We're hosting our very first Farmer Clusters Conference on 12th October where you will have the chance to hear first-hand accounts of running a Farmer Cluster and the opportunities it provides. A range of farmers, facilitators and advisors will be speaking at the conference, including Heidi Smith.
Heidi is Business Manager of Norfolk FWAG; a charity which gives environmental advice to farmers. She is the facilitator for two groups of farmers in Norfolk and advises on a third. Before this, she spent 13 years at Norfolk County Council, the last 6 as Countryside Manager.
Previously, Heidi has worked for English Nature and then went on to become the first Conservation Officer employed by Internal Drainage Boards.
She is a Director of Wild Anglia; the Local Nature Partnership for Norfolk and Suffolk and member of the statutory Forestry and Woodlands Advisory Committee for the East of England.
Heidi will be speaking on the psychology of persuading farmers to work together to benefit the environment; what she has learnt works and what definitely doesn’t. One of her groups has also been successful in sourcing external funding to help achieve their aim of helping the local turtle dove population. She will explore how small amounts of new funding can galvanise a group to action.
She lives in the Norfolk Broads with her husband and two children and an unsustainable number of dogs.
Farmer Clusters Conference - Book your place
The conference is taking place at the Royal Geographical Society in London on 12th October. You can find out more here or book your place now: