Co-Founder and Executive Director
Choosing FOOD3050
I have worked in development and food and agriculture for most of my career living in India, Sri Lanka, Italy, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand. The previous 9 years I lived in India and heard about millets and sorghum for the first time and quickly became converted.
I believe we need to drive demand for smarter foods and especially focus on more nutritious and diverse staples – this is how we can have big impact on the health of people and the planet. Underlying this is supporting the smaller entrepreneurs and farmers to be profitable and key players in the economy.
As the founder and previous Executive Director of Smart Food, I have focused on mainstreaming millets. This includes working with a team to create reality TV for a cause. Along with a global team we undertook the largest studies on the nutrition and health benefits of millets including on diabetes, anaemia, growth/malnutrition, hyperlipidemia and calcium retention and deficiencies. We undertook the first-ever scientific studies on millets in school feeding programs which were undertaken in Tanzania and India. We conducted several market analyses for the demand potential for millets, including the largest consumer study on millets with 15,500 face-to-face interviews across 7 cities in India. We also published the first coffee table book on millets, The Millet Movement in India, selling in Amazon.
I started my career as an agricultural economist and later moved into market research in agribusiness and other related areas.
In January 2022, I returned to my home country Australia and am starting new initiatives to further build the millet value chains. See more at:
Website: www.letsmillet.org