has stated around Tim’s experience “In his previous commercial and FDF roles, his background makes him ideally equipped to lead the significant change that we have started to introduce to the organisation Tim will spearhead the ongoing programme of change within the AHDB”.

Tim stated at the time of his appointment: “It’s tremendously exciting to be asked to lead AHDB at this critical moment in its history. Nicholas Saphir and the team have set out a bold vision for change. Now this must be swiftly delivered so we can continue to play our vital role as a source of competitive advantage, underpinning a world class food and farming industry.”

We look to be one of the first media platforms to interview Tim live to find out more about his industry background to date, why the opportunity and positive challenges at the AHDB attracted to him and what we can all look to see from the positive development he and his colleagues are making both in the short and the long term.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our April broadcast, we have joining us Sir John Jones – discussing “Preparing yourself for a world that doesn’t yet exist”.

Knighted in 2003 for his services to education, Sir John worked most of his professional life in challenging schools across the North West of England, his last post being the head-teacher of a large secondary school in Merseyside.

His achievements and reputation for straight talking, leadership and creativity led him to be invited onto various organizations, panels and think tanks including the National College for School Leadership, the DfES’ Leadership Development Unit, the Teacher Development Agency’s National Remodelling Unit and visiting posts with both Manchester and Liverpool Universities.

Sir John retains a very down to earth approach to education, believing it to be about social change, never just about ticking boxes or meeting targets. Covering an impressive range of educational issues from leadership and inclusion to organizational development and ‘futures thinking’, Sir John is guaranteed to give all those who come into contact with him food for thought, practical ideas that will make a difference and a genuine and moving sense of awe at the power teachers have to change young lives.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our December broadcast, we are delighted to have expert coach and consultant: Nick Davies to discuss Negotiation: How to Get the Result You Want 

Nick is the author of ‘How to be Great at the Stuff You Hate: the straight-talking guide to persuading, selling & networking’. He is also a trainer of Communication Skills to Members of The Royal Household and a visiting Lecturer at University College Dublin Smurfit Business School, Dublin.

He is also the co-founder and director of the training, coaching and consulting company Tricres Ltd.

Whilst his background is in field and retail sales (as well as being called to the Bar in November 1999) and briefly working as a lawyer) he has been a trainer and speaker since 2006.

Over the years he has accumulated a wealth of experience, training and teaching lawyers, accountants, fund managers, senior managers & civil servants, from the exceptionally junior to the incredibly senior how to sell, persuade, close, speak, present, negotiate, network and develop business, either one-to-one or in large groups.

Although the majority of this work has taken place in the U.K., he has been lucky enough to speak across the globe, including amazing places such as: Monaco, Antibes, The Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Singapore, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Wellington, Auckland West Virginia, Beijing & Southport.

Nick performed stand-up for ten years and continues to deliver after-dinner speeches and host award ceremonies. Over the past few years he has worked and shared stages with a buffet of reasonably well-known people; including The Rt. Hon. Michael Portillo, Sir Digby Jones, Jenny Bond, Kate Adie, Roger Black MBE, Alan Hansen, and Alastair Campbell.

“Women in Food and Farming” is a group of professional women in food, agriculture and the land-based industries at all stages of their careers, who get together to discuss business issues, support each other via mentorship and advice, and help generate networks of contacts that might be useful to themselves and their businesses.

Founded in 2011 by Christine Tacon CBE, the group started back in 2011 with just five women and has now grown to over 500 members. Christine is known to many as the first Grocery Code Adjudicator and head of the Co-op’s farming business, she has just been appointed Chair of Assured Food Standards which operates the Red Tractor Assurance scheme amongst other roles.

Beanstalk is very proud to offer our extensive platforms to allow Women in Food and Farming to continue their conversation and debate and to encourage new members ongoing to join them, be that on a virtual Broadcast basis.

In our February Broadcast, we are delighted to have Sapphira Waterson - COO of Management Development Services.

Saffy utilises her skills in people development to help individuals find their best fit in the food and fresh produce industry. Sapphira has many years of experience working within people development as well as a career in welfare and social work, including the Probation Service and prior to that working for SSAFA with the RAF. She has a Bsc in Criminal Justice studies and a BA in Social Science and Social Policy.

She will be discussing with us all – “Socioeconomic bias and the effects on professional opportunities”.

When we think of Socioeconomic status (SES) most people consider income and an individual ability to live a lifestyle based on their financial status. However, the effects are far more extensive and impact educational achievement, social status and opportunity to reach professional attainment. This is not necessarily because of an individual’s ability or potential but often due to the unconscious bias of those at a higher level.

Generally, people believe they do not hold discriminatory beliefs, but in reality, we all do, because we are influenced by social stereotypes which categorise individuals or groups. Greater awareness can enable us to make positive changes to processes and actively offer equal opportunities. This will never be achieved if we continue to assess potential based on criteria that many people have not had the opportunity to experience.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our March broadcast we are delighted to be joined by Jack Sheffield, Farmer & Founder of FeelAliveAgri, discussing “Building a Brand”.

Jack started FeelAliveAgri in 2017 with an aim to create a brand aimed at young people in agriculture which is affordable yet stylish. A brand which can be worn on the farm, in the field or at the shows.

Having been in farming all his life: growing up on the family farm in Sussex, attending agricultural college and working in different UK counties and down under in Australia, he is no stranger to the farming way of life but he saw there was something the people of the farming community needed and wanted! With social media being a massive part if his life and even more so agriculture nowadays it gave launching the brand a helping hand!

FRESHPPACT is the fresh produce industry Impact Hub that works with research partners to find solutions to the biggest shared sustainability challenges that we all face.

Right now, they are looking for solutions that can mitigate pollution caused by plastic used in agricultural mulch, workwear and packaging.

Can you help them find scalable, commercially viable, game-changing solutions that are on the verge of discovery?

They have launched three calls for proposals with over £900,000 worth of funding on offer for three or more solutions that they can test, commercialise and scale-up.

Help us all define the problem, discover the solution and change the world.

We talk to key representatives of Blue Skies and the University of Northampton Centre for Sustainable Business Practices about this next and very exciting stage for FRESHPPACT! We also will show you all the Beanstalk Global video highlighting the recent exploratory trip to Blue Skies in Ghana to understand the issues around plastic and the potential solutions.

We go live with them all on Monday 18th July at 13:00hrs BST. CLICK THIS LINK TO REGISTER FOR FREE.

The Fresh Produce Impact Hub, known as FRESHPPACT, collaborates with retailers, manufacturers and agribusinesses operating within food supply chains rooted in developing or emerging economies to identify shared high-priority social and environmental challenges, and work with research partners to accelerate the adoption of the most promising solutions through a process of rapid evaluation, testing and adoption.  

FRESHPPACT is being implemented by Blue Skies and supported by Waitrose, which has been awarded a UKAid grant to develop the operating model and launch three challenge funds to find solutions to problem plastics found in agricultural mulch, workwear and packaging.

Solutions may include new technology and business models that mitigate plastic pollution through material substitution, accelerated biodegradation and improved manufacturing and remanufacturing processes.

The UKAid grant has been made via the Sustainable Manufacturing and Pollution Programme (SMEP). The SMEP programme is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and is implemented in partnership with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

FRESHPPACT is inviting expressions of interest from organisations who would like to be involved in launching the challenge funds and/or identifying solutions. Expressions of Interest may come from, but is not limited to retailers, fresh produce companies, research organisations (including universities) and solutions providers.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In the October episode of Talking Leaders we are delighted to be joined by Anna Mosley - High Performance Coach & Founder of Eighty Growth Academy.

Anna is a multi-award winning speaker and high performance coach. With an extensive past career in corporate leadership and vast experience in the world of mental health, Anna – a master in neuro linguistic programming - bridges the gap between mental fitness and high performance.

Having overcome her own struggles of perfectionism and burnout, Anna specialises in growth mindset. She passionately upskills business owners and their teams to break through barriers to unlock their full potential, building resilience and agility and driving a culture for success. Anna is known for her highly engaging style, for making complicated topics simple to digest and implement, and for leaving her audience thinking BIGGER…every time.

We went live with the South of England Agricultural Society (SEAS) from the South of England Show on Saturday 8th of June from the Young Farmer Building at the very impressive Showground. We Broadcast on the very important subject of how we collectively create more trust between the farming community and the general public. Our expert panel included:

Kendra Hall – Nuffield Farming Scholarships Trust Scholar

Andrew Flake – Sheep & Arable Farmer, West Sussex who opens his farm to the public

Leighton Snelgrove – Chairman of SYFC & Farm Manager for Elizabeth Buchanan

Peter Appleton – Dairy Farmer, Arlington and involved from the conception of the Blubell Walk, Arlington

Aimee Snowden - Nuffield Scholar

With Max MacGillivray from Beanstalk.Global hosting and Mark Campbell from AHDB.

In our April broadcast we were delighted to be joined by Colin Crooks MBE.

Colin is a serial social entrepreneur with a track record of establishing impactful and sustainable social enterprises.  Currently he is launching BirdRun©, a novel competition designed to increase interest in wildlife and raise funding for environmental protection. Immediately before that he started and ran Tree Shepherd which over 10 years supported hundreds of people from low-income backgrounds to start their own business.  Before that he founded and operated 5 innovative recycling businesses. One of these, Green-Works was awarded the Queens Award for Enterprise; Sustainable Development.

In 2012 he used his experience of employing more than 1,000 hard to employ people to write ‘How to Make a Million Jobs, a charter for social enterprise’. Colin was awarded an MBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours list for services to disadvantaged people and the environment. 

As a qualified, accredited coach and experienced facilitator/chair of meetings in community and business settings he also runs Intentionality, which works to create and/or support social enterprises to grow and increase their impact.

“Women in Food and Farming” is a group of professional women in food, agriculture, and the land-based industries at all stages of their careers, who get together to discuss business issues, support each other via mentorship and advice, and help generate networks of contacts that might be useful to themselves and their businesses.

Founded in 2011 by Christine Tacon CBE, the group started back in 2011 with just five women and has now grown to over 500 members. Christine is known to many as the first Grocery Code Adjudicator and head of the Co-op’s farming business, she has just been appointed Chair of Assured Food Standards which operates the Red Tractor Assurance scheme amongst other roles.

Beanstalk is very proud to offer our extensive platforms to allow Women in Food and Farming to continue their conversation and debate and to encourage new members ongoing to join them, be that on a virtual Broadcast basis.

In the December broadcast, we welcome guest speaker Dr Belinda Clarke, Director of Agri-Tech E – Europe’s largest commercial membership network connecting farmers and growers with researchers, technologists, entrepreneurs and investors.

Agri-Tech E brings together those who see innovation as way to enhance the economic growth, agricultural productivity and environmental sustainability of the agri-food value chain. They were named national Networking Group of the Year at the UK SME Business Awards 2019.

Belinda is also a Trustee of the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association and a Non-Executive Director of Agrimetrics, one of the UK’s Agri-Tech Centres, and was a member of the Council of UKRI-BBSRC (2015-2021).

She has a first degree from the University of Cambridge in Natural Sciences (Part II Plant Sciences) and a PhD in plant biochemistry from the John Innes Centre (University of East Anglia). She is a Nuffield Scholar, an Associate of the Royal Agricultural Councils, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, a Chartered Biologist, and a qualified business coach.

