Is it time for an Oxford Farming & Oxford Real Farming Conference crossover event?
Is it time for an Oxford Farming & Oxford Real Farming Conference crossover event?
Over the same three chilly days in early January, two farming conferences happen simultaneously in Oxford: the Oxford Farming Conference, and the Oxford Real Farming Conference. While this might seem like a silly mistake or lapse in communication between the two events, it is actually deeply intentional. The Oxford Real Farming Conference was started fourteen years ago to provide “a much-needed alternative” to the Oxford Farming Conference. This overlap sends a message: you’re either with them, or you’re with us.
I am not a big fan of picking sides, and always like to listen to both parties before casting judgement, so this year I decided to attend both. I wanted to see first hand what the differences were and ask the question: “in a world that is becoming increasingly polarised, do we really need to be pitting farmers against each other?”
This might seem a little dramatic, but walking around wearing both my OFC and ORFC badges turned some heads and started more than a few conversations. It was made clear it’s not often people come with a foot in each camp. However, as a newcomer to both, what I found in 2023 was two conferences with aligned goals and a lot they could offer each other. Both conferences fiercely advocated for regenerative agricultural practices, improved protection from supply chain actors, better engagement with the communities they serve, and emphasised the need for innovation. To illustrate my point, I’ve devised a quick game: Guess Which Conference?
Guess Which Conference
Quotes from speakers at both conferences. Use the left and right arrows to switch between quotes.
The answers are upsidedown below in grey.
None of this is to say that it has always been like this. Emily Norton, Chair of the OFC, opened the event by stating “this year’s theme is ‘what needs to change’?” during the Report Launch. And I definitely got the feeling there had been a change in the air at the OFC. During lunchtime on the second day everyone (and I mean everyone) was talking about the same thing: how long it took for anyone on the stage to mention profit. The first person to do it was Princess Anne, and it was an almost passing comment before we all broke for lunch. People were surprised but many of the conversations I had or overheard were encouraging. Discussions about shifting mindset to the longer term so farms could continue to be productive and profitable for generations to come. The following morning over breakfast I heard a conversation about whether “all the regenerative stuff will feel like a slap in the face to the older farmers”. The conclusion was no: “this is how we used to do it before the Common Agricultural Policy told us to produce more by removing hedgerows”.
While what the two conferences want to achieve and how they want to achieve it seem to be well aligned, the difference in access to power between them was obvious. At the OFC there was a steady stream of speakers from the government, sessions from finance and land management companies, and even appearances from The Royal Family. Much of the content took a big picture and top down approach - seeking greater regulation of food system supply chain actors or having discussions about how to build a nationwide business case for nature-based solutions. The ORFC by contrast is put on entirely by its participants and the focus was more hands-on on-farm actions, and campaigning or protesting those in power.
I worry we’ve been divided and conquered. At an ORFC talk about reducing peat, Jill, a nursery grower, noted something poignant. Over the years her and her husband have been supplying seedlings to farmers, she has seen “the middle of agriculture be squeezed out. Now you only seem to get the huge industrial growers and the small artisanal ones.” What was once a spectrum, now seems black and white. Like any other ecosystem, our food system needs diversity to thrive. That is what will make it stable.
The problem with keeping these two groups separate is that having in-person connections really matters. At both the OFC and the ORFC the most common opening to any story of innovation was “it all started with a conversation down the pub”. If we genuinely want a more regenerative future for agriculture, as we say we do, we should be opening up those channels of communication. There are so many skills, so much knowledge, drive, and compassion on both sides. We need to be tackling the problems in our food system from all angles. There is a place for interrogating policy change, technology and business-led solutions in transforming our food systems just as much as there is for delving deep into farming practices and techniques.
At future events I would love to see crossover sessions, collaborations or joint networking. Our food system is in crisis. We need all hands on deck. And maybe, we’ll find that there is more that unites us as farmers than divides us. I am looking forward to the day I hear more stories of OFC and ORFC delegates shaking up the status quo together that begin with the words “it all started with a conversation down the pub in Oxford”.
