English 
For the first year since 2020 the Oxford Real Farming Conference will taking place in-person in Oxford.
As an ORFC partner, the Landworkers’ Alliance have pulled together an exciting programme of in-person sessions – four of which will be live streamed as part of the Online Conference.
See below for more details about our sessions. We can’t wait to see you there!
Small Farms Across Four Nations: Towards more inclusive subsidy systems
When? Friday 6th, 11.00 – 12.30
Chaired by: Jyoti Fernandes (Landworkers’ Alliance)
This session will also be live-streamed as part of the ORFC Online Conference.The shift away from area-based agricultural subsidies has been a welcome transition to those who have recognised the unjustness of a system which has essentially rewarded farmers and landowners for owning large amounts of land. Now, as we embark on new farming subsidy systems in Wales, Scotland, England and Ireland, the question remains of where small farms – including market gardens, crofts, and urban and peri-urban farms – will fit into the picture. This panel discussion will explore the potential as well as the limitations of current subsidy reforms in Wales, Scotland, England and Ireland in relation to small farms (particularly with regard to area-based eligibility thresholds) the benefits that small farms bring to our food systems, landscapes and communities, and propose recommendations for how subsidy reforms can offer more inclusive support for smaller farming enterprises.
Chair: Jyoti Fernandes (Landworkers’ Alliance)
Experts in Their Field: Exploring the benefits and challenges of farmer-led research
Where? The Woodshed (Oxford Story Museum)
When? Thursday 5th, 11.00 – 12.30
Chaired by: Tara Wight (Agroecology Research Collaboration/ARC and Landworkers’ Alliance)
This session will also be live-streamed as part of the ORFC Online Conference
Experimentation has been a core element of many farmers’ and growers’ practice since the dawn of agriculture, and continues to influence day-to-day decision making at the farm level. However, in recent decades, top-down approaches to innovation in agriculture have dominated the formal research agenda, resulting in massive degradation of land, environment and local culture. There is an urgent need to recognise the value of farmers’ knowledge and research and the essential role it can play in the transition to a resilient agroecological food system. Farmers from a variety of sectors will present their own research, and talk through the research process and their findings and learnings. There will then be a panel discussion which will focus on the benefits and challenges of farmer-led research, methods for dissemination of findings, and how to integrate this knowledge into the formal knowledge system.
Speakers:
Tom Gregory (Organic dairy farmer)
Rebecca Swinn (Innovative Farmers Programme, Soil Association)
Camilla Hayselden-Ashby (Field Margin, Ashby Farms, Innovative Farmers Programme)
Rosie Begg (Blackcurrant grower)
Chair: Tara Wight (Agroecology Research Collaboration/ARC, Landworkers’ Alliance)
Struggles for Land Justice: Sharing strategies from the UK, Brazil and East Africa
Where? The Woodshed (Oxford Story Museum)
When? Thursday 5th, 14.00 – 15.30
Chaired by: Oli Rodker (Landworkers’ Alliance and Ecological Land Cooperative)
This session will also be live-streamed as part of the ORFC Online Conference
A long history of land enclosure both here in the UK and globally has left a legacy of deep societal disconnection from the land, and denied countless communities their right to pursue land-based livelihoods. But just as mass land dispossessions and the creeping enclosure of the commons are phenomena that are still ongoing today, the struggles for land justice and reclaiming our connection to the land are equally widespread. This session will shine a light on a variety of strategies being used to bring about land justice in different corners of the globe; learning from the histories of land and agrarian struggles in England, to the direct grassroots action of the Movimiento de los Trabajadores Sem Tierra (MST) in Brazil, and from participatory videography with indigenous groups defending their territories in East Africa, to the pursuit of progressive land reform policy and legislation in Scotland.
Speakers:
Emma Cardwell (Lancaster University)
Nick Lunch (InsightShare)
Roz Corbett (Researcher, community grower, Landworkers’ Alliance)
Daniel Piovesan (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra, Brazil)
Chair: Oli Rodker (Landworkers’ Alliance, Ecological Land Cooperative)
Local Food Economies: How can we join the dots?
