We are an independent agricultural consultancy that is passionate about supporting change in Australian rural landscapes, farming and food systems towards a more regenerative, ecological future. An experienced and qualified multi-disciplinary team, we carry out extension, training and consultancy work across Australia and internationally. Right across the continent from the Wet Tropics through the rangelands to southern Australia we work on a variety of projects across a range of farming and grazing systems with a wide range of government, NRM, Landcare, industry and community clients.

David Hardwick – Partner. David is an agroecologist and has over 20 years experience in rural landscapes, farming and food systems. He develops and delivers many of the extension projects for Soil Land Food across Australia. He worked in community development and then horticulture before completing a dairy traineeship on an organic dairy in NSW. Since then he has had a wide ranging career working in both management and technical roles. These include Landcare extension, agronomy, soils, agribusiness, biofertiliser R&D and manufacturing, organics, training, and consulting positions. For many years he also helped run a regional farmers market business with his wife. He has also worked on rural cooperative and social enterprise projects. David also teaches soils, regenerative agriculture, farm planning and agroecology at TAFE NSW on a casual basis. David’s passion is agroecology and empowering farmers with knowledge and skills that make a difference!

• Bachelor of Ecological Agriculture (University of Sydney)
• Diploma in Agribusiness (TAFE NSW)
• CIV in Training & Assessment
• Grazing Land Management (Queensland DPI)
• Natural Sequence Farming - Tarwyn Park Training

Suwanna Thananupradit – Partner. Suwanna is a social enterprise, business and community development professional with over 25 years experience in business, banking, regional food systems, digital and social enterprises. She is the digital and design go to person for Soil Land Food as well as managing projects, finance and administration. Initially working for many years in credit risk for the international bank BNP Paribas, she then worked in corporate restructuring and insolvency with Grant Thornton Thailand. After moving to Australia she started a farmers market stall business, co-founded a rural producers cooperative and developed a successful regional food business manufacturing tofu. She currently also runs a Social Enterprise, Life Interwoven, a Thai-Australian project. Su’s passion is seeing people working together through Cooperatives!

• Bachelor in Applied Science
• Masters in Business Administration (Central Queensland University)
• Certificate IV in Web Technologies
• Certificate in Microfinance - United Nations
• Certificate of Completion in Graphic Design - Intensive Foundation (The Graphic Design School)

Kristy Youman - Farming Systems Extension Specialist. Kristy has over 10 years of experience in the environmental science and agricultural field working in a wide variety of roles across Australia for government, non-profit and private organisations. Kristy conducts a number of the soil and grazing extension projects for Soil Land Food. She has previously worked in extension and research with a range of agencies, community groups and landholders. Prior to that she travelled and worked around Australia on pastoral properties. She runs a mixed farming property with her partner at Guyra on the New England.

• Bachelor of Natural Resource Management (Honours) (University of New England)
• Fertcare Accredited agronomist.

Simon Mattsson - Regenerative Farming Consultant/Extension. Simon is a cane/mixed crops farmer from Marian near Mackay in Queensland. Simon completed a Nuffield Scholarship on Soil Biology and is a pioneer of multi-species cover cropping in Australia. He has been a leader in the Australian sugarcane industry in the area of soil health and regenerative farming practices. With his ability to communicate and passion for helping other farmers change to more regenerative approaches, he has joined the Soil Land Food team to help with farmer extension and consultancy.

• Grazing For Profit (RCS)
• Advanced Course in Agricultural Business Management (Royal Agricultural University UK)
• Certificate in Sustainable Agriculture (NTS)
• Nuffield Scholarship - Soil Biology

We take a cooperative approach to our work and access further specialist skills across our network of expert colleagues to ensure we achieve the best outcome for our clients. Our key consulting partners include:

Judi is one of Australia’s leading grazing specialists and has worked around Australia on planned grazing extension projects and research. She has a PhD in pasture ecology and is a Certified Holistic Management Educator.

Gerry is one of Australia’s leaders in community driven solutions to waste issues. Working in government roles for many years he successfully developed and ran a number of major waste initiatives including a Worm Farm for the ACT government and the City to Soil composting project in NSW which introduced compostable bags for domestic food waste at a large scale. He pioneered the SPIC Compost method in Australia that is successfully used by a number of Councils and farmers across Australia. Gerry travels internationally to provide his expertise on projects around the world.

Dave is an ecologist/botanist based in northern NSW. One of Australia’s leading Grassy Box Woodland specialists, Dave worked for Greening Australia across a range of projects throughout Australia. He carries out numerous ecological contracts for both industry and government including many that deal with the connection between conservation and agriculture.

Chandra is a microbiologist living at Forbes in NSW. He currently manufacturers Rhizobia bacteria for the legume crops of Australia. He has worked across a range of sectors and has been involved in biofertiliser manufacturing. He has also written a fantastic children's book on bacteria!