About Barleybird

Our Mission

Barleybird Community Interest Company (CIC) was founded in February 2023. Our mission is to build understanding of agroecology and create capacity to empower, engage and change food systems.

Our Roots

Barleybird’s roots lie in Hodmedod Ltd which was established in 2012 to supply beans and other products from British farms. Hodmedod has successfully created a growing market for more diverse and sustainably grown UK crops.

Our Aims

Barleybird CIC aims to complement and develop the positive impact already achieved by Hodmedod, working collaboratively with a wide range of individuals, groups and organisations to achieve systemic changes to our food system.

Meet the Team

  • Gaina Dunsire

    Director

    Gaina worked as Secondary Teacher in the UK and overseas for 12 years, before going on to complete a Permaculture Design Certificate in 2011 and an MSc in Sustainable Horticulture and Food Production at Schumacher College in 2014.

    Gaina has over 10 years experience designing and facilitating projects around food and farming for children and young people, as well as training teachers and farmers whilst working as a Regional Education Consultant for LEAF Education.

    Through Barleybird, she hopes to use her skills and experience to enable more people to engage with agroecological food systems.

  • Stuart Orr

    Director

    Stuart has been with WWF since 2006 and works with the private sector on a range of water related activities, from water footprint to public policy engagement. Stuart has published numerous papers on water measurement, agricultural policy and water-related risk, and is currently co-drafting policy guidelines for the private sector as part of the UN CEO Water Mandate. Stuart has also recently joined the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council for water.

    Previous to life with WWF, he researched agricultural rice systems in West Africa and worked for many years in the private sector in Asia and the US.

    Stuart holds an MSc in Environment and Development from the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia and is currently based in Switzerland where he works at WWF-International as a Manager in the Freshwater Team.

  • Josiah Meldrum

    Director

    Josiah Meldrum is co-founder of Hodmedod, a Suffolk company whose aim is to encourage us to grow and eat a wider range of British grown pulses, grains and seeds – creating healthier and more diverse diets and farming systems.

    Working with farmers Hodmedod has pioneered ‘new’ crops for the UK, such as lentils and revived long-forgotten staples, like naked barley, central this has been finding engaged markets to support primary production. This enables change by encouraging the creation of more complex rotations, through more direct routes to market, and ultimately by adding economic and agroecological value.

    Prior to Hodmedod Josiah worked for NGOs, farmers’ co-operatives and retailers whose aim was to create a more equitable and sustainable food system.

  • Nick Saltmarsh

    Director

    Nick has worked in food and farming for almost 30 years, previously in the voluntary sector and serving as a board member of organisations including East Anglia Food Link and Growing Communities.

    In 2012 he co-founded Hodmedod, a business working to increase diversity on farms and in the food we eat, for the benefit of farming and farmed landscapes, the environment, individual health and our food culture.

    Nick is the managing director of Hodmedod, which now works with over 30 different arable crops from a network of British farmers, to produce a diverse range of over 100 plant-based wholefoods.