FRESHPPACT is the fresh produce industry Impact Hub that works with research partners to find solutions to the biggest shared sustainability challenges that we all face.

Right now, they are looking for solutions that can mitigate pollution caused by plastic used in agricultural mulch, workwear and packaging.

Can you help them find scalable, commercially viable, game-changing solutions that are on the verge of discovery?

They have launched three calls for proposals with over £900,000 worth of funding on offer for three or more solutions that they can test, commercialise and scale-up.

Help us all define the problem, discover the solution and change the world.

Beanstalk.Global is hosting a FRESHPPACT Technical Innovation Webinar and Workshop to provide you with additional insight on our three plastics challenge funds and give you the opportunity to engage and connect with innovators, solutions providers and technical experts to discuss potential ideas and synergies.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our May broadcast we were delighted to be joined by Emma Thomas.

Emma Thomas is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Sunshine Coast Council – one of the largest local governments in Queensland serving a population in excess of 340,000 residents and one of Australia’s fastest growing regions.  The Sunshine Coast Council is pursuing a transformational agenda to strengthen the region’s economy, improving the region’s liveability, enabling community connectedness and inclusion and maintaining an outstanding natural environment and landscape.

Prior to joining Council, Emma held a range of chief executive and senior executive leadership roles with the Australian Capital Territory, South Australian and Queensland governments.  She is a values-based leader with a passion for, and commitment to, sustainable regional economic development and fostering social inclusion, community diversity, connectivity and accessibility.  These elements are an integral part of her focus and leadership as Sunshine Coast Council CEO.

As the CEO, Emma is responsible for an organisation with a budget in excess of $816 million, more than $6 billion in assets, over 1,800 people and overseeing one of the most innovative policy, program and infrastructure delivery agendas that seeks to position Council as a national leader in local government excellence and the Sunshine Coast as the most liveable and sustainable region in Australia.

The University of Northampton Sustainability Summit 2023 is taking place on 15th-16th May 2023. This two-day Summit is being organised under the theme; ‘Adapting to a changing world: addressing our shared sustainability challenges’.

Its core objective is to provide a platform which brings together businesses non-profit organisations, policy makers, local government, academics, and other stakeholders to identify shared sustainability challenges and devise a long-term plan of action to address those challenges through collaborative research, enterprise and knowledge exchange.

On the Pre-Event Broadcast on Beanstalk Global, we have:

• Dr Ebenezer Laryea, Associate Professor of International Sustainable Development Law, University of Northampton
• Simon Derrick, Global Head of Sustainability, Blue Skies Holdings Ltd
• Guy Schanschieff MBE DL - Founder - Bambino Mio
• Sharon O'Connor - Global Compliance Manager - Nene Group
• Valerie Zishiri - Sustainability Coordinator - Free Foam Ltd

The AHDB AgriLeader initiative in partnership with Nuffield International Farming Network Brasil were delighted to announce their collaborative broadcast.

They explored how leaders from around the world tackle familiar challenges in different ways. Featuring Carla Borges, Wynoma Michaels, and Izak Heerden, hosted by Julia Cristina Campos and Max MacGillivray from Brazil, the UK, and South Africa, this session, “AgriLeadership Gone Global,” shared unique thoughts on leadership styles from diverse backgrounds and cultures.

It’s okay to lead differently! Don’t miss this chance to learn how leadership thrives across cultures and gain fresh insights for inspiring others in today’s interconnected world! 

We go live with Cathy Burns to get an understanding of how the IFPA has been set up, the current challenges for the International Fresh Produce sectors and how collaborating with them will be beneficial to us all globally.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our November broadcast we were delighted to be joined by Argentinian Arable Farmer Sean Cameron.

Educated at St George’s College in Argentina followed by Fettes College in Edinburgh, Sean Graduated in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University. After 5 years working as a trader in London for Louis Dreyfus, he returned to the family farm in Argentina.

The farm was purchased by his Great Grandfather in 1916 on the south-eastern edge of the Pampas in the Province of Buenos Aires as a sheep farm.  This gradually veered towards Aberdeen Angus cattle and an ever-increasing amount of annual grain crops and potatoes. In 1993 Sean returned to manage the farm with his Canadian wife Jennifer, it then became 100% arable annual cropping, and by 1996 all the farm was farmed in a no-till farming system.

Presently, it includes 9 centre pivot irrigating machines, each sized between 53 and 88 Ha's and a 12,000 tonne drying & storage grain facility, as well as all the machinery necessary for planting, protecting and harvesting their crops.  They now own approx 2,200 Ha's & rent a further 1,600 Ha's.

The farms' main crops are wheat, barley, white clover seed production, sunflower, corn and seed corn and sweet corn produced under irrigation.  They occasionally produce peas and plant second crop soybeans after wheat and barley harvest.

Red Tractor. They are a not-for-profit company that is the UK’s biggest farm and food assurance scheme. They develop standards based on science, evidence, best practice and legislation that cover animal welfare, food safety, traceability and environmental protection. Around 50,000 British farmers are accredited to Red Tractor standards, which form the basis of buying and sourcing specifications for major supermarkets, household brands and restaurant chains, ultimately making life simpler for everyone.

The Red Tractor logo represents 20 years of driving world leading British food standards. Since 2000, they have worked closely with animal welfare experts, vets, agronomists and the entire supply chain to ensure that whenever you buy a product with the Red Tractor logo, it is traceable, safe and farmed with care.

Their assurance covers the entire food supply chain and they work with over 450 independent inspectors to ensure the most robust assessments possible.  These inspectors are all appropriately trained and sufficiently experienced – together, they conduct over 60,000 inspections a year.

We go live with Jim Moseley – CEO of Red Tractor to get his opinion and understanding of the whole food sector as we emerge from the post Covid scenario. With potential “erratic” times ahead for both farmers, growers, retailers and consumers alike, we look to gain Jim’s view as to how we can all sail to hopefully brighter times ahead.

Jim started out at FMC Meat Ltd, then Europe’s largest meat group. His next move was to Wander Foods, where he launched sports drink Isostar in the UK.    He later spent 12 years as Tulip’s Sales & Marketing Director, before becoming Managing Director of General Mills UK in 1999. There he handled brands like Häagen-Dazs, Old El Paso, Green Giant and Nature Valley.  He then joined Mizkan Euro Ltd before becoming the CEO of Red Tractor in 2017.

Jim has chaired the Provision Trade Federation and was a Food Drink Europe board member. He’s also been both interim Director General and President of the Food & Drink Federation. 

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

This month, with the broadcast title of “Think Differently” we are delighted to be joined by Carol Glover aka “The Maverick Maker”  

Carol, a successful Maverick leader herself, helps clients understand why it matters to think different, be different and act different.

She is iLM level 7 Executive Coach and Mentor qualified.

She describes her self as “A ginger, punk-inspired, Maverick Intrapreneur, Disruptive Leader, Speaker & Transformative Coach & Mentor, from Isle of Man, who loves to dance.”

The International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA) exists to bring our industry together to create a vibrant future for all. They have a fresh outlook on fresh produce, believing it can help solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. They are the largest and most diverse international association serving the entire fresh produce and floral supply chain, and the only to seamlessly integrate world-facing advocacy and industry-facing support.

If you have a place in the fresh produce and floral industry, you have a place in IFPA. They are here to grow your prosperity. They do that by conducting advocacy; connecting people and ideas; and offering guidance that allows us all to take action with purpose and confidence.

Each month, we will be focusing on a major area of Southern African fresh produce and discussing that all with the country’s key industry experts so we can learn and appreciate fantastic Fresh Produce for the area!

For March, we are taking a deep dive into the hugely innovative and ever moving world of AgTech!

If you just take the USA alone, when the nation was formed some 240 years ago, farming was the economy’s primary driver. By 1870, nearly half of the employed population held jobs in agriculture. Today, it’s a $3 + trillion industry – but only 2% of Americans hold a farm-oriented job.

This is, in many ways, thanks to technology. Tractors and other automation advances in the 20th century let large farms shift management to only a handful of people. But this, paradoxically, has also slowed things down in the 21st. With only a few people working every farm, there’s not a lot of time – or incentive – to innovate.

It has been often stated that you only get 40 attempts at farming. From your 20’s to your 60’s, you get 40 seasons. But in AgTech, you get 40 attempts in a week!

But even farmland isn’t immune to the information revolution. Today, there are hundreds of agriculture tech startups around the world, and some experts say the situation reminds them of the early days of the internet: There’s a lot of activity in agriculture, but no clear winners yet – it’s hard to say who might become the Facebook or Amazon of the scene. Couple that with climate change pressures, the fact that two billion more people will live on this planet by 2050, and that just 40% of the world’s land is available to grow crops, and you have yourself a market ripe for innovation — and big money.

Joining us will be:

Alastair Smith. Alastair works for KHULA! App where he is the Executive Head, Fresh Produce Market Place. He graduated with a B.Agric Admin from Stellenbosch University as well as a Certificate in Business Functions from Rhodes Business School. He has also completed the Prince of Wales’s Business and Sustainability Executive Program through the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability.

With a range of varied Agri Business experience, Alastair sees himself as a positive disruptor with over 19 years of business management experience in supply chain in agri-business, retail, FMCG and most recently, in the tech start-up environment.

Martin Jensen. Martin currently Leads the IT Team at ZZ2 who are tasked with the ambitious project of digitising and optimising processes within the ZZ2 ecosystem.

He holds a BSc. IT (Hons) Degree from the University of Johannesburg and in a career spanning 20 years, Martin has held positions at large corporations such as Shoprite and Imperial Logistics as well as numerous entrepreneurial ventures including start-ups. He has held various positions in the IT & Supply Chain space in different industries including retail, logistics, aquaculture and agriculture. 

Greg Whitaker. Greg was born in Polokwane, Limpopo and grew up on a farm outside Louis Trichardt, before moving to Pretoria for his high school years. After matriculating, Greg studied at...

In our May Broadcast, we are delighted to have on Stephanie Berkeley from the great Yellow Wellies initiative, part of the UK Farm Safety Foundation.

About the Farm Safety Foundation: Rising concern over the continuing high level of fatal and life-changing injury accidents on farms prompted leading rural insurer NFU Mutual to set up a charitable foundation in 2014 to help farmers work safely (Registered Charity No. 1159000).

The Foundation works closely with partners in the industry to engage, educate and communicate strong and relatable farm safety messages. Over the past eight years, the FSF has developed and delivered farm safety training for 16,000 young farmers in 44 land-based colleges and universities throughout the UK and through the Young Farmers’ Club network.

Through national campaigns such as Farm Safety Week and Mind Your Head, the Farm Safety Foundation is preserving and protecting the physical and mental wellbeing of the next generation of farmers and equipping them with smart strategies and specific skills to live well and farm well.

Hailing from Donegal in Ireland, Stephanie’s friends were either farmers or fishermen; equally dangerous industries. After studying European Business Studies and spending time living and studying in Asturias and Barcelona, Stephanie began a career in journalism at Belfast’s Newsletter, working in the business section of the newspaper before joining publishing house Greer Publications with Ulster Business magazine.

After various roles in the Greer Publications group with Specify magazine and Ulster Business, Stephanie was appointed Editor of the award-winning Northern Woman magazine as well as editing the lifestyle section of Ulster Business.

