The Oxford Farming Conference
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Get your OFC25 Ticket
Visit our booking office to secure your in-person or online ticket for the 2025 conference, running from 8 - 10 January.
Physical Tickets include: Wednesday afternoon (Inspiring Innovators, FW Question Time, Fieldwork Book Club), Thursday (Partner Events, Main Conference, OFC Debate) and Friday (Partner Events, Main Conference). Access to the OFC25 app for networking with in-person and online delegates and on-demand video content post-OFC. There is the option to add the Chairman's Reception (£25 plus VAT) and the Christ Church Dinner (£95 plus VAT).
Digital Tickets include: Access to a live online stream of all sessions hosted on the main conference stage on Thursday and Friday. Access to the OFC25 app for networking with in-person and online delegates and on-demand video content post-OFC. It excludes the debate and any partner events during these days.
Adam Bedford
Collaborative Projects Director, Fera Science Ltd and Fieldwork Book Club
Adam Bedford is Collaborative Projects Director at Fera Science, working in the interface between farming and applied science.
In his spare time he runs the Fieldwork Book Club, an online community of readers reading books connected to farming, food and the natural world.
Becci Berry
Farmer, K B Berry & Son
Becci runs a 365-ha mixed farm on the Oxfordshire/Wiltshire borders. Approximately 200 ha is tenanted from the National Trust. Formerly a dairy farmer, she now rears 200 head of native beef cattle and manages various arable operations.
In addition to the day-to-day farming, Becci is a trustee on the board of The Institute For Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH); Director and Vice Chair of Orion Farming, a local farm buying group and on the steering committee of the Ock Cluster group. Becci is keen on innovation and technology and as such is part of the British On Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN) as well as being involved in other farmer discussion groups across the country.
In 2019 Becci was one of the Oxford Farming Conference Emerging Leaders (now called Inspire)
Tim Burnhope
Group Director – Special Projects, JCB
Tim Burnhope is JCB’s Group Director – Special Projects, focussing on the overall success of hydrogen as a zero-carbon fuel for the future of both construction and agricultural equipment.
Tim is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and also the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and Institution of Agricultural Engineers.
Jude Capper
Professor of Sustainable Beef and Sheep Production, Harper Adams University and Livestock Sustainability Consultancy
Professor Jude L. Capper is the ABP Chair of Sustainable Beef and Sheep Production at Harper Adams University and an independent Livestock Sustainability Consultant.
Jude's research focuses on the sustainability of livestock production systems, specifically dairy, beef and sheep. She is passionate about the role of ruminants in sustainable systems.
Henry Dimbleby
Co-Founder, Bramble Partners
Henry Dimbleby is the author of Ravenous: How to get ourselves and our planet into shape. published in March 2023. He is the co-founder and former CEO of Leon restaurants, the Sustainable Restaurant Association and the charity Chefs in Schools, which brings restaurant chefs into school kitchens.
In 2013, he co-authored The School Food Plan, a blueprint for government setting out actions to transform what children eat in schools and how they learn about food. It resulted in the introduction of free school meals for all children up to the age of eight, and cooking lessons being made obligatory for all children up to 14.
From 2018 to 2023, Dimbleby was the lead non-executive board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.He has also advised the Labour party on how to improve the sustainability and security of the food system. Henry previously worked as a Strategy Consultant at Bain & Company, where he worked with businesses on strategy, performance improvement and organisational design. Before that he worked as a journalist at The Daily Telegraph and a chef at the Michelin-starred Four Seasons Inn on the Park.
Jim Fairlie
Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity, Scottish Government
Jim Fairlie began his career as a shepherd before becoming a hill farmer. He built a successful food and events-based catering business and has extensive experience in urban and rural affairs. He was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2021.
He was appointed Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity in February 2024.
Colin Ferguson
Farmer, P Ferguson & Co and NFU Scotland Dairy Vice Chairman
Colin Ferguson is a partner in a family dairy farming business, milking 400 cows and supplying milk to Arla Foods.
Located in South West Scotland, the farms are focused on producing milk from grass efficiently and have just recently converted one of the units to robotic milking.
