Helping farmers put real health on our plates

Our People

Who we are

We are a small yet passionate group of individuals, all with different backgrounds, united by the same aims and objectives – ie to support and promote wholistic farming and its benefits to the wider community for the sake of our collective health.

“The Doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition”

Thomas Edison

Our Board

Jacqueline Pearce-Dickens

Jacqueline Pearce-Dickens - Director & Chief Executive

Jackie is passionate about supporting and getting recognition for farmers who aim to achieve herd health through a wholistic approach. An experienced facilitator and trainer, she works closely with wholistic vet Chris Aukland to develop and deliver WHAg’s Livestock Programmes, as well as being responsible for the operational management of the organisation.

Chris Auckland

Chris Aukland MRCVS - Director & Head of Livestock Programmes

A veterinary surgeon based in East Sussex, Chris has been using an integrated wholistic approach to his veterinary work for over thirty years and leads WHAg’s Livestock Health Programmes which aim to educate and support farmers to integrate natural health approaches into their herd health strategies. 

Karin Mont

Karin Mont - Director

Karin comes from a farming background and is Chair of the Alliance of Registered Homeopaths. After successfully using homeopathy to treat a long-term problem with her livestock, which failed to resolve using a conventional approach, Karin was impressed by the effectiveness of this wholistic solution. Based on her experience of using homeopathy over many years for a wide range of health situations, she is deeply committed to introducing farmers to the healing potential of this intrinsically sustainable system of medicine.

Our Associates

Karen Seyersted

Karen Seyersted - Research and Educational Advisor

A physiotherapist and registered homeopath with an MSc in Integrated Healthcare, Karen is keen to iinvestigate and understand best practice among wholistic farmers in order to develop models that can be replicated for success.

Pammy Riggs

Pammy Riggs - Wholistic Farmer and Author

Pammy ran the highly successful Providence Farm in Devon for over 20 years with her husband Ritchie, where they established their Positive Health Management System. The farm’s produce, and Pammy herself, won numerous awards including Organic Business Person of the Year. Pammy has taught a variety of courses around the UK, including the poultry–keeping course at River Cottage and is a published author, blogger and columnist.

Our Steering Group

Sally Bagenal MBA

Sally is passionate about the wholistic approach to human and planet health, using business as the vehicle for social change.. A former organic dairy farmer, co-founder of Organic Milk Suppliers Cooperative (OMSCo) and its CEO for 10 years, Sally developed the organic milk market, heading a professional marketing campaign that grew the market by 30% per years, subsequently encouraging 100s of dairy farmers  to convert to organic farming practices.

Oliver Dowding - Organic Farmer

Oliver sits on the Soil Association Farmer and Grower Board and has farmed organically near Wincanton since 1989, keeping 300 dairy cows and 200 followers until 2004 when he refocused his business to concentrate on arable. Oliver remains a passionate and determined advocate for homeopathy after he and his staff experienced enormous success for most of the illnesses or conditions that needed treatment in his large herd.

Chris Gosling

Chris Gosling - Organic Farmer

Chris and her husband Nick run a 4th generation dairy and arable farm in Wiltshire producing organic milk, butter, cream and kefir. Their herd of 200 Guernsey cows is kept healthy via a caring wholistic approach, relying on the Obsalim observational technique, homeopathy and diversely planted pastures.

Saskia Lewis - Concerned Citizen & Architectural Educator

Health challenges have led Saskia to heal herself through organic foods, pasture fed meat, homeopathy and exercise. She is deeply grateful to those who grow this quality of produce and is fully committed to supporting their work with the aim of holistic methods becoming more widely adopted. She believes that the world of architecture extends well beyond the literal built form to the management and stewardship of landscape, infrastructure and quotidian routines.

John Newman

John Newman - Organic Farm Manager

John has been farm manager of award-winning Abbey Home Farm in Cirencester since 1992. The organic mixed farm is committed to wholistic principles and rears beef, sheep, pigs and poultry plus a small herd of dairy shorthorns. Committed to conservation, biodiversity & to becoming truly sustainable, it aims to feed the local community from the food it raises and grows.

Tony Pinkus - Homeopathic Pharmacist

Tony is Chief Pharmacist and proprietor of Ainsworths Homeopathic Pharmacy, co-founder of Ruminant Health and Etherica, and Dean of Pharmacy for the Faculty of Homeopathy. Tony is committed to empowering farmers to achieve vibrant livestock health via a combination of natural approaches, including homoeopathy and the Obsalim observational technique.

Meg Walters - Organic Beef Farmer

Meg is a farmer and farmer’s wife. She’s also passionate about conservation, biodiversity, education, food provenance, sustainability, and above all else, animal welfare. Her experience  comes from ground roots level working on Sheepdrove Organic Farm and running her own Peak District farms.

Sally Wood

Sally Wood - Organic Dairy Farmer

Sally runs a dairy farm of 200 Jersey crossbreeds in SW Wales, with her partner Garry. They recently reduced their herd by 100 cows as they are converting to organic standards . She has transitioned from fully conventional farmer to ‘beyond organic’ in her quest to improve the health of her entire farm.

Our Champions

Lawrence Woodward O.B.E. - Founding Member

A founder and director of the Organic Research Centre (ORC) for 30 years, Lawrence advises and speaks about the principles and methods of organic agriculture to a wide range of organisations. In 2001 he was awarded an O.B.E. for services to organic farming, having played a pivotal role in the strategic and practical development of the organic sector in the UK and internationally.

Derina Allen

Darina Allen - Cookery School Founder & Author

Darina is Ireland’s most famous cook and a best-selling author who founded the Ballymaloe Cookery School in 1983 on her organic farm which produces ingredients for the school and shop. Darina was instrumental in setting up the Farmers’ Market movement and the International Slow Food Movement in Ireland. She chairs the Artisan Food Forum and is a Trustee of the Irish Organic Centre, and Patron of Irish Seed Savers. Darina is vehemently opposed to the growing of GM crops and passionate about wholistic farming for health.

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