Mark Tufnell

Mark trained as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse and owns and manages a traditional estate in the Cotswolds.

The farm is mainly arable incorporating key conservation measures for wildlife and enhancing biodiversity.

It is part of the Jordans Farm Partnership and a member of LEAF Marque. In addition, there are a number of residential properties and commercial lets.

Mark has been actively involved in the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) for over 20 years at branch and regional level, then chairing the Business and Rural Economy committee, Agriculture & Land Use committee and latterly the Taxation committee.

Nick Allen

Nick Allen has a deep understanding of the British meat and livestock industries having previously worked in market development roles for the Meat and Livestock Commission, AHDB and the English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX).

As CEO of the British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) he is able to pull together his connections from across farming, the meat industry, retail and government to forge a more collaborative approach to the UK’s food challenges. As well as his role with BMPA, Nick runs a farm in Hampshire.

George Eustice

George Eustice was Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 13 February 2020 to 6 September 2022.

He was previously Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) from 11 May 2015 to 13 February 2020.

He was elected as the Conservative MP for Camborne and Redruth in 2010. George served on the EFRA Select Committee from 2010.

Coming from a farming background, his family still run a fruit farm, restaurant and farm shop in Cornwall where they also have a herd of South Devon cattle and the country’s oldest herd of the rare breed of pig, the British Lop.

The family have shown a keen interest in educating children about farming and have opened their farm to 3,000 schoolchildren a year.

Tom MacMillan

As Creak Chair, Professor MacMillan's role is to inform national and international policies on land, the environment and food.

Tom is a founding Director of the Centre for Effective Innovation in Agriculture and Deputy Director of The National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE). He is expert advisor to the Food, Farming & Countryside Commission and was one of the team who supported Henry Dimbleby to develop the National Food Strategy.

Tom joined us from the Soil Association, where he was Director of Innovation. There, he founded the Innovative Farmers network, which supports practical 'field labs' by farmers and led an overhaul of organic standards.

From 2003-2011 he was Executive Director of the Food Ethics Council, which received the BBC Food & Farming Derek Cooper Award for its Food & Fairness Inquiry. He has served on various advisory groups and boards, including for the Cabinet Office Food Matters report, ScienceWise, the BBSRC, Sustain and the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership.

He has a PhD in geography from the University of Manchester, where he investigated the use and abuse of science in food regulation.

Rob Yorke

Rob Yorke is an environmental dialogue broker, rural chartered surveyor, moderator and broadcaster with over 25 years of experience covering diverse issues from forestry and farming to wildfire and conservation to hunting and rewilding.

He seeks to create space for interdisciplinary conversations, has 133 letters published in The Times on rural issues, interviewed Gove, Monbiot, Goldsmith, Benton, and once fronted a five-part survival angling TV series (‘Reel Wars’).

Visit Rob's website.

Jo Franklin

Jo graduated from Harper Adams with a BSc in Agriculture and Crop Production. She went to work as an agronomist for ProCam, then Agrovista, and advised in the field for over 10 years before giving it all up to farm in her own right.

Jo ran her family’s arable farm and contracting business alongside her agronomy for many years until the opportunity for Jo and her partner Rob came along to set up on their own in 2014. Jo and Rob set up ‘Kaiapoi’, a mixed sheep and arable farm in North Hertfordshire. They now have a 2500 New Zealand Romney stud flock, 800 acres of permanent pasture and 1600 acres of arable cropping – land which the sheep occupy in the winter.

Jo completed a Nuffield Farming Scholarship in 2010 and presented a paper titled ‘Soil and Crop Nutrition’. Jo has transformed her tenanted farms into truly sustainable and regenerative farming models.

In 2016 Jo and Rob were runners-up in Farmers Weekly Sheep Farmer of the Year. In 2018, Jo completed the Worshipful Company of Farmers Advanced Business Management course and, in 2022, Jo will open a sheep dairy. Jo and Rob have three children, Maggie, Evie and George.