The ELA Council consists of a Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Elected Members and the Chairs of Committees.
Executive
Committee Chair
Peter King
Peter has been a breeder of pedigree livestock for over 20 years, specialising in Castlemilk Moorit Sheep (Primitive Northern Short Tailed group) and Traditional Hereford Cattle. He is specialist producer of organic free range traditional poultry and pigs as long ago as 1980. Peter served as National Field Officer Rare Breeds Survival Trust for 8 years. He is Founder member of the Traditional Hereford Breeders Club and Council Member for Rare Breeds Survival Trust. He is author and Traditional Livestock Consultant, and Convenor and Founder Chairman of ELA.
Vice Chair:
Christopher
Stockdale
Chris attended agricultural college in Scotland, England and Wales. In 1974, he started farming on 15 Ha of Hill land (now part of a World Heritage site) near Abergavenny. Later he purchased 17 ha bare field and woodland in Herefordshire to establish a small mixed biodynamic farm. He was elected to the Council of the Biodynamic Agricultural Association of UK in 2000. He is stakeholder representative to DEFRA FMD meetings, London. Coordinator of Herefordshire Biodynamic group, shortly taking up post as coordinator of Herefordsire Organic Producers. In March 2001, most of his stock was slaughtered because of the FMD outbreak. Chris obtained a MSc degree in Sustainable Agricultural Systems, Royal Agricultural College, 2003, with a dissertation on UK perspectives of the 2001 FMD epidemic.
Secretary
Christine Bijl
Christine was born in Batavia, Indonesia and at the age of 10 she moved with her family to Rio de Janeiro. 2 Years later the family moved to the Netherlands. After 3 years of law she switched to Art School and graduated in 1974. She had several small exhibitions. In 1987 she became director of a small art school in Utrecht. She is married and has a 32 year old daughter and a 31 year old son. She lives in the country on a small 'farm' of 1,5 acres with 3 horses, which she rides and trains herself, 2 Shetland ponies, 3 sheep and 5 dogs. When in 2001 and 2003 FMD and bird flu hit the Netherlands, she was in the middle of both crises. Somehow her 3 sheep were forgotten in the chaos. She got away with a lot of stress waiting for the final phone call that never came. But in 2003 all her 45 birds, peacocks, tropical ducks and chickens were killed. They were never replaced.
Christine joined the NBvH (Dutch Hobby and smallholders Association) and 2 years later she joined ELA. She has been working for better policies ever since.
Treasurer
Mathee
Mathee (Mathew) is a retired physicist with a passion for English literature and carpentry. Since, in addition, he doesn’t even own a cat he might not the most obvious person to be treasurer of ELA. He does however have experience with the (financial) management of small and medium size organizations, a.o. Christine Bijl's art school in Utrecht. Christine recruited him as treasurer of the NBvH (Dutch Hobby and Smallholders Association) in 2007, and subsequently as treasurer for ELA in 2008
Elected Members of Council Sabine Zentis
Ann Lambourn
1968 6 month post as student trainee (biological research) at CIBA, Basel. 1971 BA Hons. degree in Geography, University of Oxford. Member of Oxford Women's Expedition to the Canary Islands (Lanzarote)
1969 1972 Post Graduate Certificate of Education in Geography, University of Oxford.
2001 onward Independent "research" work into FMD, avian influenza, and blue tongue. Some background:My father was a vet working on FMD in 1967 and 1942. My Scottish relatives' farms were affected by FMD in 2001. My work in a government department was invaluable as it introduced me to legislation and helped me to think analytically. It also introduced me to the mindset/way of thinking of a government department!When FMD broke out I followed it very closely and became "involved" after having contacted several farmers directly and having heard their stories first hand. I was so moved by the suffering, both human and animal, and the appalling and unnecessary carnage that I resolved to try to do something about it. It soon became clear thanks to interviews by genuine FMD experts and also from information available on the internet that the science was not sound. I also became very disturbed by the massaging of the killing figures/statistics, and was very concerned that the general public were completely unaware of what was really happening.I then found Warmwell, and that was the bedrock for all information. It was fundamental to all of my work on FMD. Also the website Farmtalking.com provided much useful information particularly from Scotland. I joined NFMG (The National Foot and Mouth Group) which campaigned for sound science and for a stop to the mass slaughter of healthy animals. As a result of the the information collected I was able to make submissions to all the 2001 FMD Inquiries, and later to the Anderson Inquiry FMD 2007.
I have also, thanks largely to Warmwell, and more recently ELA, followed events closely concerning avian influenza and blue tongue, and provided information to appropriate individuals/organisations.
Dr. Ruth Watkins
BSc Hons.(1970) MBBS (London 1973) MRCP ( UK 1977) BFA oxon. (1982) MSc (1984) MRCPath (1986) I have a small farm in Carmarthenshire, South West Wales. It is some 70 acres and has a variety of eco-habitats. I have some welsh black cattle- a bull called Arthur and cows with calves. I also have some sheep, Brecknock Hill cheviot and Herdwick. Recently I have acquired some chickens, silver grey dorkings, welsummers, copper and black marans and New Hampshire redsI bought my small upland farm in the autumn of 2000 when I took early retirement from medicine because of ill health. I wished to contribute to conservation of our wild native plants and animals as I had always loved rambling and walking. Traditional farming has been responsible for creating and maintaining biodiversity on our small and crowded island for the last 5,000 years or so. As I was learning about organic farming (I knew nothing about farming at all before) FMD broke out in February 2001. I was horrified after several weeks had passed and vaccination was not used. I wrote my first letters of protest in March. I was fortunate to meet Professor Fred Brown, Dr Sutmoller, Dr Barteling and Dr Keith Sumption. I joined the movement to press for modern diagnostic methods and vaccination. I supplied statements to the three enquiries set up afterwards, as I have most recently to the Anderson enquiry on the escape of FMD from Pirbright in 2007.Since 2001 I have spoken out on SARS, avian influenza, the recurrence of FMD in 2007, bovine TB ( I provided expert evidence to support the case to spare Shambo for Skanda Vale monastic community) and bluetongue virus serotype 8. I have retained my fascination for infectious disease and viruses in particular, and learnt more about another area, infection of animals particularly domestic animals. My area of expertise is not only clinical virology on a broad scale but practical bench knowledge of testing and its application and use individually and in the more general areas of infection control and policies to prevent infection or give post exposure prophylaxis. I do not have a research back ground though I have done projects and carried out techniques such as Western blots and PCR and gel electrophoresis.
Chairs of Committees
Paul Sutmoller, Animal Heath & Welfare
Herbert Diemont, Rural Structure in Europe
Lawrence Alderson, Animal Breeding & Production
Resie Oude Luttikhuis, Website & Communication
