Farmer, Food Producer and Ecologist, Denise Walton lives in the Scottish Borders where she farms in partnership with her husband and son on their organic and pasture-for-life livestock farm with an on-farm butchery. Denise was born and bought up in Central Africa. She studied horticulture followed by degrees (to post-graduate level), in Environmental Science and Landscape Ecology at the University of London. She had her own practice for some 20 years as a Landscape and Ecological Advisor, including Public Inquiries as an expert witness. In professional practice she was a member of both the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and the Landscape Institute.
Denise is currently Scottish Chair of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, a Director of Pasture-for-Life and a Soil Association Farmer Ambassador. She was a contributor to the drafting of the Consensus on Food, Farming and Nature and present at the meeting in Oxford (January 2023), which forged this consensus between farmers and environmental organisations prior to its publication. Her recent work with peer-to-peer, farmer-to-farmer groups on Biodiversity and Profitability (with Nourish Scotland), has highlighted ‘mind-set’ as the most acute limiting factor to agroecological change.