Colin is also Vice Chair of the NFU Scotland milk committee, an AHDB Sector council member and keen mountain biker.
Professor Piers Forster
Chair, Climate Change Committee
Professor Forster is the Interim Chair of the Climate Change Committee. He is also the Director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures and Professor of Physical Climate Change at the University of Leeds. As an atmospheric physicist, Piers researchers both the causes of climate change and climate feedbacks in the Earth system, to understand temperature and rainfall changes and improve their projections.
He has played a significant role authoring Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, including the Fourth (2007) and Fifth (2013) and Sixth (2021) assessment reports and the IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C (2018).
As well as his research career, he established the forest protection and research charity the United Bank of Carbon. He has a number of roles advising industry and government, including membership of the Sustainable Aviation Advisory Board.
Bram Govaerts
General Director, CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center)
Bram Govaerts is renowned for pioneering, implementing, and inspiring transformational changes for farmers and consumers in meeting the sustainable development challenges. He brings together multi-disciplinary science and development teams to integrate sustainable, multi-stakeholder and sector strategies that generate innovation and change in agri-food systems.
His initiatives, excellence in science for impact and the partnerships he inspired have resulted in improved nutrition, nature conservation, and national and international resilience and food security.
Liz Haines
2024 Nuffield Scholar - Neurodiversity in Agriculture, Wells Farming Ltd
Liz Haines is a new entrant dairy farmer from Staffordshire and a director of Mole Valley Farmers.
Last year she started a Nuffield Scholarship, focusing on how agriculture can become more neurodiversity inclusive.
Rob Havard
Ecologist & Farmer, Phepson Angus
Rob Havard is a professional ecologist and organic beef farmer farming in partnership with his girlfriend Lizzie and his father David across 1700 acres of wildflower-rich diverse pastures/woodland in the Midlands.
Rob's particular focus is the balance between ecology, profitable farming systems and breeding cattle that thrive in our natural environment.
Professor Dieter Helm
University of Oxford
Dieter Helm is Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford.
From 2012 to 2020, he was Independent Chair of the Natural Capital Committee. He is a Vice President of the Exmoor Society, a Vice President of BBOWT, and Honorary Fellow, Brasenose College, Oxford.
Lisbeth Henricksen
Executive Director, SEGES Innovation APS
Lisbeth Henricksen is Executive Director in SEGES Innovation, an independent Danish research and innovation company, which works for a sustainable and competitive agriculture and food production.
Lisbeth holds a MSc in Agriculture and has worked in the agricultural industry for 20 years, holding various positions in England and Denmark.
One of her roles is to position the company as an international frontrunner in sustainable agriculture and food production.
Neil Heseltine
Farmer, Hill Top Farm
Neil Heseltine was born and brought up at Hill Top Farm, Malham where he now farms with his partner, Leigh, and they have a young daughter, Violet. Together they farm approx. 1500 acres of upland limestone pasture. In 2003 they were involved in a conservation grazing project introducing Belted Galloway cattle to the farm. This proved to be defining time for the family and business in terms of mind-set and ethos as they sought more sustainable and nature friendly farming methods.
In 2019 the farm was honoured to receive the National Trust's 'Farming with Nature' award
Olly Hicks
British Explorer
Olly Hicks is a record setting ocean explorer and mariculture farmer.
Known for the first solo Atlantic row from USA-UK, he pioneers sustainable mariculture practices to support ocean health. Combining exploration with conservation, Hicks advocates for the marine environment and inspires others to engage with adventure and foster a love of the oceans.
Huw Irranca-Davies
Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, Welsh Government
Huw Irranca-Davies worked for many years in public and private sector leisure management and as a Senior Lecturer in Higher Education before entering politics. In February 2002 he was elected as the Labour MP for Ogmore in a parliamentary by-election, a seat which he held until 2016 when he chose to stand as the Assembly Member for Ogmore at the National Assembly for Wales. He was duly elected to the Assembly (now Senedd Cymru) in 2016.
