Alastair Leake has a BSc in Horticultural Science and PhD in Organic and Integrated Farming Systems. He worked for 20 years for the Co-operative Farms (FamCare), initially as a Production Manager in glasshouse salad crops specialising in IPM, then headed up the company’s ground-breaking farming systems research.

He is now head of GWCT’s 300 ha Allerton Research and Demonstration farm in Leicestershire, where intensive farming and exceptional levels of biodiversity co-exist. The LEAF Innovation farm is involved in several high profile & innovative research projects focusing on Conservation Agriculture and sustainable soil management.

As GWCT Director of Policy Alastair is responsible for embedding GWCT’s farmland ecology work into Government policy. He is actively involved in shaping Defra’s Environmental Land Management scheme. He also runs a popular All-Party Parliamentary discussion Group in Westminster.

Alastair has served as a Board Member of a range of organisations involved in sustainable farming including co-founding the Agricology Project.