Oxford Real Farming Conference

In 2009 the agricultural writer Graham Harvey invited Colin Tudge and Ruth West (founders of the Campaign for Real Farming) to help establish a new kind of farming conference. To bring together practising, mud-on-the-boots farmers and growers with scientists and economists, and activists and lawyers, and everyone else with a serious interest in food and agriculture. The idea was and is to ask the really big questions – like what kind of farming do we really need and why; but also to look at the minutiae of practice – and to see who, right now, in Britain and the world at large, is truly farming and marketing and cooking in ways that the world really needs, and others can emulate.

Everyone I spoke to said they love going to the Oxford Real Farming Conference because it fires them up for the farming year, and I couldn’t agree more. Its a great opportunity to begin the year with a positive meeting of minds; to inspire, encourage and support the development of truly regenerative agricultural practices. ORFC is so important to producers and consumers alike because it was set up by a group frustrated at the lack of representation for organic and small-scale producers at the decades-old Oxford Farming Conference.

The ORFC has seen some of its more radical ideas move from the fringe to the mainstream in a single decade. It has grown from 85 people in a library to 980 attendees this year, with more than 250 people turned away. The subsidised price of £60 for two days keeps it accessible for all and between this and its excellent reputation, it sold out in mid December. Its one to book early if you want a ticket!

This event is so energised and motivating it has quickly expanded; in its nine years outgrowing the more conventional Other event, which takes place at the same time in the same city. This year there was a special BBC Farming Today programme dedicated entirely to the real farming conference and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Rt Hon Michael Gove attended to speak as well.

This year's event was jam packed as ever, with talks centred around Brexit and Post-Brexit farming policy. As ever the Land Workers Alliance were well represented; their talks and their film and crowd-funding launch were incredibly well attended with Jyoti Fernandez inspiring everyone to greater heights of enthusiasm with her emotional speeches.

It was great to see the return of Adam Horowitz for a second year as Poet in Residence and hear his new poetry inspired by a year of touring Pasture Fed for Life farms. The book launch for his new collection was beautiful and I went away with a signed copy of 'The Soil Never Sleeps'.

I felt my heart fill with rededication to growing listening to the talk given by Perrine Herve-Gruyer from Le Ferme du Bec Hellouin. She and Charles have created a Permaculture Paradise in Normandy, in the past 12 years they have experimented and developed innovative methods which appear to be highly productive. Interested by the performances of such a small farm, various institutions have conducted research to find overwhelmingly positive results. For example, from just one tenth of a hectare, they have managed to produce the same yield using their methods as a conventional farmer would produce off of an entire hectare, while providing ecological space for an incredibly diverse biome.

For those that didn't manage to go, or for those that wanted to go to more than one talk on at the same time, ALL the talks are now available on SoundCloud. So go be inspired, learn something new or find encouragement and solidarity along your path as a supporter of better farms for a better future.