A sense that two farming conferences are getting closer together; although it’s fun to ‘spot the difference’, we can harvest more common ground. (updated Jan 2025, prior to my 13th year attending both conferences)
I caught two people ‘stuck’ between the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) and the Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC). One had been ‘suggested’ by his boss to go to the OFC but their heart was at the ORFC, while the other, at an agricultural university with its heart firmly at OFC, found themselves drawn instinctively to the ORFC.
Although I could only manage one day, there was certainly plenty of everything for everyone. If you wanted a rally atmosphere, the Town Hall was the place for you (ORFC); if you wanted technical stuff, the Examination Rooms were your calling (OFC). There was different political drama at both conferences with the Secretary of State (Michael Gove) speaking at both conferences – a first for a Defra SofS.
A hint of that common ground comes in the form of a farmer holding up a large forage radish (a OFC veteran increasingly seen speaking at ORFC) spreading the message on cover crops and good soil management. There was barely a murmur in the room when he suggested that ‘judicious’ use of herbicide might be required to produce crops with roots 80 cm in length that re-condition soil which then enables greater yields of food crops (themselves possibly requiring less pesticide input due to better soil condition).
While some say we are only three meals from anarchy (used to be 6 days…), food related academics consider wider land use issues, others believe that we are only six steps back to the land, I believe it’s time for us to step closer together for cross-conference knowledge transfer between both the Oxford farming conferences before too long.
ps note this diverse range of Sponsors of Oxford Farming Conf 2025
