John McKenna is author and publisher, with his wife Sally, of the Bridgestone Guides, a series of independent, critical guides to Ireland's food and hospitality cultures. John McKenna has been described by The New York Times as "Ireland's leading food critic", whilst The Guardian has called him "Ireland's most opinion-forming food critic and a powerful commentator on culinary trends". In addition to his writing John works as a consultant to both the food and hospitality sectors.
   
Myrtle Allen is the owner of Ballymaloe House and Restaurant and author of the Ballymaloe cookbooks. In 2000 she received an Honorary doctorate from UCC for her contribution to cuisine in Ireland and in 2003 received the Slowfood Award for the Defence of Biodiversity - "for her support for local producers… for her awareness of the high quality of Irish food and her devotion to traditional recipes whose protection she has championed for decades." Myrtle was a founder member of Eurotoques Ireland and Cork Free Choice Consumer Group
   
Regina Sexton is a food historian, food writer, broadcaster and cook based in County Cork. Her publications include Ireland's Traditional Foods and A Little History of Irish Food, which won the Jeremy Round Award from the British Guild of Food Writers, for the most promising first time author. She has won 2 Sophie Coe Memorial Prizes in Food History at St . Anthony's College, Oxford, in 1995, for the paper '"I'd ate it like chocolate": the disappearing offal food traditions of Cork city', and in 1999, for 'Porridge, gruels and breads: the cereal foodstuffs of early historic Ireland'.
   
Joanna Blythman is Britain's leading investigative food journalist and an influential commentator on the British food chain, covering subjects as diverse as salmon farming, supermarkets, intensive pineapple production, bird flu and the causes of obesity. As of 2006, she has won five Glenfiddich Awards for her writing. Her first book, The Food We Eat won a Glenfiddich Special Award and a Guild of Food Writers Award. Shopped won the Glenfiddich Food Book of the Year Award in 2005 and a Caroline Walker Media Award for 'Improving the Nation's Health by Means of Good Food'. In 2007 she was awarded the Good Housekeeping award for Outstanding Contribution to Food. Her most recent book is Bad Food Britain (2006).
   
  Martin Caraher is Reader in food and health policy in the Department of Health Management and Food Policy at City University, London. Originally from Ardee, Co. Louth, he trained as an environmental health officer in Dublin. After working in the north west of Ireland he developed an interest in public health and health promotion. Since he completed his masters and doctorate he has been working with Prof Tim Lang on aspects of food policy and helped establish the Centre for Food Policy in London. He has worked extensively on issues related to food poverty, cooking skills, local sustainable food supplies, the role of markets and co-ops in promoting health, farmers markets, food deserts & food access, retail concentration and globalisation.
   
Marian Faughnan is currently working as a public health nutritionist at safefood, the Food Safety Promotion Board. Marian holds a first class honours degree in Human Nutrition and a PhD from the University of Ulster. She previously worked as a postdoctoral scientist at the University of Surrey (1998-2000) and Unilever's Corporate Research Centre at Colworth House, UK (2000-2004). She is also a member of the Nutrition Society and is a registered nutritionist.
   
Diarmuid Ó Drisceóil has strong family connections with Cape Clear in West Cork and has worked widely with the fields of archaeology and local history. He is the author of many articles on aspects of early Irish cooking practices and, with his brother Donal, co-wrote The Murphy's Story: The History of Lady's Well Brewery, Cork and Serving a City: the Story of Cork's English Market
   
Eugene Scally is the proprietor of Scally's Supervalu Clonakilty. Over the last 25 years Scally's have built a proud tradition of supporting top quality local producers. A fresh food specialist in every sense. In the past Scally's have won the Supreme Hygiene Award and are recent winners of the coveted Best in Fresh Awards and awards for their fish counter and bakery. Scally's are also recent recipients of the Bridgestone, Best in Ireland Award for 2007, marking them as one of the best places to shop in Ireland.
   
Graeme Kidd is the President of Cittaslow, UK (see www.cittaslow.org.uk) and former Mayor of Ludlow in Shropshire, which became the first town in the UK to achieve Cittaslow accreditation. Cittaslow is a movement of over 100 European towns and is open to individual towns with under 50,000 residents that can demonstrate that they meet over 60 different membership criteria. Cittaslow is about caring for your town and the people who live and work in it or visit it. It is about protecting the environment, about promoting local goods and produce, and about avoiding the 'sameness' that afflicts too many towns in the modern world.
   
Ian Dempsey is CEO of the West Cork LEADER Co-op Society Ltd through which he has been to the forefront in driving innovative rural development strategies in West Cork since 1992. In 2007, in acknowledgement of his work in developing the Fuchsia Brand, he was the recipient of the Innovative Programme Award presented by the Community Development Society of North America. He is active in a wide variety of local and regional development initiatives.