In Westminster Huw served in several roles including as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to Ministers in DWP, Northern Ireland and DCMS; as a Government Whip; as the Under-Secretary of State for Wales; and as Environment Minister in Defra. From 2010 he served as Shadow Energy Minister, and then as Shadow Minister for Food, Farming and Rural Affairs. In May 2015, he was elected as the Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, a position held until May 2016 when he was elected to the National Assembly of Wales – now Senedd Cymru. Up to his appointment as Cabinet Secretary, Huw was Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee and a member of the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee. Huw was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs on 21 March 2024.
He was appointed Deputy First Minister on 11 September 2024, in addition to retaining responsibility for Climate Change and Rural Affairs matters.
Phil Jarvis
Land & Estates Director, Albanwise Ltd
Phil has worked with Albanwise’s farming, environment, and property teams since 2021. Albanwise Farming manages land and estates in Norfolk and Yorkshire, growing sugar beet, cereals, oil seed rape, sunflowers, maize and potatoes.
Albanwise Environment manages wetland, woodland, hedgerows, peatland, and agri-environment habitats. Its consultancy business is involved in a large Landscape Recovery Wetland Project, Nutrient Neutrality, Fenland Restoration and the Woodland Carbon Code.
Phil spent over 20 years at the GWCT Allerton Project -farming, training, and developing partnerships within the agricultural industry. He is former Chair of the National Farmers Union Environmental Forum, and Vice-Chair of the NFU National Combinable Crops Board.
He completed a MSc in Sustainable Agricultural Management at Harper Adams University, and is a Professional Fellow of the Institute of Agricultural Management.
Dr Craig Lewis
Genetic Service - Europe, Genus PIC
Dr Craig Lewis was raised on a family farm in Herefordshire. He has advanced degrees in Animal Behaviour/Welfare and Animal Breeding/Genetics, including a PhD at the Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, which he undertook before having research positions in Australia and a commercial position in the United States.
Craig currently oversees Genetic Dissemination for Genus PIC in the Europe/Middle East/Africa region working with pig producers from developing farmers in Africa to multinational integrated food businesses. He is also the current chair of the steering committee for the European Forum for Farm Animal Breeders (EFFAB).
Ian Marshall
Head of Business Development and Policy, Queens University Belfast
Ian Marshall is Head of Business Development and Policy in the Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy, Queens University Belfast.
Formerly in the Institute for Global Food Security, he was President of the Ulster Farmers Union, a Senator in the upper house of the Irish Government, and is a farmer.
Andrew Muir
Northern Ireland Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, DAERA
Andrew Muir MLA is Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland and Alliance Party MLA for North Down.
He previously served as Alliance Party Chief Whip, Finance and Infrastructure Spokesperson and leading party efforts for Restoration and Reform of Assembly and Executive.
Aged 47, prior to joining the Northern Ireland Assembly in late 2019 Andrew served for nearly a decade as Councillor including a term as Mayor of North Down 2013/14.
Before becoming a MLA Andrew worked for Northern Ireland’s Public Transport provider Translink as a Senior Project Manager overseeing roll out of multi-million pound Future Ticketing System Project.
Anthony Murphy
Director and Founder, The Beefy Boys
Murf is one of the founders and directors of The Beefy Boys, having competed successfully in BBQ and Burger competitions in the Uk and US including coming 2nd in the words best burger competition in Las Vegas in 2014 and top ten best burger in the world in Orlando, Alabama And Dallas Texas between 2015 -2019.
He was most recently crowned the coveted title of "Burger Chef of The Year 2023" at the national burger awards where the Beefy Boys also took home the top prize of "Burger of the Year". After various appearances on Saturday Kitchen and Tom Kerridges Hidden World of Hospitality The Beefy Boys released their first Cook Book, Topping the Amazon charts and becoming a Sunday Times best seller.
Dr Venkatachalam Murugan
Consul General of India in Birmingham
Dr Venkatachalam Murugan is the Consul General of Indian in Birmingham, and during his diplomatic assignments abroad, he served as Head of Chancery, Second Secretary/First Secretary in the Embassy of India, Tokyo (Japan) (2007-2012).
