A childhood friend of Jamie Oliver, he studied at Newport Free Grammar School, has a degree in animal biology from the University of East London and studied for a Doctor of Philosophy in entomology at Coventry University"s zoology department.
He is of Irish descent. He then trained as a pig farmer, where, in 2002, he met runner Furney when Channel 4"s filming for Jamie" s Kitchen took it to the Cumbrian farm where he was working. After returning to Essex to run his own farm, Doherty and Furney set up The Essex Pig Company utilising free range meat production practices.
The operation raised various rare breeds, most notably the endangered Essex, together with the Berkshire, Gloucester Old Spot, large and middle Whites.
Soay and Jacob sheep and Red Poll cattle. Jimmy"s farm is in Suffolk near Ipswich.
There are currently 20 full and part-time staff Their efforts were followed by a series of fly-on-the-wall documentaries which aired on British Broadcasting Corporation Two.
Doherty presented a series for BBC2 called Jimmy Doherty"s Farming Heroes which aired from July 2008 to August 2008, followed by various other series and single documentaries for the British Broadcasting Corporation. Notably, Jimmy"s Food Factory, in which he demonstrated the industrial techniques used in the production of processed foods, ran for two series on British Broadcasting Corporation One.
When the Controller of British Broadcasting Corporation One at the time, Jay Hunt, left to become chief creative officer at Channel 4 at the end of 2010, she signed up Doherty to present exclusively for Channel 4. Doherty"s last series for the British Broadcasting Corporation, A Farmer"s Life for Maine, was broadcast in February and March 2011. Since 18 June 2011, Jimmy"s Food Factory airs as ProSieben British Broadcasting Corporation Spezial – Jimmy"s Food Factory every Saturday on German television channel ProSieben.
In December 2012 Jimmy and Jamie Oliver presented the Channel 4 series Jamie & Jimmy"s Food Fight Club.
Jimmy and Michaela Furney were married on Saturday, 22 August 2009. The reception was held at their farm in Suffolk.
They have two daughters, Molly Rose (born 4 August 2010) and Cora Mae. In August 2014, Doherty was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September"s referendum on that issue.