From 2006-2014 she was Marketing & PR Manager for W5, Ireland’s only science centre and a charity with educational aims before her move, in 2014, to Stratford-upon-Avon where she has developed and grown the Farm Safety Foundation, its education programme and award-winning campaigns. Stephanie is a qualified Mental Health First Aider, author of The Little Book of Minding Your Head, a member of ISASH (International Society of Agricultural Safety & Health) and represents the UK on Safety Culture and Risk Management in Agriculture (SACURIMA) – Cost Action CA16123.

In our January broadcast we were delighted to be joined by Rex Conyers-Silverthorn, Director of Brookfield Properties who will discussing “Future-proof thinking, predictions and adaptation”.

Brookfield Properties develops and operates real estate investments on behalf of Brookfield Asset Management — one of the largest alternative asset managers in the world. From office to retail, logistics to multifamily, and hospitality to development, they work across sectors to bring high-quality, sustainable real estate to life around the globe every day.

Rex has advised on some of London’s most iconic buildings, including The Gherkin, Heron Tower and the Olympic legacy at Stratford to promote both functionality in design and placemaking.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In the January edition of AHDB Talking Leaders, we were excited to explore the topic of “Mental Fitness” with Sheena Horner, delving into how to Push Limits while Finding Balance.

Sheena diversified into chilli farming and through that business she developed a growing network of food and drink businesses throughout Scotland. It is through the chilli growing business that Sheena developed a growing network of food and drink businesses throughout Scotland. She is a firm believer in collaboration and helping one another which led her to setting up Food from Farming, a second business to enable her to do this.

She believes strongly in the locality and seasonality of food and drink, which is founded from her farming background and passion for sustainability and the benefits this brings to local and rural economies. These skills are currently being used in her role as the regional food and drink coordinator in Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Manager of the Farming Community Network.

In the summer of 2020 Sheena founded #Run1000, a fundraising event held throughout January highlighting the positive effects that both running and walking have on your mental as well as physical health while raising funds for rural mental health charities. She continues to run and enter events regularly, pushing herself out of her comfort zone and challenging herself.

She is a director of the Oxford Farming Conference, the vice-chair of The Crichton Trust board, a trustee of The Solway Firth Partnership, a graduate of the Scottish Enterprise Rural Leadership Programme and a member of the Dumfries and Galloway Local Employability and Skills Partnership.

Sheena shared insights on how to effectively navigate the New Year, with a particular focus on “Blue Monday” — the third Monday in January, often considered the most depressing day of the year and linked to the January Blues. She explored Mental Fitness, offering strategies to push limits while maintaining balance during this challenging month.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our July broadcast we are delighted to be joined by Matt Phelan, Author & Co-Founder of The Happiness Index.

In his day-to-day role, he’s responsible for the strategic direction of the business. He is the founder of The Happiness and Humans Community, host of The Happiness and Humans Podcast and author of Freedom To Be Happy: The Business Case for Happiness.

Matt recently completed a TEDx talk where he presented 12 million data points in happiness from 1 million human beings in 100+ countries in less than 15 minutes!

The search is on for the first recipient of The Caroline Drummond Award – Celebrating and Communicating Farming Excellence.

Set up in memory of former LEAF Chief Executive, Caroline Drummond MBE, who led LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) for over 30 years, the award will recognise an individual who personifies her passion and drive to advance more sustainable farming and communicating that to their peers, the wider food chain and the public. The award is open to farmers and other individuals involved in the farming industry.

As well as LEAF, the award is supported The British Guild of Agricultural Journalists and The Institute of Agricultural Management, both of which Caroline had a close involvement with.

“I hope that the award will encourage others to approach the communication of sustainable farming in a similar fashion to Caroline`s methods. That is using encouragement, motivation, enthusiasm and excitement for the good of all,” says Caroline’s husband Philip Ward.

“Caroline had a passion for improving the way the world farms and protects the environment and for sharing that message to as wide an audience as possible. This award means that others with that passion can be recognised for what they do,” says Cedric Porter, LEAF vice chairman and agricultural journalist.

“This award is a fitting tribute to Caroline and her determination to show the wider world that good farming practice and looking after the environment go hand in hand. The twin challenges of feeding an increasing global population and climate change make that goal more important than ever before,” says BGAJ chairman Johann Tasker.

“Caroline Drummond was an inspirational leader in agriculture. IAgrM is delighted and proud to support this award in recognition of Caroline’s work and as a lasting legacy to inspire others working in sustainable farming,” says Victoria Bywater, Director IAgrM.

FRESHPPACT is the fresh produce industry Impact Hub that works with research partners to find solutions to the biggest shared sustainability challenges that we all face.

Right now, they are looking for solutions that can mitigate pollution caused by plastic used in agricultural mulch, workwear and packaging.

Can you help them find scalable, commercially viable, game-changing solutions that are on the verge of discovery?

They have launched three calls for proposals with over £900,000 worth of funding on offer for three or more solutions that they can test, commercialise and scale-up.

Help us all define the problem, discover the solution and change the world.

We go live on a full Q&A basis to talk to key representatives of Blue Skies and the University of Northampton Centre for Sustainable Business Practices about this next and very exciting stage for FRESHPPACT!

In our September Broadcast, we are delighted to be joined by Ted Hewett – Marketing Expert from the wellbeing sector.

Ted has been working in the Employee Wellbeing Industry for the last 7 years, specialising in sales and marketing for companies that do good in the world of work. He’s been lucky enough to work for some of the best companies in the industry and has a huge passion for communicating big ideas, sharing his learnings, and creating teams that deliver on world-class objectives.

In the February edition of AHDB Talking Leaders, we were delighted to be joined by Colin Crooks MBE.

Colin is a serial social entrepreneur with a track record of establishing impactful and sustainable social enterprises. Currently he is launching BirdRun©, a novel competition designed to increase interest in wildlife and raise funding for environmental protection. Previously he ran Tree Shepherd which over 10 years supported hundreds of people from low-income backgrounds to start their own business. Before that he founded and operated 5 innovative recycling businesses. One of these, Green-Works was awarded the Queens Award for Enterprise; Sustainable Development.

In 2012 he used his experience of employing more than 1,000 hard to employ people to write ‘How to Make a Million Jobs, a charter for social enterprise’. Colin was awarded an MBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours list for services to disadvantaged people and the environment. 

As a qualified, accredited coach and experienced facilitator/chair of meetings in community and business settings he also runs Intentionality, which works to create and/or support social enterprises to grow and increase their impact.

As part of the Beanstalk Global mission to assist with the first phase of FRESHPPACT in partnership with Blue Skies, Waitrose & Partners and the University of Northampton Centre for Sustainable Business Practices, we meet up in Ghana and talk with Ruth Sadjei – General Manager for Blue Skies in West Africa.

Ruth is an inspiring and hugely well-regarded figure in the fresh food industry in Africa. What she and her team have created at Blue Skies and the difference they have made to the people in Ghana and now Benin cannot be overstated.

We interview her to find out her background, how Anthony Pile MBE (founder of Blue Skies)  inspired her to succeed and what she hopes for in respect of the Blue Skies business ongoing.

The Fresh Produce Impact Hub, known as FRESHPPACT, will collaborate with retailers, manufacturers and agribusinesses operating within food supply chains rooted in developing or emerging economies to identify shared high-priority social and environmental challenges, and work with research partners to accelerate the adoption of the most promising solutions through a process of rapid evaluation, testing and adoption.  

FRESHPPACT is being implemented by Blue Skies and supported by Waitrose, which has been awarded a UKAid grant to develop the operating model and launch three challenge funds to find solutions to problem plastics found in agricultural mulch, workwear and packaging.

Solutions may include new technology and business models that mitigate plastic pollution through material substitution, accelerated biodegradation and improved manufacturing and remanufacturing processes.

The UKAid grant has been made via the Sustainable Manufacturing and Pollution Programme (SMEP). The SMEP programme is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and is implemented in partnership with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The grant has been awarded for an initial period until April 2022. 

FRESHPPACT is inviting expressions of interest from organisations who would like to be involved in launching the challenge funds and/or identifying solutions. Expressions of Interest may come from, but is not limited to retailers, fresh produce companies, research organisations (including universities) and solutions providers.

Beanstalk Global & the AHDB went live with some farming favourites at the Cidermill Theatre in Chipping Campden to chat farming, food and education. They were also joined by teacher: Iona Corbett, Head of Food & Nutrition at Chipping Campden School.

The livestream features the following people:

Joe Seels

Charlotte Ashley

James Herrick

Tom Martin

James Taylor

Iona Corbett

Andrew Hartshorn

Roz Reynolds

Izak Van Heerden (host)

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

For November we were delighted to be joined by Matt Phelan – Author and Co-Founder of the Happiness Index to discuss Happiness vs Engagement at Work.

In his day-to-day role, he’s responsible for the strategic direction of the business. He is the founder of The Happiness and Humans Community, host of The Happiness and Humans Podcast and author of Freedom To Be Happy: The Business Case for Happiness.

Matt recently completed a TEDx talk where he presented 12 million data points in happiness from 1 million human beings in 100+ countries in less than 15 minutes!

GLOBALG.A.P. is a brand of smart farm assurance solutions developed by FoodPLUS GmbH in Cologne, Germany, with cooperation from producers, retailers, and other stakeholders from across the food industry. These solutions include a range of standards for safe, socially, and environmentally responsible farming practices. The most widely used GLOBALG.A.P. standard is Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA), applicable for fruit and vegetables, aquaculture, floriculture, livestock, and more. This standard also forms the basis for the GGN label: The consumer label for certified, responsible farming and transparency.

The GLOBALG.A.P. brand began its journey as EUREPGAP in 1997. Two decades later, over 200,000 producers are under GLOBALG.A.P. certification in 134 countries. Nearly 150 team members around the world are dedicated to the mission of spreading responsible farming practices to ensure safe food for future generations.

Beanstalk Global looks to find out more about the workings of GLOBALG.A.P and its positive future direction and how that will benefit everyone in the fresh food international food supply chain with Dr. Kristian Moeller – Managing Director.

Kristian has been directing GLOBALG.A.P. since its foundation more than 20 years ago. Their collective vision is to create a world in which farms are recognized for their efforts to continuously produce enough safe food while safeguarding our environment and the welfare of farming communities. They collaborate with supply chain stakeholders to foster the global adoption of safe, socially, and environmentally responsible farming practices by providing industry-leading, cost-effective, and value-adding assurance and benchmarking solutions.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB that will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our October broadcast, we were joined by Dan Sodergren - CoFounder and CIO of YourFlock.

Ted X talker, keynote speaker, ex marketing agency owner, digital trainer, serial tech startup founder and now media spokesperson Dan Sodergren's main area of interest is the future of work, remote work,data, green tech and tech startups. He is co-founder of www.YourFLOCK.co.uk - a team engagement platform based on values.

In his spare time, as well as being a dad, Dan is a digital marketing and technology expert for the BBC. Donning the cape of consumer champion on shows like BBC WatchDog, the One Show and RipOffBritain and being a marketing tech specialist for SuperShoppers and RealFakeAndUnknown.

He is also a host and guest on podcasts and webinars speaking as a futurist. As well as being a guest on countless radio shows. And a remote reporter/content creator for tech companies at tech events and shows.

