Dev Sharma, Food activist and founding member of Bite Back 2023.

Dev is a 20-year-old Food Activist, former Youth MP in the UK Youth Parliament and a founding member of Bite Back 2030, a youth activist movement challenging the rigged food system. With accomplishments from helping spark the UK’s child food poverty campaign to most notably spearheading the world's first online junk food marketing ban campaign, successfully getting it included in the Queen's Speech in 2021.

Dev’s influence is felt globally. He has been recognised for his work in campaigning to ban online junk food advertising, advocating for holiday hunger and free school meals, and speaking on international platforms like the UN and the House of Commons on issues such as climate change and food poverty. His relentless efforts have earned him a Diana Award and praise from figures like Jamie Oliver.

Recently, he chaired the UK Govt’s first-ever youth inquiry into the cost of living. As former Chair of Bite Back 2030 and an ambassador for multiple food charities, Dev is a leading voice in health and environmental issues.

Julia Kirby-Smith, Executive Director of Better Food Traders

Better Food Traders is a non-profit UK-wide enterprise network that empowers and equips traders, farmers, communities and local authorities to rebuild an independent, sustainable food sector. She has a strong understanding of both independent food retail (having founded an ethical grocery business in North London) and the broader issues faced by our food system. She is also Chair of Eating Better, an alliance of 70+ organisations working across public health, climate, nature, farming and industry to reduce meat and dairy consumption in the UK, and Chair of Save The Blean, a campaign to protect a large area of ancient woodland in the Southeast of England from destructive housing development.

Tom pearson, Farmer and medical doctor

Tom is triving to work with nature and build resilience into all aspects of his family regenerative farm, from healthy soils to healthy communities. He is proud to host Sweetpea Market Garden and share land opportunities on the farm. His recent Nuffield farming scholarship explores the role that farmers and growers can play in producing food with ‘wider health benefits’, appreciating the role of local economies, communities, education, nutrition, climate and nature to deliver positive health outcomes. Tom is chairman of the West Cambridgeshire Hundreds farm cluster and a keen supporter of farmer-led research.

Craig Bennett - Chief Executive at The Wildlife Trusts

Craig has been described as “one of the country’s top environmental campaigners”, by The Guardian as “the very model of a modern eco-general” and, in 2021, was included in The Sunday Times Green Power List of the UK’s top 20 environmentalists.

Craig was formerly CEO of Friends of the Earth where he refocussed the organisation to empower communities to take action on the climate & ecological crises, resulting in a step change in the scale and impact of the movement, with over 200 new Friends of the Earth community groups set up during his tenure. He also led the organisation to numerous campaign victories including on bees, fracking and against the expansion of Heathrow Airport.

Earlier in his career, Craig was Deputy Director at The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and Director of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change (from 2007 to 2010) which he transformed into one of the most progressive business voices on the international climate change agenda.

He is Honorary Professor of Sustainability and Innovation at Alliance Manchester Business School, an Associate Fellow of Homerton College (Cambridge), a Senior Associate of The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and a Policy Fellow of The Centre for Science and Policy at The University of Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.