About Nathan

I grew up in Oxfordshire and Suffolk, playing with soil and looking for insects in the playground. I still enjoy playing with soil and looking for insects.

After full-time education, I worked for several years in the commercial, charity and public sectors as a business analyst and wrangler of complex projects and transitions.

I’ve been fortunate enough to travel extensively. I spent a year working with young adults in Cambodia, and six months on water and sanitation projects in farming communities in Ghana’s Ashanti region.

In 2014, I took a break from work to explore a new career path that would reconnect me with nature. I retrained in Countryside Management and gained experience with the National Trust and London Wildlife Trust. I moved on to work for London Wildlife Trust on projects including river restoration, reserve management, community engagement and ecological surveys.

As an independent consultant in 2015, I conducted an ecological assessment of the woodland at Deepdale Farm in Norfolk. This led to organizing successful conservation volunteering weekends with the owner, where thousands of trees and hedgerow plants were planted.

In early 2020, I joined Deepdale Farm full-time as Estate Manager, focusing on regenerative practices, organic certification, and restoring biodiversity and soil health in an intensively managed arable landscape. I also developed public engagement initiatives, such as guided farm walks, activities for corporate and student groups, conservation volunteering and courses. I converted a disused farm building into a centre for rural skills and engagement.

In 2022, Deepdale Farm was a runner-up in the Norfolk FWAG Farm Wildlife competition and was visited by Natural England Chair Tony Juniper and the senior leadership team from WWF UK as an exemplar of nature-friendly, catchment-sensitive farming.

At the end of 2022 I relocated to Devon, where I am now available for projects in the South West and further afield.

I’m particularly interested in change and liminality, and in bringing systems thinking to big challenges like agroecological transition, mitigating against the effects of climate breakdown and our relationship with with the natural world. I’m absolutely passionate about food and the central role of food systems transformation in solving so many of our greatest problems.

I love walking, wildlife, woodlands and hedgerows, writing, movies, music, books, stargazing, photography, baking and cooking.