His main interest is in the future. Be that the future of marketing, or the future or work or how technology will change the world for the better under the #Tech4Good and #Tech4All movement.

Are you ready to embark on a transformative journey that can help reshape the growth of your business or charity in that ensures a more sustainable world for our children and grandchildren? If the answer to your question is a resounding ‘Yes’, then we invite you to join us for our first Net Zero Webinar on the TANZ West Northants Project.

This is your opportunity to be a part of something extraordinary. TANZ West Northants is more than just a project; it's a mission. Launched in partnership with West Northants Council in September 2023 and funded by the prestigious UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), this two-year project is set to put the commercial activities of local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and charities on a more sustainable footing and on the path to accelerated growth.

This first webinar will provide crucial knowledge and insight into how attaining Net Zero can secure a more sustainable and profitable future for your organisation. Attendees will also take away key understandings on how the TANZ project is well positioned to transform their commercial operations, making them eco-friendly and more efficient so as to realise the financial benefits of sustainability.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

On this broadcast we discuss the workplace - "It’s not a problem it’s a cure - Driving equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace". We are joined by:

Sharon Blyfield OBE, Head of Early Careers and Apprenticeships GB. Sharon has been in the business for 28 years in a variety of functions and roles. She joined the HR team 17 years ago, covering all elements of Supply Chain and now heading up the Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) Early Careers agenda for Great Britain.

Having spent the majority of her career developing young talent at the start of their careers, her current remit fits perfectly with her passion to create opportunities to support the next generation of young leaders. As part of her commitment, Sharon strives to work with strategic partners who challenge organisation’s approach to under representation of young people across all communities and works to create a level playing field in the recruitment process that might unconsciously deselect from those groups.

Sharon’s dedication and commitment to CCEP’s apprenticeship programme has been recognised by CCEP’s leadership team, as well as her peers and apprentices alike. She has received praise for her outstanding leadership of the programme, which has continued to grow and expand in line with the business’ Early Careers agenda. As well as recognition from the leadership team, Sharon is adored by the apprentices themselves, who see her as a trusted advisor and mentor.

Sharon joined the HR team 17 years ago, covering all elements of HR and now heads up the Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) Early Careers agenda for Great Britain.

Having spent the majority of her career developing young talent at the start of their careers, her current remit fits perfectly with her passion to create opportunities to support the next generation of young leaders.

Barbara Bray MBE, Food Safety Expert & Nutrition Strategist For The Food Industry. Barbara is a TEDx speaker and director of her own consultancy, Alo Solutions Ltd, delivering food safety and developing sustainable nutrition strategies for food businesses.

A Registered Nutritionist with the Association for Nutrition, she has an MSc in Human Nutrition. She is a Fellow of the Institute for Food Science and Technology (IFST) with a BSc in Food Technology and an MSc in Postharvest Technology.

The Co-Chair of the Oxford Farming Conference, trustee of the Nutrition Society and 2017 Nuffield Farming Scholar, Barbara is passionate about diet and food. She was awarded an MBE in 2019 for services to food and nutrition.

In our July Broadcast, we are delighted to be joined by Dr Elizabeth Stockdale, Head of Farming Systems Research at NIAB.

Elizabeth has played nicely with mud throughout her career from her student days at Newcastle, and through work at SRUC, Rothamsted and back teaching students in those same lecture rooms at Newcastle.

She has over 25 years applied soil and nutrient management research experience and has engaged with a wide range of research projects connected with the study of nutrient cycling in soils and with the environmental impact of farming systems. She moved to NIAB and became head of the integrative interdisciplinary farming systems research team in 2017.

Most recently Elizabeth has been very active in developing farmer-focussed approaches to the measurement of soil health and developing on-farm toolkits for improved soil management. 

All of us are living in a global climate crisis. Our planet is warming fast. Luckily, there is a solution: If nature is brought back by applying cost-effective nature-based solutions, we can mitigate global warming by 37%! This will benefit nature, biodiversity, and people everywhere, and help cool down our planet. Justdiggit is on a mission to regreen Africa and cool down the planet. Together with millions of farmers, and together with you.

Joining Max on the broadcast is Stuart Taylor. After a 35-year career in the UK media sector, Stuart now devotes his time to tackling the climate crisis as UK Country Director for Dutch environmental foundation Justdiggit.

He is a former UK CEO of Kinetic Worldwide, the world’s leading out-of-home media planning and buying agency and part of WPP. Prior to this, and until its sale to Global Radio, Stuart was CEO of Guardian Media Group Radio (GMG Radio) and sat on the board of parent group, GMG Plc. He has been Non-Exec Director for several organisations including micro-mobility start-up Buzzbikes.

He sat on the boards of Digital Radio UK, RadioPlayer, and Radio Centre. Stuart joined GMG Radio after a long career at Guardian News and Media, where he was Commercial Director. Responsible for all commercial activity at GNM, Stuart played a major role in developing online revenue streams for guardian.com and the transformation of both the Guardian and the Observer newspapers into the innovative Berliner format.

He was appointed Commercial Director of GNM in 2004 and was named Sales Director of the Year on three occasions by Campaign magazine and was a founding director and Chair of the Newspaper Marketing Agency, now called Newsworks.

In our August Broadcast, we are delighted to be joined by Dr Helen Ferrier, Chief Science and Regulatory Affairs Adviser at NFU and Trustee Director of NIAB Board.

Helen leads the National Farmers’ Union’s policy and advocacy work on agricultural and horticultural science and research, biotechnology, data, and food safety, on behalf of the NFU’s 55,000 members in England and Wales. Based at NFU HQ in Warwickshire, she leads a policy team covering plant health and crop protection, farm safety, skills and training, transport, labour and employment. Helen is a non-executive Director of the NIAB Board, chair of the Crop Science Centre Alliance Board and is a member of many other groups and panels in the agrifood and research community.

Before joining the NFU in 2004, Helen was a research scientist at Imperial College London, working on probabilistic modelling of dietary exposure to pesticides. She has an academic background in environment and human health, epidemiology and environmental science.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our September broadcast we were delighted to be joined by 4 times Olympic skier Chemmy Alcott.

Chemmy is an English former World Cup Alpine race ski racer and a fiercely determined and courageous sportswoman.  As the only British female skier to ever win a run in a World Cup, she is widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest ever skiers.

Having broken 49 bones, Chemmy is no stranger to adversity and remains committed to inspiring the next generation and educating people from all over the world through sport.

In late 2024, Kegan Stubbs and Max MacGillivray are travelling to Zim to explore the best of the countries farming and produce whilst supporting agricultural industries. They will be visiting a number of key growers to film, to learn and to promote the countries fresh food output for both internal consumption and to also highlight them all for key export markets. We are keen to give this opportunity for key Partner Sponsors to benefit from the planned mission to Zimbabwe!

On the Broadcast was:

Kegan Stubbs – he is currently engaged in exploring the intricacies of the agricultural industry within the UK via the MDS scheme and is partnering Max MacGillivray of Beanstalk Global on the Zim “mission”! Having grown up on a diverse farm in Manicaland, Zimbabwe, he developed a profound connection to both agriculture and his home country.

Clarence Mwale – A global exporter and compliance manager of primarily blueberries, but also has an extensive small-scale out growers’ program which he markets and runs compliance.

Josh Burger – Grower, Exporter, and marketing agent for most of Zim’s paprika crop – near the town of Kwekwe

Graeme Webb –  A key Zim grower majoring on150 ha Avocadoes and 80 ha Citrus

Max MacGillivray – Host and Editor in Chief of Beanstalk Global

The hugely regarded Blue Skies business has teamed up with Waitrose and the University of Northampton Centre for Sustainable Business Practices to launch an industry research and development hub to find ground-breaking solutions to sustainability challenges, with an initial focus on plastics.

We go live with them to find out more and to speak to a select number of industry experts on the subject.

On the panel we have:

Caroline Drummond MBE – CEO of LEAF

Simon Derek – Global Head of Sustainability, Blue Skies  

Jim Jefcoate – Ex Walmart and ex GlobalG.A.P.  

Ian Schofield – Ex Iceland & Highly Regarded Packaging expert

The Fresh Produce Impact Hub, known as FRESHPPACT, will collaborate with retailers, manufacturers and agribusinesses operating within food supply chains rooted in developing or emerging economies to identify shared high-priority social and environmental challenges, and work with research partners to accelerate the adoption of the most promising solutions through a process of rapid evaluation, testing and adoption.  

FRESHPPACT is being implemented by Blue Skies and supported by Waitrose, which has been awarded a UKAid grant to develop the operating model and launch three challenge funds to find solutions to problem plastics found in agricultural mulch, workwear and packaging.

Solutions may include new technology and business models that mitigate plastic pollution through material substitution, accelerated biodegradation and improved manufacturing and remanufacturing processes.

The UKAid grant has been made via the Sustainable Manufacturing and Pollution Programme (SMEP). The SMEP programme is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and is implemented in partnership with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The grant has been awarded for an initial period until April 2022. 

FRESHPPACT is inviting expressions of interest from organisations who would like to be involved in launching the challenge funds and/or identifying solutions. Expressions of Interest may come from, but is not limited to retailers, fresh produce companies, research organisations (including universities) and solutions providers.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our June broadcast we were delighted to be joined by Laura Ryan – CEO of Lavenpark Consultancy.

Laura is an expert in building global networks and driving transformational change across the agri-food sector and up until 2019 was Sector Strategy Director for Beef & Lamb Board at Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).

She has subsequently grown a global portfolio of work across the meat sector through the launch of Lavenpark, her own consultancy business which is working with levy boards, government, and commercial companies to achieve greater success through improved insight and connectivity.

She is co-founder of the trailblazing Global Meat Alliance initiative and is also the founder and Global Chair of Meat Business Women which has been recognised by the United Nations as one of the solutions to the global Sustainable Development Goals.  

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In Decembers' AHDB Talking Leaders broadcast, we are delighted to be joined by Dr. Ellen Joan Ford for an engaging livestream, “Create a thriving workplace”.

Ellen is hugely ambitious about improving the working world for people and for organisations. As a leader, researcher, military veteran, international speaker, TEDx speaker, facilitator, consultant and parent, Ellen draws on her research and practical experiences to drive organisational outcomes such as improved retention, productivity, engagement, well-being and ultimately, profit, by enhancing inclusive leadership capabilities and workplace culture.

Ellen was awarded the Kiwi Bank New Zealander of the Year - Local Hero, Person of the Year - Manawatu

Standard and the prestigious Sir Peter Blake Leadership Award. She is the author of #WorkSchoolHours

(endorsed by CEOs of KiwiBank, FMG, DevryBV and Cliftons, and dubbed a “must-read for any leader

building a modern workplace”) and her leadership model is Belonging, Autonomy and Purpose.

Ellen is passionate, authentic and speaks from the heart with warmth, enthusiasm, bubbliness and fun.

In our October Broadcast, we were joined by Susie McIntyre, MD of Kettle Produce to discuss Crisis Management.

Food and Farming is a group of professional women in food, agriculture and the land-based industries at all stages of their careers, who get together to discuss business issues, support each other via mentorship and advice, and help generate networks of contacts that might be useful to themselves and their businesses.

