Minette Batters Keynote Speaker

Minette Batters is Britain’s defining farming voice, bridging muddy fields, Westminster power and global tables.

As President of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) of England and Wales (2018–2024), and the first woman in the role, she represented over 46,000 farming businesses through Brexit, Covid-19 and seismic shocks to global food systems. She explains with clarity how policy, markets and climate pressures shape the realities of producing food.

From her 300-acre tenanted mixed farm near Downton in Wiltshire, Minette runs a continental-cross suckler beef herd alongside arable enterprises and diversified catering and events businesses at Barford Park Farm. She co-founded Ladies in Beef and Great British Beef Week, high-profile initiatives that celebrate British livestock farming and champion world-leading standards. Her storytelling blends practical, mud-on-boots experience with media and boardroom perspective, making complex issues vivid, human and actionable.

Her leadership has been recognised with inclusion on the BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour Power List (2020), appointment as Deputy Lieutenant of Wiltshire (2021), the Royal Agricultural Society of England’s National Agricultural Award (2024) and the Lifetime Achievement Award at the UK Women in Agriculture Awards in the House of Commons (2024). Created Baroness Batters of Downton in 2024, she sits as a non-party political crossbench peer, taking the realities of food production directly into the heart of government.

Minette leads Defra’s Farming Profitability Review, tasked with delivering practical recommendations to strengthen farm businesses while meeting environmental and climate commitments. Her first book, Harvest, an exploration of British farming’s past, present and future, will be published by Ebury/Penguin in 2026, and she is a sought-after contributor at flagship events such as the Oxford Farming Conference. For businesses, policymakers and global forums, she offers a clear-eyed, optimistic vision of a food system that rewards farmers fairly, restores nature and feeds a growing world.