Tim Bennett chaired CIEL, one of the UK Agri-Tech Centre’s legacy Centres from 2016 until it became part of the UK Agri-Tech Centre in 2024. He is also a trustee and past Chairman of the Farmers Club in London.
Tim stood down as the Chairman of the Food Standards Agency in 2016 after 10 years on the FSA board. He was a founding director of the Welsh Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, an organisation that provides practical on-farm nature conservation advice. He is also a member of the Agricultural Land Tribunal for Wales.
Tim was Deputy President and then President of the National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales between 1998 and 2006. He was also a governor of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research between 2000 and 2006. He was Chairman of DairyCo – the Milk Sector Division of the Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board, which administers statutory levies in the agricultural industry – between 2007 and 2014. Tim formerly sat on the Board of the Meat Hygiene Service and the council of Food from Britain.
Tim is a first-generation farmer with experience of most sectors of primary agriculture and of local retail sales, as well as a wide knowledge of the food supply chain. He and his wife own a farm near Carmarthen in South West Wales. The farm has at various times had a pedigree dairy herd, an egg-producing enterprise selling to local consumers and a beef breeding enterprise producing Aberdeen Angus animals for a premium retailer.
Tim is a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society and a Fellow of the Institute of Grocery Distribution.