Founded in 2011 by Christine Tacon CBE, the group started back in 2011 with just five women and has now grown to over 500 members. Christine is known to many as the first Grocery Code Adjudicator and head of the Co-op’s farming business, she has just been appointed Chair of Assured Food Standards which operates the Red Tractor Assurance scheme amongst other roles.

You have to break new ground to sustainably produce safe, healthy food. That is what Patrice and his colleagues have created with their innovative, proprietary technology platform. They have turned the chemical rule book upside down and literally gone back to basics.

Their cutting-edge protein-based biocontrols effectively protect crops against plant pests and diseases, while keeping the environment, farmer and consumer safe. They address the entire food life cycle, extending protection from farm to fork.

Patrice Sellès, CEO of Biotalys and veteran international ag exec, is adamant that the industry needs to create a safer, more sustainable food chain. Patrice has over 20 years of experience in the Ag and Food Tech Industry across various countries, including the USA and Switzerland.

Prior to joining Biotalys in July 2019, he held a number of leadership roles at Syngenta, including developing the science and technology strategy as well as deploying a technology acquisition team to establish strategic partnerships and licensing agreements in Crop Protection, Biologicals and Biotechnology. Prior to that, he was an investment manager at Life Science Partners Bioventures in Cambridge (MA, USA) where he led multiple investment deals in the Food and Ag Tech ecosystem and joined the Board of Directors of three portfolio companies. Patrice started his career in scientific management roles in various industries bringing chemical ingredients from early stage discovery to development and scale-up. He is a chemical engineer and received his PhD in organic chemistry from the University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.

We went live with some of the top farming influencers from social media @ LAMMA 2023 to chat about how farmers can connect with the general public.

We were joined by: Tom Pemberton, Joe Seels, Charlie Beaty, Rebecca Wilson, Flavian Obiero , Charlotte Ashley, Amy Jackson and Izak van Heerden.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our January broadcast we are delighted to be joined by Chris Manley - Agriculture Sustainability Manager for Muller & Milk, and Nuffield Scholar.  The topic of conversation: his "Walk with Me" campaign - bringing farmers together with their supply chain partners to make a positive impact.

Chris has a sustained passion for the agriculture industry and is driven to make a difference. Brought up on a dairy, beef, and sheep farm in Devon, he flourished in Young Farmers and at Harper Adams before undertaking the Nuffield Farming Scholarship in 2021.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our February broadcast were delighted to be joined by Kirsty Lewis - Founder of the School of Facilitation, discussing "A Business is Never Too Small for Effective Communication".

A bit about Kirsty and the School of Facilitation: "Hi, I’m Kirsty, Founder of the School of Facilitation, a dream I first journaled on in 2007. I was seeking comradery in the world of facilitation, working with corporates for the majority of my career, and  I was feeling the pull of real connection and people who just ‘got it’.

But, where would I find them? After months and years of soul searching and web scouring, I realised that the solution I sought was within me! In 2014 the School of Facilitation welcomed its first members, having been gradually formulating in the background for some time. By 2017 we were supporting and encouraging facilitators and corporations from around the world.

I’ve worked with powerhouse brands and household names, such as Diageo, Chanel and Jacob Douwe Egberts. My own personal facilitation journey spans decades (I know, I know, I don’t look old enough!) and I’ve worked for myself for much of that time. I understand the trials and tribulations of going it alone, being an associate or facilitating within a corporate structure, because I’ve experienced those facets myself."

The road to Net Zero can be a challenging and tricky journey. Learning from the experiences of others can help make that journey a bit easier and enhance your business’ efforts to reduce its carbon emissions and make your operations more profitable and sustainable. This is why we at SLIPAH, together with our partners at Beanstalk Global, are assembling a star panel of sustainability experts for our upcoming ‘Net Zero Show and Tell’ Webinar on the 30th of January from 1pm-2pm. This webinar will provide the platform for our panellists to share the experience and knowledge they have had from the efforts undertaken by their organisations to progress towards Net Zero. Moderated by Max MacGillivray of Beanstalk, our panel will share their experience and knowledge of the challenges, pitfalls, success and solutions businesses need to bear in mind on their Net Zero journey.

Joining us on this panel will be: Shaun Warren, (Sustainability Advisor at Graf Uk Ltd), Simon Derrick (Head of Sustainability at Blue Skies Holdings Ltd), Nicola Pichel-Juan (Sustainability Manager at Satra Technology Centre), Joely Slinn (Sustainability Officer at West Northants Council), Martin Wilson (Sustainability Manager, West Northants Council), Guy Schanschief MBE, Founder of Bambino Mio and Dr Ebenezer Laryea (Associate Professor of Sustainable Development Law at University of Northampton).

Don’t miss this opportunity this opportunity to hear from this panel of experts and the stories of how their organisations have done so far in navigating their way on the road to Net Zero.

Prior to the 35th CUPGRA Annual Cambridge Potato Conference on 10th & 11th December 2024 at Robinson College, Cambridge, we went live with a number of key individuals from the CUPGRA Student Network who will present a taste of their work in a flash talk on Beanstalk.Global.

The aim was for them to give us all a quick taster of the cutting-edge potato research being carried out across the UK.

Ten members of the CUPGRA Student Network, who will be presenting at the CUPGRA conference in December, were eager to introduce their research and spark your curiosity about their potential findings!

They were: Fabian Villamil Bolanos, Francis Kawalya, Vongai Chekanai, Ronald Manjoro, M Garrido Davies, Anika Damm, Brandon Thompson, John Owen, Favour Olu-Olusegun, Edwin Tapiwa Toreveyi.

HomeAbout usContact usAHDB

Women In Food & Farming – November Broadcast With Dr Juno McKee, Director Of Ventures At NIAB.

In our November Broadcast, we were delighted to be joined by Dr Juno McKee, Director of Ventures at NIAB to discuss “Managing Complexity”.

Juno has over 20 years of experience leading and managing applied research, technical services, knowledge exchange and product development for agri-business and currently provides leadership for NIAB’s innovation and commercialisation activities as Director of Ventures. Juno also serves on the Advisory Board of the British Crop Production Council and on the Executive Management Team of Agrimetrics – the UK Agri-Tech Centre for data science, analytics and modelling in the agrifood sector.

Juno has a first degree in plant biology and a PhD from the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. She also has an MBA from the Open University Business School and is a 2003 Nuffield Farming Scholar (UK wheat breeding and supply chains).

In our April Broadcast, we are delighted to have Rozanne Davis – a key industry Sustainability and B Corp Expert!

Rozanne has an incredible wealth of knowledge in many parts of this industry, including fresh procurement, having spent 14 years at Innocent and 7 years at Capespan before that. This was also where Roz delivered B Corp for the company. This is a mountain to climb in a small business, but to achieve this in a well-established and substantial business is a whole new level. It is an incredible achievement. Now Rozanne has moved on to set up her own business, Our Legacy Sustainability Consulting Ltd, and as a true expert in this field, has kindly agreed to speak to WIFF about B Corp. We cannot think of anyone more suited and qualified to do so.

Roz works with European Roundtable for Beef Sustainability members for the SAI Platform and holds a BSc Engineering (Chemical) and BSc Agriculture (Horticulture) both from the University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa.”

Women in Food and Farming is a group of professional women in food, agriculture and the land-based industries at all stages of their careers, who get together to discuss business issues, support each other via mentorship and advice, and help generate networks of contacts that might be useful to themselves and their businesses.

Founded in 2011 by Christine Tacon CBE, the group started back in 2011 with just five women and has now grown to over 500 members. Christine is known to many as the first Grocery Code Adjudicator and head of the Co-op’s farming business, she has just been appointed Chair of Assured Food Standards which operates the Red Tractor Assurance scheme amongst other roles.

Beanstalk is very proud to offer our extensive platforms to allow Women in Food and Farming to continue their conversation and debate and to encourage new members ongoing to join them, be that on a virtual Broadcast basis.

“Women in Food and Farming” is a group of professional women in food, agriculture and the land-based industries at all stages of their careers, who get together to discuss business issues, support each other via mentorship and advice, and help generate networks of contacts that might be useful to themselves and their businesses.

Founded in 2011 by Christine Tacon CBE, the group started back in 2011 with just five women and has now grown to over 500 members. Christine is known to many as the first Grocery Code Adjudicator and head of the Co-op’s farming business, she has just been appointed Chair of Assured Food Standards which operates the Red Tractor Assurance scheme amongst other roles.

Beanstalk is very proud to offer our extensive platforms to allow Women in Food and Farming to continue their conversation and debate and to encourage new members ongoing to join them, be that on a virtual Broadcast basis.

In our December Broadcast, we had the great pleasure of having Clare Keegan, Head of Business Enterprise Services at Harper Adams University join us to discuss The School of Sustainable Food & Farming.

Together, with their key partners, they aim to: Educate, Inspire and Empower current and future farmers to achieve net zero within a sustainable farming and food system.

The School of Sustainable Food and Farming at Harper Adams University is supported by their steering partners: Morrisons, McDonalds UK & Ireland and the National Farmers Union. Their shared purpose is to:

• Equip farmers with skills & knowledge towards Net Zero within sustainability parameters (economic, environmental and social)
• Talk a common language with regards to Net Zero and Sustainable Farming
• Improving farm data to track carbon emission reductions and sequestration offsetting at a whole farm system approach
• Encourage new entrants into the food industry and a diversity of entrepreneurial people

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our February broadcast we were delighted to be joined by Remy Beaumont, Founder & CEO of GEN Z TALENT & farmmarketing.co.uk who will discussing “The rising role of social media within UK Agriculture”.

After gaining considerable experience working on arable and dairy farms from the age of 13, Remy’s initial career plan was to become an agri-business consultant.

He studied at Plumpton College before graduating with a degree in Agriculture from the University of Reading.

The COVID-19 pandemic meant Remy’s final year at university had to be completed from home. During this period, he observed the huge growth of social media platforms, such as TikTok, and, living with an influencer at the time, Remy decided to set up his own social media business.

In 2021, Remy founded GEN Z TALENT, an agency specialising in influencer and social media marketing, initially to provide a part-time income while completing his final year of university.

The company grew quickly, and he has an extensive client list, including the likes of Starbucks, ASOS, Taco Bell and Hello Fresh.

Remy’s final year dissertation focused on farm diversification, and it was during this time that he began to see the potential for social media marketing within agriculture.

In 2022, Remy took his love of social media marketing and applied it to another passion – farming – and founded Farm Diversification UK Ltd. This is an agency that focuses on taking farm diversification to a new audience through digital and social media marketing.

Join our broadcast for a rare insight into how farming enterprises can use social media for business development.

A new campaign for a fair transition towards net zero kicked-off this month. Called Fairmiles, it calls on policy makers from government and the private sector to consider sustainability impacts on developing countries when pursuing carbon reduction strategies which seek to minimise so-called ‘food miles’ particularly with regard to airfreighted produce.

The campaign aims to engage key stakeholders in the retail, government and charity sectors to highlight the importance of maintaining crucial trade links with developing countries and to make recommendations for reducing emissions without marginalising vulnerable communities.

“Climate change is real and demands an urgent and radical response if we are to adapt to the significant threat it poses to our planet. However, with increasing pressure on organisations to act, there is a growing risk that corporate net zero strategies that seek to reduce emissions by reducing imported or airfreighted food, end up alienating and negatively impacting economically less developed countries, to the detriment of livelihoods in rural communities,” said Simon Derrick, global head of sustainability of Blue Skies, one of the companies behind the new initiative.

