Farming for Nature Ambassadorship

Early in 2024 I received a phone call from Stephen Meredith of the Irish Organic Association (IOA) to say he wanted to nominate me for a farming for nature ambassadorship. The IOA are my organic certifier, the organisation tasked with ensuring that my farming activities comply with the "Organic Food and Farming Standards in Ireland". I was extremely honoured because the farming for nature ambassadors provided me with a lot of motivation and confidence to make some of the decisions I made on the farm with their videos, content and getting to meet a few of them.

Later in the year two assessors from Farming for Nature (FFN), Sarah Coonan and Brendan Dunford, came to the farm for a lovely walk and a chat. Brendan is also the founder of the Burrenbeo Trust, the umbrella charity of FFN. Ultimately, they decided I was worthy of the honour, and it was a very validating experience.

I look forward to contributing to the FFN network and I hope I can do my bit to encourage farmers and landowners to implement actions which will increase biodiversity.