Future Biogas Launches Independent Agricultural Board

The board will provide independent expertise, critique, and corroboration for the project, focusing on a broad range of subjects including sustainable farming, scientific research and policy. This will ensure a wide spectrum of perspectives and specialisms are considered in the scrutiny applied to the project’s methodology, underlying science and practical application.

The objectives of the board are to:

• Provide independent expertise, scrutiny and corroboration

• Support bioenergy crop production as part of diverse crop rotations

• Engage with authorities to ensure progression and delivery of the project

• Advise Future Biogas on specific subjects

• Translate and filter high level theory into tangible outputs

• Provide a forum for knowledge transfer, bridging R&D and practical application

The board is made up of:

Professor Tina Barsby is the Chair of the Agricultural Advisory Board of Future Biogas, having previously been a Non-executive Director. Tina is committed to supporting sustainable and profitable agriculture, and from her background in genetics has developed a broad understanding of farming and the related industry, having worked for and with farmers and landowners for the past four decades.

She is internationally recognised for scientific achievements in crop science and is Honorary Professor of Agricultural Botany at the University of Cambridge. Following 18 years with the plant breeder Limagrain, in 2008 she became the first female CEO of NIAB, the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, from which she retired in 2021. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, and a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society of England.

Tina was awarded the OBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List for services to agricultural science and biotechnology.

In addition to her role with Future Biogas, Tina chairs the Farm Data Principles Ltd. and she is employed part-time as Agricultural and Scientific Advisor to the G’s group of companies. She has extensive experience as a Trustee and is currently a member of the John Innes Foundation and the Lawes Trust.

Ben is the Head of Agronomy for Dyson Farming Ltd, which as an organization is known for its innovation in food production, as well as sustainable and environmentally conscious farming, knowledge sharing and renewable energy.

Ben graduated from Harper Adams University in 2006 with a 1st Class BSc Hons. He completed his BASIS Graduate Diploma in Agronomy and Environmental Management and recently took part in the Institute of Agronomy Agricultural Management Leadership Development Programme in 2003.

By qualifications, Hugh is a Rural Practice surveyor [MRICS/FAAV] [Land Agent]. He is co-owner of Hub Rural Ltd, which is based near Spalding, South Lincolnshire. The Hub team, which is now six, concentrates on delivering a range of services to clients including land agency, farm business consultancy and strategic/non-exec type input. Typical clients are usually large, complex and multi-faceted rural asset-based businesses involved in farming, food & fuel production and rural diversification.

Hugh’s day job includes helping to run Hub, alongside undertaking a mixture of professional activity, but with a focus on Trustee, Chair and Non-exec roles within a number of client businesses and or their families.

Belinda is driven by the belief that innovation is a vital driver for agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability and economic growth. Starting her career in research (let’s talk crop diseases, and starch production in peas and potatoes), she then 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 efficiency of communication and understanding between them, 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 and in 2019 was named national Networking Group of the Year at the UK SME Business Awards.

Belinda is also a Non-Executive Director of Agrimetrics, one of the UK’s Agri-Tech Centres, and was a member of the Council of BBSRC-UKRI (2015-2021). In 2021 she was awarded the Sir Timothy Colman Prize from the Royal Norfolk Agricultural Association for “outstanding leadership in the agri-tech sector”.

James Goodley has farmed in the Stiffkey Valley in North Norfolk for the past 12 years.

Through expanded botany, reduced cultivations and allowing soil to become the driver of production, he has systematically reduced his farm’s dependency on chemical inputs.

Continuing to grow crops for both food and energy, James hopes to continue to improve the sustainability of the family farming enterprise that he owns and runs. James has grown both maize and rye for Future Biogas since the Egmere plant in North Norfolk was built and commissioned in 2013.

More recently, James has become a speaker in the sustainable agronomy sector, speaking at events such as Groundswell among others.