“The implementation of carbon reduction policies which target airfreighted fresh produce can disproportionately curtail opportunities for low-carbon agricultural products that support livelihoods in developing nations.This trade is a lifeline for millions of individuals in some of the world’s most impoverished and vulnerable communities, thus underscoring the need for carbon reduction policies to attain climate justice.”

Blue Skies supplies airfreighted fresh-cut fruit to retailers in the UK and across Europe, employing over 5,000 people in 10 factories spanning Ghana, Egypt, South Africa, Brazil, Benin and the UK. Its business model is built on the principle of adding value at source, which means that, wherever possible, fruit is cut, prepared, and packed in the same community that it is grown. This allows Blue Skies to return a higher margin to the communities that produce the fruit, and to harvest the produce at its optimal maturity, helping to ensure the best possible nutrition and flavour.

The Fairmiles launch was attended by 15 organisations representing African fresh produce businesses, the air cargo industry, academia and the international development sector. In addition to raising awareness of the issue among key stakeholders and the public, it hopes to conduct research on the impact of air freighted produce; agree best-practice guidelines for the industry and translate its aims into an action plan with quantifiable targets.

To create further awareness of the initiative as well as discussing the facts and figures and what is hoped to be achieved especially as we head towards the COP28 climate conference in Dubai late this year a number of group founders recently went on a Beanstalk Global Broadcast to discuss the initiative.

On the Broadcast was:

• Dr Ebenezer Laryea - Associate Professor in International Sustainable Development Law at the University of Northampton and Chair of the University's Centre for Sustainable Business Practices.
• James MacGregor – development economist and author of the 'Fair Miles: recharting the food miles map' published in 2009 by Oxfam and IIED.
• Jodie Keane - Senior Research Fellow with the International Economic Development Group at the Overseas Development Institute. 
• Alistair Djimatey - Public Affairs Manager at Blue Skies
• Simon Derrick – Head of Sustainability at Blue Skies, a fruit manufacturer that airfreights prepared produce from Africa and South America
• Max MacGillivray - Editor in Chief of Beanstalk Global

As you will know, we recently had the hugely sad news that Caroline Drummond, champion of sustainable farming and the driving force behind Open Farm Sunday, had passed away following a short illness.

In celebration of Caroline and everything she has achieved for us all and our sectors, the Women in Food & Farming Group and host Beanstalk Global, are running a Broadcast with a number of individuals who have been so positively influenced by Caroline over the years.

An announcement from Linking Environment and Farming (Leaf), the organisation she helped develop and led for more than 30 years, informed us of the news on Tuesday 24 May “with profound sadness”. Leaf chairman Philip Wynn said Caroline was “an inspiration” and praised her “passion, determination, foresight and energy” that had transformed Leaf from its small beginnings 30 years ago to the “globally recognised and respected organisation it is today. There really are no words to express how much Caroline will be missed within Leaf and the farming industry; but most deeply by her family, to whom we extend our greatest sympathy,” said Philip.

From its humble beginnings in 1991, Leaf had grown under Caroline’s leadership to become a hugely influential organisation, both by encouraging more sustainable farming practices and by improving public understanding of agriculture. One of Leaf’s flagship events is, of course, Open Farm Sunday, which each year connects more than one-quarter of a million people with farming.

But another of Caroline’s huge achievements was leading the Leaf Marque initiative – a farm assurance system recognising products grown sustainably with care for the environment. She also led the successful merger with the charity Farming and Countryside Education (Face), to bolster the organisation’s educational role.

Caroline was awarded an MBE for her services to agriculture in 2009, and in 2019 she won the Farmers Weekly Lifetime Achievement Award. Speaking at the time, Woodland Trust chief executive

An agriculture graduate from Seale-Hayne College in Devon, Caroline was also a Nuffield scholar and was named one of the Women Economic Forum’s “Women of the Decade”. 

Farmers have been quick to express their gratitude for the work Caroline did for the industry. NFU President Minette Batters led the industry tributes, describing Caroline as “a tour de force within the agricultural community.

Caroline was first and foremost passionate about environmentally friendly farming. She recognised how food production worked hand-in-hand with the environment and was a fantastic advocate for integrated farm management”.

Defra secretary George Eustice said: “Caroline’s establishment and leadership of Leaf was instrumental in driving forward sustainable farming practices throughout the UK and beyond. Her development and promotion of the Leaf Marque Standard has cemented its status as a globally recognised certificate of excellence.  She will be sorely missed.”

Norfolk farmer and Farmers Weekly columnist David Richardson, who co-founded Leaf in the early 1990s, described her as “a force of nature”.

“By her enthusiasm and energy, she led Leaf from a small charity advocating integrated farm management to an influential organisation with contacts around the world

Leaf now operates in 19 countries, and 48% of the fruit and vegetables consumed in the UK are produced to Leaf Marque standards.

I was there at the beginning and had the privilege of working with her. Her achievements exceeded my optimistic vision. Her loss at such a young age is tragic and will be felt by the whole farming and food industry.”

The University of Northampton Sustainability Summit 2023 is taking place on 15th and 16th of May 2023.

This two-day Summit is being organised under the theme; ‘Adapting to a changing world: addressing our shared sustainability challenges’. Its core objective is to provide a platform which brings together businesses (particularly in the food/drink, footwear, and logistics industries), non-profit organisations, policy makers, local government, academics, and other stakeholders to identify shared sustainability challenges and devise a long-term plan of action to address those challenges through collaborative research, enterprise and knowledge exchange.

Beanstalk Global’s Max MacGillivray will be there, Chairing a key session with Simon Derrick – Global Head of Sustainability for Blue Skies as well as filming and conducting a series of interviews throughout the summit.

On a recent Pre-Event Broadcast, we heard from key individuals as to why you should attend. This included:

- Dr Ebenezer Laryea, Associate Professor of International Sustainable Development Law, University of Northampton

- Professor Amin Hosseinian Far, Professor of Systems Thinking, University of Northampton

- Simon Derrick, Global Head of Sustainability, Blue Skies Holdings Ltd

- Martin Baxter FIEMA, Cenv, Executive Director of Policy & External Affairs, IEAMA

- Kelly Shields, Communication and Technical Manager, Fresh Produce Consortium.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In the January edition of AHDB Talking Leaders, we were delighted to be joined by Gemma Krasucka, Head of Learning & Development at Leicester City Football Club to discuss “Bring the people with you”.

With a strong background in performance coaching, people development, and cultural change, Gemma’s purpose is to help individuals and teams unlock their full potential. Their career spans 20+ years and has been committed to guiding others to reach their professional goals, promoting self-improvement, and creating successful pathways for talent progression.  

Outside of their professional life, they are an accredited Personal Trainer and performance coach, specialising in athletic development, sports nutrition and mindset.   

In our March Broadcast, we are delighted to have Caroline Drummond MBE, Chief Executive of LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming).

Caroline has been running LEAF, the farming and environmental charity since it started in 1991. She is especially interested in the development of sustainable food and farming and she has over 38 years experience in this area.

She graduated in Agriculture and has broad practical agricultural experience from across the globe. Her work focuses on encouraging more sustainable farming practices and building a better public trust and understanding of farming, food, health and the environment – values that she is personally extremely passionate about. She is actively involved in many industry partnerships and initiatives in the UK and Europe.

In 2009 Caroline was awarded the Member of the British Empire (MBE) by the Queen, she has an Honorary Doctorate from Harper Adams University, a Nuffield Scholarship studying ‘

What can Farmers Learn from Science to improve the Nutrition of our Food’ 

and was awarded Honorary Fellowship for the Society of the Environment. In 2017 she was awarded the IAgrE Award For Outstanding Contribution to the Landbased Sector and the Farmers Guardian Outstanding Contribution to Agriculture. In 2018 she was awarded the RASE National Agriculture Award and an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Agricultural University.

Caroline is actively involved with the British Nutrition Foundation, North Wyke, the Agri-tech initiative – is a director of the Agri-tech centre on Crop Health And Protection, the Institute of Agriculture Management, and on the advisory board of the agricultural project for the Science Museum.

Women in Food and Farming is a group of professional women in food, agriculture and the land-based industries at all stages of their careers, who get together to discuss business issues, support each other via mentorship and advice, and help generate networks of contacts that might be useful to themselves and their businesses.

Founded in 2011 by Christine Tacon CBE, the group started back in 2011 with just five women and has now grown to over 500 members. Christine is known to many as the first Grocery Code Adjudicator and head of the Co-op’s farming business, she has just been appointed Chair of Assured Food Standards which operates the Red Tractor Assurance scheme amongst other roles.

Beanstalk is very proud to offer our extensive platforms to allow Women in Food and Farming to continue their conversation and debate and to encourage new members ongoing to join them, be that on a virtual Broadcast basis.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In this episode of Talking Leaders we delved into the inspiring journey of Catherine Marriott OAM, a trailblazer in agriculture, leadership, and sustainability. With over 20 years of experience across executive roles, governance, and consultancy, Catherine has a unique ability to bridge the worlds of practical farming, science and global ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) policy.

We explored her insights on the evolving sustainability landscape, the critical role of leadership in agriculture, and her experience with Australian- and global farmers to navigate emerging market and environmental expectations. 

Catherine has worked as an executive, a non-executive director and consulting roles in the agricultural, research and regional development sectors in Australia and internationally. During this time, she has become a proven business leader, communicator and organisational renovator, focused mostly on leadership development, advocacy and delivering innovative solutions for the industries in which she works.

Catherine is currently completing her Nuffield Scholarship with a focus on the impact and influence of global ESG policy on Australian farmers. Understanding the changing ESG and sustainability landscape globally is paramount to ensuring farmers are prepared for changing market options and both public and private sector expectations.

She uses her Rural Science degree to understand the technical aspects of agriculture, while her experience in business, leadership deveopment and governance helps maximise efficiency and outcomes for the organisations for whom she works. Catherine has worked as a beef industry consultant, an entrepreneur, a farmer member based, organisational CEO and has sat on several NFP and public sector boards both in Australia and Internationally.

She received a 2022 Queens Birthday Honors, Order of Australia Medal for contribution to agriculture and rural communities, is UNE’s 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, a graduate of the Australian Rural Leadership Program, a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and was the 2012 WA Rural Women of the Year.

Hear how Catherine’s bold thinking, global perspective, and passion for empowering others continue to shape the future of agriculture and rural communities worldwide. It's a great listen!

The Produce Marketing Association is a key International trade organisation representing companies from every segment of the global fresh produce and floral supply chain. The PMA helps members grow by providing connections that expand business opportunities and increase sales and consumption. Their mission is to connect, inform and deliver industry solutions to enhance their members’ prosperity.

Each month, we will be focusing on a major area of South African fresh produce and discussing that all with the country’s key industry experts so we can learn and appreciate fantastic South African Fresh Produce. This month it’s Berries!

Joining  Lianne Jones – Country Manager Southern Africa, PMA, will be number of key industry experts:

Wian Mouton – Commercial Manager, Fall Creek Farm & Nursery.

Rouxan Jansen van Rensburg – Core Fruit.

Louw Pienaar – BFAP.

