Meet our board

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  Ben RaskinChair

  Ben has worked in horticulture for more than 20 years and has a wide range of practical commercial growing experience. For the Soil Association, he provides growers at all levels of production with technical, marketing, policy, supply chain and networking support. He also leads on their Agroforestry work. Ben is an author of gardening books for children and grownups. He is also currently implementing a 200-acre agroforestry planting in Wiltshire. Ben also co-chairs the newly formed Defra Edibles Horticulture Roundtable and sits on the boards of the Organic Growers Alliance.

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  Gareth DaviesTreasurer

  I am a passionate advocate of local food production and helped to set up Canalside Community Food CSA. Apart from being a member of the steering committee I helped establish an orchard and do the book keeping, finances and business planning. Recently I helped to set up Five Acre Community Farm on land rented from Garden Organic. I have also worked as a researcher with Garden Organic/HDRA looking at weeds, pest and diseases and varieties among other topics.

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  Charlotte Barry

  I spend a lot of time on my hands and knees growing and harvesting vegetables, as well as cooking and eating them! I’m a founder member of Camel CSA in Cornwall, set up on two acres of rented land near Wadebridge in 2008. So I’ve plenty of hands-on experience running a community veg box scheme and working with volunteers. I also kept and bred poultry for many years. My specific skills are in media and digital communications, arising from my career as journalist, renewable energy publicist, media trainer anduniversity lecturer. Follow Camel CSA on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

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  Dr Jasmine Black

  Jasmine works with farmers, growers, researchers and policy makers to create more sustainable ways of producing food and enhancing above and below ground biodiversity. She is currently undertaking this work at the Countryside and Community Research Institute, and was previously on the Innovative Farmers Programme (Soil Association). She has a PhD in bulk and molecular soil organic carbon dynamics across rainforest-savannah boundaries in the Amazon, Guyana. She has also lived in Japan working on an organic farming social project for the largest organic cotton company in the country, as well as with natural agriculture cooperatives and farms throughout Japan and in Japanese gardening. Jasmine is interested in how different cultures use and understand soil across the world. She is passionate about spreading the importance of soil health through theatrical storytelling, interactive workshops, writing and illustration.

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  Matthew Whitney

  With a background including permaculture, landscaping and sustainability business management, Matt brings a varied skillset to the board. For his Environmental Policy MSc thesis Matt researched how collective action amongst farmers can deliver environmental benefits.

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  Mick Marston

  Mick has previously worked for the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens and for the Soil Association in Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. He is a founder member of Gibside Community Farm

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  Hannah Lamb

  Hannah is Head Grower and Co-Director of Yorkshire Edible Flowers in Doncaster which runs a CSA Veg Box Scheme alongside selling edible and cut flowers wholesale and retail. 

   

  After completing a degree in Economics she worked as a Project Manager in the heritage and events sector running a variety of major projects for some of the leading cultural institutions in the UK including the National Railway Museum, Science Museum and British Library. 

  The CSA’s underlying principles and clear manifesto have been an invaluable tool in allowing Yorkshire Edible Flowers to communicate its mission to their local community. Hannah is very happy to be bringing her project management expertise to the CSA Board, and believes that this vital work will allow other small growers to flourish.

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  Tom O’Kane

  I trained in Ireland as a horticultural therapist and market gardener in my early twenties. After working on larger scale biodynamic mixed farms in France, I completed a degree in organic farming in Wales & studied the human context of organic farming in Copenhagen. I then spent over 10 years developing land based social horticulture projects with groups across Wales before returning to where I grew up on Gower. Here I have established Cae Tan CSA, now in it’s 6th season, feeding 125 local households, working with local schools, colleges, universities, volunteers and trainees. Also supporting the set up of Gower’s second CSA and currently pushing for a third!

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  Dr. Sally Bell

  Dr. Sally Bell is a medical doctor and specialist in lifestyle medicine and nutrition and is based in Nottingham with her three teenage girls. She has an interest in soil ecology, farming, food production and the link nature has in healing people, communities and landscapes. She is the Wellness Director at Hampton Manor and is on the Nottinghamshire Food strategy group. 

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  Nbuwak Yashim

  Nbuwak is a Ph.D. Researcher at the Centre for Agroecology Water and Resilience. Her research explores gender, agroecology, and natural resource governance for building equitable resilience in rural Zimbabwe. She is passionate about agroecology, climate change, inclusion, and social justice within food systems, particularly for marginalized communities. She has worked with farmers, women, and girls in agriculture, rural development, and renewable energy across many rural communities in Nigeria and community food growers in Coventry.

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  Jo Hunt

  Jo Hunt is an economist turned CSA farmer and would like to see the end of capitalism and its exploitation of nature and people.  Jo runs Knockfarrel Produce, on the family croft in the northern Highlands.  The croft feeds 220 local families with organic food; employs 4 people, and is carbon negative by 72 tonnes CO2E each year. Jo has 25 years’ experience in agricultural business and policy advice, and enjoys sharing his knowledge with others.