A tale of two conferences (in one city)
Adam Cade
At the start of each New Year farmers, growers and others gather in Oxford for two apparently similar, but actually quite different, conferences. They happen in the same week in January and for the last few years I’ve been volunteering at the Oxford REAL Farming Conference (ORFC). So what is Real Farming?
Over the last 16 years ORFC has grown to become what it claims is the largest global gathering focusing on agroecology. It represents a new global social movement in agriculture that embraces agroecology, food sovereignty and resilience in the face of the growing nature, climate and public health “polycrisis”.
In one of 20 or so sessions we heard about the new OASIS project by Agroecology Europe – a way of assessing the level of transition towards agroecology on a farm. It indicates there is no single approach but diversity and circularity (minimal inputs, pollution and waste) are all key elements.
The other Oxford Farming Conference, at which my father frequently spoke as the Director of a small agrochemical business called Cleanacres, was started in 1936 responding to the needs of the time. Today it is the more conventional, industrial face of farming but with an even stronger representation by agribusiness. It has sessions on regional investment, precision breeding with each session sponsored by the likes of The UK Agri-Tech Centre, Tescos, NFU and Bayer but also on nature-friendly farming and the new Environmental Land Management schemes. So it represents farming systems on the left of the diagram above, as well as most of the farming interests in our relatively flat, good arable and livestock-poor farmland in the East Midlands.
Both conferences are trying to address the same challenges and issues but responding in very different ways. It is hard to find any farm in the Rockingham Forest area that would fit well in a session at the Real Farming Conference other than a few small-scale growers and farmers like Ganders Goats in Cottingham or Spratton Organic market garden. Over the border at the Allerton Project’s farm in Loddington, Leicestershire is one of the growing number of farms developing a “regenerative” farming system as a first step towards agroecology. Farms like Bottom Farm in Hargrave which follow this regenerative approach have stopped using the plough and now operate min till and zero till techniques, growing crops in rotation and building fertility with green manure and companion crops.
So how far and fast should farms be transitioning towards agroecology so profitable food production can work in harmony with nature recovery?
The RSPB was present at both conferences making the case for their Fair to Nature certified farm scheme dedicating at least 10% of their farmed land to a range of high-quality habitats. The Woodland Trust were also there promoting their agroforestry research and grants. The Soil Association and Landworkers Alliance are some of the most active campaigners for agroecology. Over the last few conferences it has appeared to me that the attitudes and approaches of farmers and conservationists are slowly converging, as conservationists use more livestock as management tools, and farmers adopt more environmental land management schemes.
For all the tractor protests outside the conference hall, the future for nature-friendly farming looks good. But still one of the main indicators for progress on water management and nature – the Species Abundance Index – shows that nearly 50% of Priority Species have shown a decline over the last 50 years. Our still-fragmented Rockingham Forest needs an even closer partnership between farmers and conservationists for it to become part of the solution to the nature, climate and public health crises.
Conferences like these can only help.
Pictures of this year's conference by Jamie March
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