Elzette Schutte – Berries ZA Manager.

The leading Agricultural, Ag-Tech, Fresh Food Sectors Trade, Political and Finance Leaders recently came together for a Filmed Debate on The Seismic Issues of the Day at CLAAS UK HQ. “How Do We Collectively Create the Solutions We All Want To See In Such Turbulent Times….?”

The Circle of Leaders is a grassroots initiative, created in the spirit of Beanstalk Global’ s overall mission to support, educate and promote the agricultural and fresh food sectors in the UK and Internationally to help them thrive and grow.

On the panel were:

Andy Allen – CEO – Oasthouse Ventures

Sarah Calcutt – CEO – City Harvest

Dan Cross – MD – Dyson Farms

Thomas Oatey – Surveyor – Fisher German

Nicholas Saphir – Chairman of AHDB

Jaz Singh – CEO – Innovation Agritech Group

Dr Trish Toop – Chief Technical Officer for Agri-Epi Centre

Jack Ward – CEO – British Growers

Chaired by Max MacGillivray of Beanstalk.Global

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our July broadcast we were delighted to be joined by Rebecca Wilson & Lizzie McLaughin, hosts of the Becca & Lizzie Podcast.

They explore the various routes into agriculture with the aim to educate, empower and show that two people from different backgrounds can both find and maintain their place in the industry. Through their podcasts, Becca and Lizzie dive into topical issues, exciting debates and interesting interviews.

Rebecca is the fifth generation to help run the 243-hectare (600-acre) family business in North Yorkshire.

Lizzie is a farming journalist and Head of Commercial Content Solutions at Agriconnect.

Some of the other projects Becca and Lizzie are involved with include speaking events, charity fundraisers, mental health, education and more

Join us as we hear their views on the role of the next generation in farming and agriculture.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our August broadcast, Hampshire pig farmer and Young National Pig Association (YNPA) vice-chair, Flavian Obiero, will be joining us to share his passion for getting people from a non-traditional background interested in agriculture.

Flavian grew up in the coastal town of Kilifi, Kenya, and it had never crossed his mind that pig farming, especially in the UK, would become such an important part of his life. But after an accidental weeks’ work experience, the rest, as they say is history!

Flavian now has twelve years of expertise in the pig industry and is based on a pig unit near Basingstoke. He is particularly interested in marketing and adding value to pork. He is also passionate about increasing diversity in British agriculture.

Knowing what it entails to break through in such a long-established industry, Flavian is passionate about increasing diversity in British agriculture and believes it is a win-win for everyone.

Flavian believes building a brand to market and showcase the sector as progressive and professional is the only way to get the public onside and to extract the value from the market. To achieve this, you need to be able to identify with your customer.

Join us to explore this topic in more detail and to hear about Flavian’s own experiences and challenges, as well why diversity in agriculture is so important.  

We went live with Megan Hudson, General Manager at the Fenland SOIL team to hear about why we should get involved with the event.

Fenland Soil are a dedicated team with farmers at its core to tackle climate issues relating to agriculture and peat in the Fens.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In the September episode of Talking Leaders we are delighted to be joined by Victor Campos, CEO of 3R Ribersolo Soil Lab. We will delve into Victor’s journey from agricultural engineering to spearheading soil health initiatives. He will share his passion, love of innovation, and commitment to building a more sustainable future for agriculture.

Victor, a native of Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil, is a multifaceted individual with a profound passion for agriculture and sustainable practices. Armed with a degree in Agricultural Engineering from UNESP Jaboticabal and an MBA in Agribusiness from PECEGE/ESALQ, Victor’s academic journey laid the foundation for his impactful career in the agricultural sector.

Specialising in soil management at ESALQ and further honing his expertise with a Master’s in Coffee Production from the University of Trieste, Italy, Victor’s commitment to continuous learning and innovation is evident. As the CEO of 3R Ribersolo Soil Lab and a farmer of specialty coffees, avocados, and hops at Fazenda Bella Terra, Victor combines practical experience with scientific rigor to drive sustainable agricultural practices.

In 2018, Victor’s dedication to advancing agricultural knowledge earned him the prestigious Nuffield International Scholarship, supported by Biotrigo, CHT, and Nuffield Scholars. With a focus on improving soil and agricultural analysis techniques, Victor’s research aims to empower producers with insights into more sustainable ways of managing agricultural production.

Beyond his professional endeavours, Victor is driven by a deep-seated belief in the importance of understanding and nurturing the health of our soils and plants. He envisions a future where standardised analysis techniques contribute to the preservation of agricultural ecosystems while enhancing productivity and quality.

As Victor eloquently puts it, “While recognising the importance of developing new products, new technologies, and things that can be sold, I see a lack of people focused on how to systematically measure the quality and health of our soils and plants. There is a lot to learn about the life and health in our soils, and to work together to standardise some of the newer – and cheaper and faster – analysis techniques that are coming into the market.”

With his unwavering commitment to sustainability and innovation, Victor is a driving force in shaping the future of agriculture for generations to come.

In our May Broadcast, we are delighted to have chat with Professor Dawn Arnold of Harper Adams University (HAU), where will be discussing How Harper Adams University Connects & Creates Long Term Benefits for Our Industry Sectors.

Dawn is Professor of Molecular Plant Pathology and Research Director of HAU. She has over 25 years’ experience working with bacterial pathogens and their interaction with their hosts, pea and bean. Her work has involved molecular genetic studies of the genes responsible for controlling host specificity and pathogenesis. Her main area of focus is specifically investigating the role of horizontal gene transfer in the evolution of pathogenicity.

Other areas of work include investigations into tree pathogens, in particular the bacteria that are associated with Acute Oak Decline in the UK. Her work is funded by BBSRC and charities such as Woodland Heritage. She was President of the British Society for Plant Pathology 2019, is a senior editor of Plant Pathology journal and an academic editor for PLoS One (until 2020). She serves on BBSRC Committee B from 2018. She regular publishes in a range of international journals and is invited as a keynote speaker a number of international and national conferences.

Her teaching includes plant pathology, genetics, genomics and molecular biology techniques. At HAU she leads and supports the development of research in many areas of the university strategic research with a focus around ‘Net Zero’ in agriculture and food supply chains in concert with the wider requirements for ‘sustainable agriculture’ (e.g. rural economies, social justice, animal welfare, nutrient cycling and pollution).

She also leads the research pillar of The School of Sustainable Food and Farming at HAU which is supported by our steering partners: Morrisons, McDonalds UK & Ireland and National Farmers Union.

Women in Food and Farming is a group of professional women in food, agriculture and the land-based industries at all stages of their careers, who get together to discuss business issues, support each other via mentorship and advice, and help generate networks of contacts that might be useful to themselves and their businesses.

Founded in 2011 by Christine Tacon CBE, the group started back in 2011 with just five women and has now grown to over 500 members. Christine is known to many as the first Grocery Code Adjudicator and head of the Co-op’s farming business, she has just been appointed Chair of Assured Food Standards which operates the Red Tractor Assurance scheme amongst other roles.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our August broadcast we are delighted to be joined by Alexandra Hayes, Leah Griffiths and Rebecca Marshall to discuss Developing your future farming careers.  They also recently took part in one of the AHDB AgriGrow courses.

The Institute of Food Science & Technology (IFST)  are the UK’s leading professional body for those involved in all aspects of food science and technology. They are an internationally respected independent membership body, supporting food professionals through knowledge sharing and professional recognition.

Their membership comprises individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, from students to experts, working across a wide range of disciplines within the sector.

Jon Poole is Chief Executive of the IFST in the UK. Whilst not a food scientist himself, Jon’s role involves him in most aspects of the food sector from food safety through to sustainability and new product development through to ensuring the pipeline of talent for the next generation of food scientists and technologists. Jon also chairs SALSA, the third-party supplier assurance scheme for small and micro businesses in the UK.

Alongside his role at IFST, Jon works part-time as an independent consultant focussing on organisational development across a wide range of sectors and with a particular focus on leadership competency and development and career development. Jon has written and had published three books on leadership, business coaching and career development.

During 2020-21 Jon chaired one of GFSI’s Working Groups as part of its ‘Race to the Top’ programme, focussing on auditor professional recognition and competence.

Jon joins Max to discuss some key topics ahead of their Spring Conference in May:

• The future technical skills needed within the food sector
• The importance of the role of professional recognition
• Changing consumer perceptions of food science and technology

Beanstalk.Global went live with the South of England Agricultural Society to discuss such an import and ongoing subject. Chaired by – Max MacGillivray of Beanstalk Global & Chris Appleton from the Society, we will also have on the panel:

Justin Ellis, Virgin Money

Ben Taylor, MD Iford Farms Ltd

James Wallis, Estate Manager, Sutton Hall Estates

Sarah Barnes, Creedy Associates

With a range of subjects to cover, we will be discussing the likes of:

• Continual change & adaption to a business to serve your market and maintain profitability.
• Examples on how business has changed in the last 1, 2, and 3 years and what has been learned.
• Opportunities that arise out of change and challenge.
• Key areas of focus to maintain a resilient business

CPI helps make great ideas and inventions a reality. They are a team of intelligent people using advances in science and technology to solve the biggest global challenges in healthcare and sustainability. Through their incredible people and innovation infrastructure, they collaborate with their partners in industry, academia, government, and the investment community to accelerate the development and commercialisation of innovative products.  From health technologies and pharmaceuticals to sustainable food and materials innovations, they turn the entrepreneurial spirit and radical thinking of our people and partners into incredible impact that makes our world a better place. CPI is a not-for-profit deep tech innovation organisation. It connects the dots for effective innovation by bringing together academia, businesses, government and investors to make great ideas a reality. Through access to CPI’s technical and innovation knowledge and scientific facilities, companies work with CPI to commercialise their products at scale and with a clear market focus.

About sustainable food innovation at CPI

Their food solutions services offer support to assist those looking to address global food security challenges while reducing environmental impacts. Their technologies can reduce land use, water consumption, pesticide use, and greenhouse gas emissions with processes that are sustainable and non-seasonal. They are currently working with industry to develop plant-based meat, alternative livestock feed and cultured meat. These new food products and processes are animal-free, aligning with veganism and an increasing acceptance of alternative sustainable foodstuffs.

We go live with Kris Wadrop & Clare Trippett of CPI to find out more.

Kris is the General Manager of commercial operations and Clare is the Chief Technologist of CPI. We cover several wide-ranging subjects including how CPI supports industry and academia with food innovation, the positive increase of cellular agriculture innovations and how plant and animal microbiomes be harnessed to improve food sustainability.

What can be better than a gloriously sunny day at the Great Yorkshire Show chatting to some truly inspiring individuals - You can’t help but feel farming’s future is bright! 

Mark Campbell and Izak van Heerden from the #AgriLeader team at the AHDB, along with Max MacGillivray from Beanstalk.Global were lucky enough to be invited by the Future Farmers of Yorkshire to chat with some of their members at the Great Yorkshire Show. 

They all shared their thoughts on a wide range of topics and how being involved with the programme benefited them, their businesses, and the wider industry. You can hear about their own leadership journeys and their passion for British farming. It is great to collaborate with such an amazing initiative and see the synergies with what AgriLeader is aiming to achieve. 