He has also served as Charge d’ affaires (Cd’a) in the Embassy of India Prague, Czech Republic in 2015 .
He was awarded a Ph.D in Economics for his thesis in Food Security in 2005 by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, which is a pioneering institute for Green Revolution in India.
Emma O'Sullivan
Founder, The DPJ Foundation
Emma O'Sullivan is the founder of The DPJ Foundation. A mental health charity supporting those in agriculture.
The charity was set up following her husband's suicide and now provides innovative support across the industry including training, professional support, prevention work and postvention services.
Alex and Carlyn Paton
Directors, We hae meat Ltd (The Cairnhill Group)
Husband and wife team Alex and Carlyn Paton from South Ayrshire in central Scotland run a diversified family farming enterprise with interests that include farming (arable and livestock), meat manufacturing, renewable energy generation and land & estate management.
At the heart of their enterprise is the family farm, Cairnhill, and it was from there that they started their diversification journey in 2007.
Steve Reed
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Steve Reed was appointed Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 5 July 2024.
He has been MP for Streatham & Croydon North since 2012.
Before entering Parliament, Steve was elected Leader of Lambeth Council in 2006 where he pioneered the co-operative council model that gives communities a bigger say in local decision-making and introduced the UK’s first ‘public health’ approach to reducing violent youth crime. In 2013, he received an OBE from Her Majesty the Queen for services to local government. Prior to entering politics, Steve worked in publishing for 18 years.
Nick Saltmarsh
Co-founder, Hodmedod Ltd
Nick Saltmarsh is a co-founder of Hodmedod, a business working to increase diversity on farms and in our food, for the benefit of farming and farmed landscapes, the environment, individual health and our food culture. Hodmedod works with over thirty different crops to produce a diverse range of plant-based wholefoods.
Barb Stefanyshyn-Cote
Co-founder/CEO, Black Fox Farm and Distillery
The journey of transitioning from a successful large-scale grain farm in the middle of the Canadian Prairies to a very small premium distillery has utilized skills Barb and her husband John never knew they had. Success comes from fearlessly exploring all opportunities and working with their strengths.
Anna Taylor
Executive Director, The Food Foundation
Anna Taylor is Executive Director at The Food Foundation - a leading organisation working on food policy.
Previously she was a civil servant at DFID leading nutrition work and was awarded an OBE for services to tackle undernutrition. She was chief independent adviser to Henry Dimbleby for the National Food Strategy.
Richard Thomas
Farmer, Risbury Court Farm
Farming in North Herefordshire with his father, Richard is trying to farm with an agroecolgical mindset. Low input, small footprint, management intensive, enterprise stacking agriculture is a big part of our 'small farm' future.
Gaia Vince
Environmental strategist and author
Gaia Vince is a science writer and broadcaster exploring the interplay between human systems and the planetary environment. She is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Anthropocene Institute at UCL and a host of BBC Inside Science.
Her first book, Adventures In The Anthropocene won the Royal Society Science Book of the Year Prize. Her latest book, Nomad Century: How To Survive The Climate Upheaval, explores global migration and planetary restoration in a radical call to arms.
Dominic Watters
FoodisCare CIC
Dominic Watters, also known as Single Dad SW, comes from the most deprived blocks of his council estate. He has used his experience of the daily realities of poverty to help inform discussions about fuel and food insecurity in the UK. Releasing his first book in 2021, he has appeared on ITV News, BBC Newsnight, Sky News, the New Statesman, to name a few, and is now widely regarded as a voice of poverty.
He addressed the House of Lords Food and Diet Select Committee, where Dominic spoke to how solutions to food system transformation need to be inform by communities without access to nutrition. His work includes developing his Food is Care community interest company to advocate for a sustainable future that can benefit the most disadvantaged in our society.
Dee Woods
Food Ethics Council
Dee Woods is an award winning food actionist, Afroecologist and earth wisdom keeper.
A passionate knowledge broker, ideator, pollinator and weaver who advocates for good food for all and a just food system. Her work meets at the nexus of human rights, food sovereignty, agroecology, community, policy, ethics, culture, decoloniality and justice.
