Tim Nelson has worked in agriculture, with farmers and farmer organizations for over 25 years.
Over this period Tim has worked as a senior executive or consultant at every point along the value chain. For 10 years he was the Executive Officer of a dairy research group WestVic Dairy in Victoria Australia. During this period he led the resurrection of a unique farmer owned dairy research centre, DemoDAIRY and became interested how change is facilitated at the farm level in heavily contextualized, socially prejudiced issues such as biodiversity, environmental management, human resource management, animal welfare etc.
This interest later became the subject of his recently completed Masters degree. Tim has worked extensively with research programs looking at the way farmers contextualize biodiversity within their farming system and how this influences change management on farm.
Since May 2007 he has held the position of Executive Director of the Poultry Industry Council (PIC). PIC drives and manages research and education for the poultry industry in the province of Ontario, Canada’s largest poultry producing province.
His passion is enabling farmers to work successfully together to build strategies to deal with evolving issues and to achieve common goals.
Tim graduated from Harper Adams Agricultural College in Shropshire in 1977.
• Masters thesis - The efficacy of focus farms as a mechanism for accelerating change in environmental management.
• Author of the first Queensland Egg Industry Code of Practice for Environmental Management, (the first agricultural sector code to be adopted into regulation in that state).
• Established Australias first ISO 9002 accredited organic certification group - The Organic Food Chain
• Elected representative (2 years) of the Organic Certifiers to the National Organic Standards Committee of the Federal Government
• Chairman - Statewide (Victoria) dairy effluent program
• Initiator and manager of Dairy Employment Management Committee - national dairy farm labour research group
• Developed Queensland’s first state-wide egg quality management scheme.
• Established Australias first ISO certified paddock to plate (conception to consumption!) beef production system - Bluegum Beef.
• Founding member of the Queensland and Australian Free range producers association Authored production standards for free range and organic eggs
• General Manager Australias largest fruit and vegetable provedore.
• Established an egg grading/packing floor, marketing and distribution company - Ovascan Marketing
• Owner of Australias largest and most widely distributed Organic Ice Cream brand “Pure Chill”
• Developed Ontario’s first Poultry Industry Research and Education Strategy
• 5 years farming - Layers (8000) and contract rearing dairy heifers. |