To find out more about Future Farmers of Yorkshire - https://lnkd.in/eRcGEe3s

Find out more about AgriLeader https://lnkd.in/emdBStp7

Beanstalk Global - www.beanstalk.global

A new promotional campaign, designed to drive purchases of British leeks has recently been launched to great industry applaud. It intends to build on the gains seen during the pandemic, which saw sale volumes up by nearly 9% in 2021. The initiative is backed by a group of sixteen leek growers and seed companies.

This year, the Leek Growers Association has partnered with popular vegan social influencer and food writer Lucy Parker, who posts as @lucy_and_lentils and has over 168,000 followers on Instagram. Her easy to prepare, accessible recipes and extensive reach across a wide range of social media channels, will help the campaign reach and engage with younger audiences.

In addition to social media, a comprehensive media relations PR campaign, targeting national and regional consumer media and news channels is to be rolled out.

Hortnews.com quoted Tim Casey, Leek Growers Association Chairman, as saying: “Increasingly consumers are using social media as a resource for information on food, nutrition and recipes. In fact, recent research* showed that 21% of Britons use Instagram for recipes ideas, four in ten use social media videos to follow a recipe and 26% follow foodie social influencers.”

On the broadcast will be:

Tim Casey. Leek Grower - Bomber County Produce and Chairman of the Leek Growers Association.

Lucy Parks, Lucy and Lentils. @LucyandLentils - Plant based food blogger.  Way back before it was cool Lucy became vegetarian when the word vegan was but a faint whisper and the most exciting thing to hit the market was Linda McCartney veggie sausages! 

Going to university made it abundantly clear she was also a terrible cook. But with a mission to be a little more self-sufficient she turned to social media for guidance. This is where Lucy and Lentils was 'born'. So what started as a hobby for Lucy has now become her job! Splitting her time between sponsored work on Instagram, food photography for brands and independents in Nottingham as well as recipe creating for similar start-up companies. 

FRESHPPACT is the fresh produce industry Impact Hub that works with research partners to find solutions to the biggest shared sustainability challenges that we all face.

Right now, they are looking for solutions that can mitigate pollution caused by plastic used in agricultural mulch, workwear and packaging.

Can you help them find scalable, commercially viable, game-changing solutions that are on the verge of discovery?

They have launched three calls for proposals with over £900,000 worth of funding on offer for three or more solutions that they can test, commercialise and scale-up.

Help us all define the problem, discover the solution and change the world.

Beanstalk.Global is hosting a FRESHPPACT Innovation Showcase Webinar – to discover the latest ideas and research and connect with the experts and innovators.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

This month we are delighted to be joined by 4 times Olympic skier Chemmy Alcott.

Chemmy is an English former World Cup Alpine race ski racer and a fiercely determined and courageous sportswoman. As the only British female skier to ever win a run in a World Cup, she is widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest ever skiers.

Having broken 49 bones, Chemmy is no stranger to adversity and remains committed to inspiring the next generation and educating people from all over the world through sport.

Back by popular demand in the second episode of “Staying on top of your mountain” we delve further into what it took for her to become so successful, despite some major setbacks, and how you can apply some of her tips to stay at the top of your mountain.

Currently, urgent steps are being taken to end the disruption of citrus supplies from South Africa to the EU. Around 1,400 containers are involved with the EU’s decision to seize containers on arrival after the new regulations that came into effect on 14 July.

The South African government and their citrus industry have said that around 900 containers of oranges stranded in European ports should be cleared quickly. The containers are being held because of new EU entry regulations, but South Africa has said that they already comply with the new standards.

The government and citrus industry have maintained that the implementation of the new regulations within three days of their announcement on 21 June, and the expectation that South Africa should immediately comply, was totally unreasonable.

“This crisis is entirely of EU making and is at best a malicious action by an EU official or officials who want to do as much damage as possible to the South African industry,” stated a senior citrus leader.

Citrus Growers Association Chief Executive Justin Chadwick, in reacting to South Africa’s decision to refer the dispute with the EU to the WTO, has stated:

“We simply cannot allow what was clearly nothing more than a politically motivated move by the Spanish to decimate the businesses of thousands of local growers and the livelihoods they support, while threatening the destruction of millions of cartons of top-quality fruit by EU authorities,” he said.

Observers have noted that action at the WTO would take time and would not help to resolve the immediate crisis. “We now have to minimise our losses and every day the matter drags on, the worst it becomes.”

We hear directly from Justin Chadwick to gain a full understanding of the situation and the potential solutions.

Teresa Wickham, produce doyenne and retail phenomenon, is the archetypal pioneer. In 1979 she declared war on French apples and co-founded the Women’s Farming Union, which ran a successful campaign to revitalise the UK fruit industry. By 1990 she was the first woman divisional director of UK retailer Safeway, where she developed the Strathclyde Food Project, bringing together farmers, growers, manufacturers and retailers to close the UK’s trade gap; and later became an adviser to Sainsbury’s board on their £1 billion corporate responsibility programme.

Since then, she has held numerous roles managing and developing areas of business, primarily in food, agribusiness and the retail industry, including governor of the Royal Agricultural College, chairman of the Oxford Farming Conference and non-executive director of New Covent Garden Market Authority. All culminating in the ‘Woman of the Decade in Food Farming and Innovation’ accolade, awarded in India by the Women’s Economic Forum in 2018.

Today, although no longer consulting and into her 70s, she continues to energise and influence the industry as president of the National Fruit Show (NFS), as member of the Harvard PAPSAC Committee, and as a regular broadcaster for the BBC on retail and consumer issues.

Wickham’s trail-blazing journey in produce began when she married Kent fruit farmer, Robin, at 21, having trained as a Cordon Bleu cook and just embarked on a teaching career at Le Cordon Bleu London. The transition to rural life in Brenchley in the late 1960s was nonetheless a joyful one for the young Wickham, the second-eldest of nine children to entrepreneurial Irish parents.

“A farm is such a lovely environment to live in. It was wonderful,” she says. “My husband worked for his father, growing every soft fruit and top fruit under the sun. My mother-in-law was Swedish and a fabulous horticulturalist. I worked on the farm and ran a 100-strong fruit picking team. It was idyllic, and my in-laws were hugely supportive.”

Women typically worked behind the scenes in English farming in those days, says Wickham. So, in 1979, when she and two female fruit-grower friends, Anne Humphreys and Margaret Charrington, decided to “declare war on French apples”, co-founded the Women’s Farming Union and organised mass protests in London and Brussels from her kitchen table, they hit national headlines.

“The UK had joined the European Common Market (EEC) and British apple growers hadn’t realised what impact that would have and were now under threat,” Wickham explains. “The large and well-organised French grower cooperatives could send their fruit to the UK without quotas, and Britain’s burgeoning supermarket sector was delighted to be able to procure such large volumes of homogenous fruit. The smaller-scale British growers, on the other hand, weren’t up on quality control and needed time to adjust. Meanwhile, British growers were convinced that French growers were getting financial help from their government, which under EEC rules was illegal.

“Anne, Margaret and I launched a campaign fighting French apples on several fronts,” she continues, speaking from her apple farm near Tonbridge that she helped save. “We gathered evidence that the French apple growers were indeed cheating and presented it to the MEPs; we set up a consumer campaign promoting British apples; we implemented two surveillance schemes – one at wholesale and one at retail level – where we recruited grower and consumer volunteers to monitor and report back on the quality and availability of British apples; and we organised [Women’s Farming Union] protests.

“Margaret was brilliant on TV, Anne had the ideas, and I led the demos,” Wickham adds with delightful nonchalance. “It was the early 80s, and people weren’t used to seeing farmers’ wives demonstrating, so we made The Nine O’Clock News and Not The Nine O’Clock News. We’d joke that, at school,...

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our June broadcast, we have joining us Bruce Daisley - writer/podcaster of the critically acclaimed 'Eat Sleep Work Repeat'.

Bruce is a best selling author and technology leader.  He has become regarded as one the most respected thought leaders on the subject of workplace culture and the future of work. He spent 12 years running Twitter in Europe and previously YouTube in the UK.

His book on improving workplace culture, Eat Sleep Work Repeat was the Sunday Times number one business bestseller in spring 2019. The Financial Times made it Book of the Month and it was shortlisted for CMI Management Book of the Year.

In his business career Bruce  was awarded ‘Greatest Individual Contribution to New Media’ by New Media Age.

He has been rated as the top leader in the UK tech sector by Campaign Magazine. In a prestigious survey of CEOs and MDs, in 2020 Bruce was again named the “Fantasy Hire” that most leaders would like to make – his fourth time of winning the accolade (other names placed included Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Martin Sorrell). He regularly ranks as the top-rated speaker at conferences in the US and the UK.

Bruce grew up on a council estate in Birmingham. He started his working career in fast food restaurants to help him pay his way to become the first member of his family to go to university. After dozens of rejections, Bruce landed his first career role by taking a risk and drawing a cartoon CV of his life and mailed it to 50 employers. 

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a bi-monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our December broadcast we were delighted to be joined by Bonnie Huval – former space shuttle and Spacelab engineer from the NASA Johnson Space Center to discuss (amongst other things) “What does it take to get someone to the moon?”

For a while, she led the team that tested space shuttle communication systems to find out exactly how they would behave under every conceivable mission condition. She also wrote some of the software to handle life science experiment data from Spacelab.

After leaving the space programme, she became an independent consultant. She is often involved in complex, strategically important projects with daunting technology and business process challenges. Bonnie has a knack for solving problems by looking at them upside down or sideways.

Join our broadcast for an insight into the world of a former space shuttle engineer and to be inspired to look at problems through a different lens.

We know how important it is to be inspired by both big businesses and individuals, which is why we are excited to present Talking Leaders, a monthly initiative from the AHDB which will see a series of inspirational speakers share their life experiences and deliver impactful stories to the AgriLeader community.

In our May broadcast we are delighted to be joined by Graham Wilkinson, CEO of the AHDB to discuss his reflections from the first 90 days as CEO and how that is impacting how he rolls out his vision to inspire and promote British farmers and growers.

Graham is an experienced agriculturalist with a deep understanding of best-practice production methods – particularly across the dairy, beef, lamb, pork and poultry sectors. He has gained considerable practical knowledge from his time working on his family farm as well as for Tesco PLC, Arla Foods and now the AHDB. 

Prior to joining AHDB in March this year, Graham led the Global Agriculture team at Arla Foods, supporting over 8,500 cooperative farmer owners across seven markets and managing the delivery of innovative commercial milk concepts on farm. During his extensive career at Arla, he worked in both UK and global roles, helping to steer and develop a data-driven, on-farm sustainability agenda, both for specific commercial customers and the wider cooperative.  

He has also spent time in the retail sector at Tesco, joining the company in 2011 as Agriculture Manager. During this time, Graham was integral to the implementation of Tesco’s Sustainable Farming Groups within its MFPE category before moving across to the dairy category. Working alongside Tesco’s Sustainable Dairy Group members, he helped develop the company’s agriculture policy and strategy for the dairy category while collaborating with the Commercial and Technical Teams. Graham also developed the Tesco Future Farmer Foundation’, which was established to support new entrants and young farmers to launch their careers in agriculture. 

In his role as CEO of the AHDB, Graham is looking forward to promoting and unleashing the full potential of British farmers and growers for the future and is absolute in the view that British agriculture is among the best in the world.