Welcome! Please introduce yourself

Good to meet everyone the other day and thanks for letting me film everything and look forward to more days out, and decisions. I'm a documentary film-maker and making a film centred around the Cherry farm for a year....

Hi, I'm Karl. I'm the editor of Farmers Weekly magazine. I'm very interested in anything that involves the wider public more closely in farming, and in initiatives exploring new ways to farm. I was disappointed not to be able to come to the on-farm day last week. I'm sharing the place with my wife Jackie, who is also very interested in food and farming - she's been a campaigner on food issues for many years and worked for a while at Sustain, the food and farming charity.

Morning all, I'm Matthew. I'm a science presenter (e.g. http://www.facebook.com/ScienceInTheBath ) and a musician (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2CWWyrreNU ).

I'm extremely passionate about sustainability, and I'm hoping to learn a lot from this here field of ours.

Hello, I'm Sinead,

Like Niki, I'm a geologist by training and am currently exploring means of bringing soil science and geology back together again, as well as trying to build engagement and understanding about our natural resources as a whole through art and education - so from the ground, through to the product, and into re-use (ideally eliminating waste!!!).

I also write and photograph on my blog Fenton Eats which I use as a means of exploring the food system and sharing my journey of overcoming anxieties around food. So I was really interested by this project as a means of re-conceptualising our relationship to the food system, through diverse collaboration and getting people involved, whilst also learning more about what it really takes to grow our crops!

Looking forward (and feeling very humbled) to be on this journey with you all!

Sinead

Hi everyone, I'm Harry
I work on agriculture policy for a conservation NGO and before that I used to organise the Oxford Real Farming Conference, as well as working on other projects with farmers (Pasture-Fed Livestock Association) and politicians (the APPG on Agroecology).

I feel there is a shortage of inspiring models for sustainable arable farming compared to in horticulture and livestock, where I have seem some great projects exploring new ways of doing things, new markets and better engagement with the public.

I'm hoping to learn a lot about how the cycle of crop production works, as well as the risks involved!

Hello,

I'm business development manager at OF&G (http://ofgorganic.org/) who are the largest certifier of organic land in the UK. I organise an event each year, National Organic Combinable Crops (http://ofgorganic.org/events/national-organic-combinable-crops-nocc-2017/) which we started ten years ago with the aim of helping commercial cereal growers in the transition to and maintenance of a system approach to food production using rotation cropping with lower energy inputs and having more focus on better supply chain relations while running successful food businesses. Healthy soils, healthy food, healthy people.
I've been working in people-centred food commerce (as opposed to profit-centred) for thirty years. For me its about connecting with my food and those who have worked to put it on my table.
And I'm very pleased to be a part of OurField Weston.

Hi I am Averil, Sorry for not being at the first meeting. Look forward to meeting you at the next. I run a small corporate branding company in Cornwall and as you can see from the picture I have horses. I have a keen interest in where my food comes from and its journey before it hits my table. I have just taken on an allotment plot to experiment myself. Looking forward to being involved in this venture.

Hi, I'm Catherine
I am French, living in North West London since the 80s and working as a film editor. I am working on a documentary about the Cherry Farm and conservation agriculture (with my very talented film school friend Fiona Cunningham-Reid directing).
Already because of research for the doc, I have changed the way I shop for food and am very keen to learn more about agriculture and how to promote better food for all.

Hello! We are Tamsyn and Matthew Forsyth and we are acting as one vote. We are currently (but not for much longer) working in the city a science writer and marketeer; Tamsyn also has a background in nutrition and is very interested in the microbiome and how nutrition affects its status. We are soon going to be running a small cafe deli and food website based in Oxfordshire, which is primarily concerned with the end of the chain where the product meets the customers. Essential to this business is ensuring we are offering nutritious produce packed with flavour, and we are concerned that some modern agricultural techniques are eliminating both of these. We were very attracted to this project as it is a model that allows us to get more involved with the production process from it's beginning, and importantly the risk sharing allows farmers to investigate growing methods and crops that are better for both the consumer and the environment. Finally connecting and engaging a community with the food they eat is really important to us and this seems like a fantastic project for doing this. We are excited for the journey!

Hi everyone! It was great meeting many of you two Sundays ago. I'm Emerson, and I've over the past several years run a consulting firm with projects (mostly in the education sector) across Canada, the UK, the US and Israel. I'm born and raised in Canada, where I did a BA in Sciences Politiques and subsequently, a M.Phil at Cambridge University focused primarily on Nussbaum's capabilities approach, social entrepreneurship and the notion of social autonomy. I'm now doing a D.Phil at Oxford University focused on vocational pathways, where the British farming will play an important role in my research. I'm pretty actively involved in Canadian public policy as a Fellow of Canada's Public Policy Forum and write for several newspapers/media publications such as the Telegraph, Globe & Mail and New York Times. One of my most interesting clients in past years has been Olds College, one of Canada's leading agriculture post-secondary research institutions. It is through Olds College that I became semi-involved in agriculture, and have since been working to connect Canadian and Israeli agricultural leaders (and would like to bring what is learned through OurField back into the Canadian context). I'm keen to meet each of you and to engage with you in this process over the next year.