Speakers from across the country and overseas, covering some of the MOST EXCITING farming and food production initiatives of our time.
Our 2025 Line-Up
Welcome and Introduction
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Dr Belinda Clarke OBE
Conference Chair
Belinda is driven by the belief that innovation is a vital driver for agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability and economic growth. Starting her career in crop research, she developed experience at the interface between industry, innovation and government, and became determined to bring farmers, researchers and technology developers closer together to improve the effectiveness of communication and mutual understanding, and to accelerate the adoption of new innovations on farms. For the last decade she has led the creation and expansion of the award-winning membership network which is Agri-TechE. With members from across the UK and internationally, Agri-TechE is one of the largest and longest-established agri-tech innovation ecosystems in Europe. In 2019 it was named national Networking Group of the Year at the UK SME Business Awards and a finalist in the Innovation category for Trade Association of the Year 2024. Belinda is a Trustee of Niab and a member of the Royal Society’s Science, Industry and Translation Committee. In 2021 she was awarded the Sir Timothy Colman Prize by the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association for “outstanding leadership in the agri-tech sector” and received an OBE for services to agri-technologies and farming in the Kings Birthday Honours List 2024.
Opening Keynote Address
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Achieving more Value from our Land
Jeremy Moody
Secretary and Adviser, The Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV)
Secretary and Adviser to the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) since 1995, supporting professional advice to farmers and owners across the UK and liaising with governments on the new policies developing across the UK. Writing and speaking widely on policy and practice, he handles the many issues covered by the CAAV including agricultural tenancy and land occupation issues, taxation, valuation, planning, the competition for rural land use, climate change, energy and environmental issues. He analysed the effects of the October 2024 Budget’s Inheritance Tax proposals, gave evidence to the Commons EFRA Committee and the House of Lords and engaged with Government, farming and other organisations. Looking at a period of rapid change, current work includes improving farming profitability and productivity without direct support from government, with more extreme weathers and the darkening international situation as well as the government’s planning, land use and energy actions as they affect the countryside. He is an Assembly member of the European Group of Valuers’ Associations (TEGoVA) and Vice Chairman of the European Valuation Standards Board.
Henry Astor
Owner of Bruern Farms
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Joe Howard
Director Howard Farms and Grass Roots Farming Ltd
Joe was brought up on an intensive arable and veg farm in Nothinghamshire and always had the ambition to be involved in the family farm. After Graduating from Nottingham University with a 2.1 in Agriculture in 2007 he went straight into a hands on role in the veg side of the business. Joe became a partner in 2009 and took on the root veg management and has retained their majority share of the UK chantenay market. Joe developed a passion for livestock while working in New Zealand in 2003 and wanted to bring this home into a mixed farming approach to drive soil sustainability and thus business sustainability; a view which is very much shared by the rest of the family. Joes father Max introduced grass into the arable rotation and started their Angus suckler herd in 2004 which peaked at calving 400 in 2020. In 2014, Joe developed Lundie Farming Ltd a grass based spring calving dairy milking 600 cows near Dundee. The native beef cross calves from this dairy were reared and finished on Joes Nottinghamshire farm, paving the transition into the dairy cross beef model. By 2021 all the suckers were to be replaced by dairy cross beef and Joe now finishes 2000 a year into Dovecote Park and Grassroots. Joe became a shareholder and director of Grassroots Farming Ltd, a beef outlet marketing regeneratively produced beef into premium restaurant markets in 2024.
Case Study 1
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Johnny Wake is the Managing Partner of Courteenhall Farms, a diverse rural estate business in Northamptonshire which he has grown substantially since taking over in 2013. He transitioned from his original career as a medical doctor and has overseen the journey to regenerative agriculture, promoting soil health and biodiversity and has led Courteenhall into a large Higher Tier scheme with Natural England. As part of his drive to make farming more environmentally and financially sustainable, he co-founded the Tove Valley Cluster Farm group and founded and chairs the Central England region of Environmental Farmers Group. He is a Trustee of LEAF and recently finished terms on the Country Land & Business Association Policy Committee, and the Wildlife Farms and Estates England Committee. He has set up and chairs an educational charity at Courteenhall for local schools called New Leaf Learning and has made Courteenhall the first farming business in the UK to become a member of the Good Business Charter. He is a Patron of HomeStart Daventry & South Northants and a Deputy Lieutenant of Northamptonshire. He was recently awarded The British Farming Awards Sustainability Award, the Royal Agricultural Society’s Bledisloe Gold Medal for excellence in land management, and Cranfield University’s Entrepreneur Alumni Award.