Dr Julian Little FRSB has 35+ years’ experience in plant science and agriculture and currently helps individuals and organisations improve their communications and public affairs activity, their media and political outreach confidence, and to help affect genuine management change where it is really needed.

Until 2020, Julian was Head of Communications & Public Affairs for Bayer Crop Science in the UK. He worked initially in company R&D as a plant and fungal biochemist both in the UK and France, moved into project management, and then into science communication. The latter involved multi-stakeholder (media, political, retailer, NGO, etc) outreach around what was then the ground-breaking work on GM field trials here in the UK, defending the company’s insecticide portfolio, and more recently on bee-friendly farming practices. A regular commentator on BBC TV and radio, as well in print media, he has also submitted written and given oral evidence to a large number of Parliamentary Select Committees.

Julian was long-term Chair of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council and headed the communications groups of both EuropaBio and CropLife UK for nearly ten years.

Today, he is working with a number of companies and organisations including public affairs at the Norwich Research Park, leading the communications efforts at AlphaBio Control, coordinating the newly created Farm Data Principles Ltd. and up to very recently, change management at the John Innes Centre. He is an active member of the agricultural advisory group for Future Biogas, the advisory group of Science for Sustainable Agriculture, and was a recent advisory panel member for Agri-TechE.

Matt grew up on his family’s sheep & arable farm near Christchurch in the South Island of New Zealand. After attending Lincoln University (NZ) attaining a Diploma in Farm Management and a B. Com in Agricultural Management he then joined ANZ bank as an Agri bank manager in 2005. Since then, Matt has run large customer portfolios and Regional Ag Banking teams for both Rabobank and ANZ Bank with specialisations in irrigation & farm syndication financing across various locations in NZ, along with offshore lending projects in the Pacific Islands, SE Asia and Australia.

Matt is a current trustee for a family-owned livestock farming business and a former director of a farmer owned wool marketing, procurement and exporting business.

In Feb 2020, Matt joined Oxbury Bank Plc as Head of Farmer Relationships and has assisted the business in gaining its banking license through to its successful launch in Feb 2021. Since then, he has put together a successful national sales force and has led the team to major lending and revenue milestones.

Having grown up in Wiltshire on a farm managed by his father, agriculture has always played an important and central role in Oliver’s life. Having gained a diploma in Agriculture at Lackham College and graduated from Harper Adams university with a degree in Agri Food Marketing, Oliver went on to travel and work on farms in New Zealand and Australia. Upon returning to the UK, Oliver has since managed farms at Holkham, Thelverton and latterly the Bradford Estates.

With sustainability and the environment playing an ever-increasing role in farming, Oliver has been immersed within regenerative practice in order to carefully balance margin alongside farming for the future. Oliver strives to facilitate peer-to-peer learning and encourage the younger generation in order to strengthen the agricultural industry.

As focus shifts to sustainable practice, Oliver believes that incorporating anaerobic digesters into farming systems will ultimately improve efficiency by creating renewable energy, effectively utilising all outputs and producing additional organic matter. Ultimately supporting a circular farming system.

In his role as Head of Climate Mitigation Science for Defra, Harley provides scientific support to evidence-based net zero policy making and manages the research interests across Natural Resources: Agriculture, Forestry, Biomass, Peat; Waste, Wate Water and F-Gases.

Previously he was the lead on agricultural emissions at AHDB. Harley was also a farm surveyor, an environmental policy advisor for Defra, and a bioeconomy advisor for DECC (now DESNZ).

He is responsible for understanding policy issues affecting the land-based sectors, as well as the emissions from and mitigation potential across the sectors. Harley is a Chartered Biologist, and a Member of the Institute of Agricultural Managers.

The board met for the first time on 20th October last year and will continue to meet on a quarterly basis. Updates and key actions from the Board will continue to be posted on the Future Biogas website.

If you have any further questions about the Future Biogas agricultural board, please contact nick.whitfield@futurebiogas.com