The Oxford Farming Conference

Our next webinar, which re-visits the theme of the 1958 Oxford Farming Conference theme 'Towards Greater Self Sufficiency', will look at Food security, nature and net zero: can we have our cake and eat it?

Covid-19 and empty supermarket shelves have prompted a refocus on our food security. What should this mean for the new Agriculture Bill progressing through Parliament, with its emphasis on paying farmers to protect the environment? Is it time for a re-think? Or is our food security dependent on reducing climate and nature risks? Can we have our cake and eat it?

Our panel will explore:

• What do we mean by food security?
• What lessons have we learned from Covid-19 about what matters for UK food security?
• How can we balance food security priorities with tackling the climate and nature emergencies?

Speakers (click here to read their biographies)

• Prof. of Food Policy at London’s City University Prof. Tim Lang
• Strategy and Policy Director at Soil Association Joanna Lewis
• Agro-Ecological Farmer, George Young
• CEO at RSPB Rebecca Speight

Chair:

OFC Director, and Associate Director Farming and Land Use at Soil Association, Liz Bowles

Watch back:

To watch the session, click here

In 1974, the conference title was ‘The World, Its Food and My Farm. It was a year marked by Britain entering its first post-war recession, a three day week, two general elections and a state of emergency in Northern Ireland.

As the UK adapts to living with COVID-19 we take a look back to the past and discuss how the food sector can adapt to the new conditions in 2020.

Speakers :(click here to read their biographies)

1. The World - Global recession and UN Sustainable Development Goal SGD 2

Terri Sarch, UK Ambassador to the UN Food and Agriculture Agencies in Rome

2.Its Food - Sustainable food systems

Robynne Anderson, President of Emerging Ag

3. My Farm, our members - Opportunities for UK agriculture

Caroline Drummond, Chief Executive of Linking Environment and Farming (LEAF)

Chair:

OFC Director and food safety and nutrition consultant, Alo Solutions, Barbara Bray

Register:

To register for the free one-hour webinar, click here

From January 2021, and with no trade deals concluded (apart from with Japan),  UK farmers face global competition in all sectors – meat, dairy, fresh produce, poultry, ornamentals, arable – in home and export markets. Join us live as the former Prime Minister of Australia and appointed adviser to UK Board of Trade, Tony Abbott and NFU President, Minette Batters, discuss what this means for the future.

In 1990, when Farmers in Competition was last the theme of the OFC,  the discussion was about price and producer support. These will be lost post Brexit, and proposed new farm support schemes are focused on ‘public goods’, which may exclude food production.

The future deals to be brokered may eliminate trade barriers, arguably allowing the UK and other countries to play to their comparative advantages, specialising in what they produce, so boosting productivity and benefitting consumers. In agricultural supply chains, such comparative advantages could be climatic, soils, skills, water, cheaper labour or sheer scale. But the effect of unfettered free trade on UK farming, food, rural communities and the British countryside could be significant and possibly irreversible.

Join us for this #OFCBitesize session which will focus on the theme of "Farmers in Competition". What might UK farmers face under the new proposed trade deals, and how will farmers in some sectors and countries successfully meet competition from lean and agile producers?

Speakers :

• Tony Abbott – former Prime Minister of Australia, appointed adviser to UK Board of Trade
• Minette Batters – President, National Farmers Union

Chair: OFC Director, Marion Regan

Register:

To register for the free one-hour webinar, click here

The second of two #OFCBitesize sessions this week

Carbon, the future of its trading and the potential for farmers earning from sequestration are hot topics and will be central to the last 2020 #OFCBitesize (you can listen back here). How farming measures carbon, captures it and values it, is still under discussion, but we already know it offers a big opportunity for the future of farming and future resilience. Farmers have the ability to produce food and capture carbon using the sun’s free energy.

During this #OFCBitesize we will ask our panel to explore the modelling tools that are needed to make this possible, where carbon comes from and how farming can sell carbon to produce a financial return. Does agriculture need the support of the public purse or can farmers gain from the commercial carbon markets without Government support? How do farms maintain ownership of carbon? Could cooperation models be part of the solution? And how could the industry ensure that it is working as one?

Speakers:

• Professor Myles Allen - Professor of Geosystem Science & Leader of the Climate Research Programme
• Professor Richard Pywell - Senior Principal Scientist at the NERC Centre for Ecology
• Andrew Voysey - Head of Business and Government Solutions at Soil Capital

Chair: Andrew Pitts, OFC Director and Farmer

To register: click here

In case you missed details on the first session

On Monday 30 November our #OFCBitesize hosted Secretary of State, George Eustice MP, when he shared the Government’s farm support transition roadmap (click here to watch back). What will our panel make of his recommendations and how can farming ensure that the public recognises that land use can be part of the carbon solution and not the problem?