Dr Johnny Wake
Chairman Environmental Farmers Group
Future needs for future farming systems
Jules Pretty
Emeritus Professor of Environment and Society at University of Essex
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After a PhD at the Plant Breeding Institute in Cambridge and a postdoc at Harvard, JJ worked 1983-8 at an early US agbiotech company, AGS. At the Sainsbury Lab (TSL) on the JIC site in Norwich since 1988, he is a leading researcher in plant disease resistance. His lab works on plant immune receptor mechanisms, their diversity and their deployment. The recent Genetic Technologies (Precision Breeding) Act is enabling his team to develop precision bred potato varieties that are resistant to late blight and to two important viruses (PVY and PLRV). He is an outspoken advocate of modern genetic solutions to crop disease problems and led a recent policy briefing https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/projects/gene-tech/genetically-modified-organisms-regulation-policy-briefing.pdf. He co-founded and is a Director of norfolkplantsciences.com and norfolkhealthyproduce.com that brings engineered purple tomatoes to market and is also a Director of BioPotatoes.com. JJ was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2003, an international member of US National Academy of Sciences in 2015 and a DL for Norfolk in 2023.
Emily Rout
Head of Strategic Accounts and Industry at Collaboration Mondra
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Tom Pearson
Farms and Estate Manager at Raynham Farms
Tom Pearson is Farms and Estate Manager at the Raynham Estate in Norfolk. Growing up in a farming family, he developed an early passion for agriculture and has worked in Norfolk for the past ten years. At Raynham, Tom works to evolve farming practices that respond to political change, weather volatility, and rising costs, with a strong focus on attention to detail and achieving marginal gains. He is particularly interested in developing future farming systems that remain profitable while delivering improved environmental outcomes through the use of technology and data.
Case Study 2
David Cross
Tenant Farmer, Glovers Farm
David farms a tenanted family farm in north-west Norfolk and is a participant in the AHDB Monitor Farm programme (2021–2025). The farm historically operated a conventional arable rotation focused on sugar beet, wheat, and barley, but in recent years has undergone a significant transition in both enterprise mix and management approach. The business has invested heavily in livestock infrastructure, including the installation of an “alleyway” grazing system across approximately 90% of the farm. This has enabled a shift towards integrated livestock systems with a strong focus on improving whole-farm profitability, enhancing soil health, and developing labour-efficient grazing enterprises. The farm sits on sandy loam over chalk, making it particularly vulnerable to drought. This risk is managed through the use of decision-support tools such as Farmax, alongside the adoption of drought resilient plant like lucerne and fodder beet and ongoing on-farm trials to optimise forage performance. Current enterprises include a multiplier flock of Easydam ewes producing rams for sale, contract-reared cattle, and pasture-raised laying hens, with eggs sold direct to local customers. Most of the farm is now entered into SFI and Countryside Stewardship schemes, and David has recently joined the Regenerate Outcomes programme, combining carbon sales with mentoring to support continued system improvement.
Keynote Address
Dr Rebecca Harding
Supply Chain Economist
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Dr. Rebecca Harding is CEO of the Centre for Economic Security and a leading authority on international trade economics. She is a Director of Sovereign Resilience Finance and serves in strategic advisory roles including Chief Economic Adviser to the Defence Security and Resilience Bank Development Group. Through her strategic advisory business, Rebeccanomics, she specializes in sustainable trade, digital trade and defence and security finance. In 2022 she received the "Net Zero Entrepreneur of the Year" award at the Scale-up Group's Enterprise Awards. Harding has built three data-driven technology businesses in digital trade and ESG. Her distinguished academic career includes positions as Senior Research Fellow at the British Foreign Policy Group, Head of Corporate Research at Deloitte, and Senior Fellow at London Business School. She previously served as Chief Economist at the Work Foundation and at UK Finance, and has advised the Treasury Select Committee and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Entrepreneurship. She is a member of the Alphen Group, a Senior Associate at Earendel Associates and an Associate Partner of T3i Partners. She authored "The World at Economic War: How to Rebuild Security in a Weaponized Global Economy" (2025) which was in Martin Wolf’s top books of 2025 list in the Financial Times. Additionally she has co-authored several influential books on trade and geostrategy, including “The Weaponization of Trade: the Great Unbalancing of Politics and Economics” in 2017. Her media presence includes regular appearances on BBC, Bloomberg, Sky News, and CNBC.
Landing the Message
Enabling farmers to use their voice for positive change in UK farming
Olly Harrison
Head of Agriculture Natural England
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Raised on a family farm in South Lincolnshire, Peter studied Agribusiness Management at Wye College before returning home to specialise in potato and daffodil production alongside nature. In 2018, attending the Worshipful Company of Farmers’ Advanced Agri-Business Management Course was transformative, leading him to leadership roles, including the NFU Potato Policy Group, the OFC Emerging Leaders Programme, and earning a Nuffield Farming Scholarship. A member of the Worshipful Company of Farmers, Peter also serves on its education committee and captains their shooting team. After completing the IAgrM Leadership Programme last year, Peter joined Natural England as Head of Agriculture. He collaborates with farmer organisations, industry groups, eNGO’s and policymakers to integrate sustainable practices, ensuring resilient and productive agriculture that supports nature recovery.
Amy Jackson
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Case Study 3
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Keynote Closing Address
Making Sense of it all
Minette Batters
Former President of the NFU, Member of the house of lords
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Minette Batters was the first woman to be elected President of the National Farmers’ Union in 113yrs. She’s represented the interests of over 46,000 farming businesses across England and Wales through unprecedented times, navigating the challenges of Brexit, Covid 19 and the war in Ukraine. During this time, she worked with four Prime Ministers - three of them in one year - and six Defra Secretaries of State. She stood down from the post in February 2024. Campaigning about the importance of British food and farming and its ability to achieve Net Zero has been a key driver for Minette. In 2020 she led the NFU on one of the most successful campaigns ever seen, bringing together a coalition of chefs, including Jamie Oliver, farmers, environmentalists, consumer groups and animal welfare experts - resulting in over one million people signing the NFU food standards petition. Minette also co-founded ‘Ladies in Beef’ and the Great British Beef Week. She has regularly engaged with different media, including frequent appearances on the ‘Today’ programme, ‘Question Time’, ‘Any Questions’, ‘Desert Island Discs’, Woman’s Hour and other national print and broadcast media. She is currently writing a monthly piece for Country Life magazine. Minette is mother to twins and is a tenant farmer, on the Longford Estate near Salisbury, Wiltshire. She began farming in 1998 having sold her house and negotiated the farm business tenancy, starting with fifteen beef cows but fulfilling a lifetime ambition to farm. Today the farm has a Spring and Autumn calving Aberdeen Angus beef herd, arable crops and a few sheep. The business is widely diversified, with a wedding and events venue in a 17th century tithe barn, holiday cottages, and winter grazing for polo ponies, alongside a recently restored walled garden growing native British flowers. Minette trained as a Cordon Bleu chef, and was a former amateur jockey, riding 30 point to point winners, alongside working for champion National Hunt racehorse trainer David Elsworth. She’s an ambassador for Farm Africa and a passionate advocate and fundraiser for the Junior Diabetic Research Foundation. She’s run in four marathons, raising over £100,000 for charity. In 2021 Minette was made a Deputy Lieutenant to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and in July 2024 she was made a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. Minette was assigned, by means of a Direct Ministerial Appointment by the Rt Hon Steve Reed MP, to lead a review of farm profitability for Defra. This review ran from April 2025 until the end of October 2025, and reported back to the Rt Hon Emma Reynolds MP.