For journalist enquiries, please contact our Press Office.
If you are not a journalist, but have a query please see our contact page for more information.
LWA SPOKESPEOPLE
Jyoti Fernandes, Policy and Campaigns Coordinator
Jyoti is an agroecological smallholder farmer with a micro-diary based in Dorset. The farm is part of a local smallholders’ cooperative that shares processing facilities and markets the products of the members’ smallholdings collectively. She coordinates the Policy, Lobbying and Campaigning work of the LWA and is a co-founder. She is also a spokesperson for the global small-scale farmers coalition La Via Campesina, which represents over 200m people in more than 180 countries.
Can speak on:
- LWA’s key messages, including environmental land management schemes (ELMS) and the UK’s agricultural transition
- UK and global farming policy, including climate change adaptation and mitigation
- Agroecological farming and agroforesty
- Local food systems and short-supply chains
- Importance of including diverse, grassroots voices in negotiations
Rebecca Laughton, Horticulture Campaigns Coordinator
Rebecca has many years of experience in organic market gardening, farming and research relating to small scale agriculture and low impact planning, and is author of “Surviving and Thriving on the Land” (Green Books 2008) . She currently works part time at a glasshouse in Somerset, growing salad crops, while focussing on advocacy and research in the LWA Horticulture Campaign. She also facilitates the LWA horticulture ELMS Test and Trial scheme called Growing the Goods. She was one of the advisors on Henry Dimbleby’s panel for the National Food Strategy.
Can speak on:
- Developing environmental horticulture systems and policy
- UK domestic fruit and vegetable production and supply chains
- National Food Strategy
- Agricultural transition
Amber Wheeler, Cydlynydd Aelodaeth Cymru/Wales Membership Coordinator
Amber Wheeler is a Welsh speaking research activist passionate about changing the food and farming system for the better. Her particular interest is encouraging greater production and consumption of fruit and veg in Wales and the UK. She lives on a smallholding in Pembrokeshire with her family.
Can speak on:
- Food Sovereignty: the vision for a more diverse mixed food and farming landscape
- Gweithwyr y Tir – Landworkers Alliance work in Wales
- Culture and importance of Welsh family farms
- How to facilitate more horticultural production and consumption of fruit and veg
- The role small-scale farmers play in horticulture, and the scale of the challenge