Where? The Woodshed (Oxford Story Museum)
When? Friday 6th, 9.00 – 10.30
Chaired by: Peter Samsom (LWA’s Resilient Local Food Systems Project)
This session will also be live-streamed as part of the ORFC Online Conference
Over the last 30 years or so, a vibrant network of agroecological short supply chain and direct sales businesses has developed in the UK, but currently they represent a tiny proportion of the market. Scaling up will bring colossal benefits to the environment, local economies and communities; but it is an equally colossal task! Functioning infrastructure is key to upscaling local food systems, but the loss of small-scale processing facilities like abattoirs and mills, combined with difficulties in accessing markets have hindered the scalability of local food systems and left many small-scale producer businesses struggling to remain viable. This session will hear from people working on new grassroots initiatives to share, co-operatise and create open source short supply chain infrastructure to join the dots in local food economies, place control over the food system back in the hands of local producers and communities, and to make healthy, local, sustainably produced food more accessible to all.
Speakers:
Danny Fisher (Better Food Traders)
Sophie Paterson (Food Data Collaboration)
Emma Shires (Nottingham Mill Coop)
Chair: Peter Samsom (Resilient Local Food Systems Project, Landworkers’ Alliance)
Intergenerational Story-Sharing: For a youth-led agroecology movement
Where? The LINK Room (Oxford Story Museum)
When? Thursday 5th, 16.00 – 17.30
FLAME – the youth branch of the LWA – invites you to take part in an intergenerational story-sharing space to share and listen to stories from older and younger generations on building a youth-led movement for agroecology. The session will explore questions like: How can we increase awareness of agroecology and food justice in generations facing a widening disconnect from the land? What techniques can young people learn from older generations, and what can young people teach them? What techniques can young people learn from older generations, and what can young people teach them?
Let’s Get Strategic! For a movement-wide strategy in critical times
Where? Christopher Room (St Aldgate’s Church)
When? Friday 6th, 14.00 – 15.30
We are at a critical turning point in advancing the movement for food sovereignty and agroecology. Changes in food and farming are being forced by the climate crisis, new agricultural and food policy, the cost of living crisis, and fuel and agricultural input price rises, opening up a window of opportunity to achieve whole-scale transformation of our food and farming systems. Now more than ever we need to be moving together as a movement to achieve the most impact. This session will be a space to share and reflect on what it means to be strategic and to what extent our past and current activities match up to how we believe change comes about. The workshop will introduce some systems theory and social movement frameworks as well as draw upon inspiration from other struggles, in order to support explorations of wise strategy for our movement at this moment in time.
Facilitators:
Ali Taherzadeh (Agroecological researcher and community grower)
Ama Crowe (Facilitator and grower)
Solidarity with Migrant Landworkers in Europe
Where? Long Room (Town Hall)
When? Friday 6th, 13.00 – 13.45
This presentation will explore working and environmental conditions at the bottom of corporate supply chain. Wage workers are often at the sharpest edge of the exploitative practices of a corporate food system that aims to extract wealth from both the land and the people that work it. Agribusinesses in Spain and Morocco, who supply the UK’s supermarket system, employ thousands of migrant workers who face oppressive working conditions, exposure to poisonous agrichemicals, and repression from a hostile migration system. Through a presentation of photos from recent international delegations, Catherine will seek to reveal the reality of an industrial food system based on the exploitation of the land and the people that work it, and introduce the work of the LWA’s Migrant Worker Solidarity Project in support of workers in their struggle for human conditions on their farms.
Speakers:
Catherine McAndrew(Landworkers’ Alliance, European Coordination of Via Campesina Migrant Workers Working Group)
Land Justice Podcast Soundscape: With The Landworkers’ Radio and Farmerama
Where? Christopher Room (St Aldgate’s Church)
When? Friday 6th, 13.00 – 13.45
Immerse yourself in a soundscape curated by The Landworkers’ Radio and Farmerama. In this interactive, drop-in session, we invite you to listen to our audio exhibition exploring the topic of land justice, and consider questions and prompts around the room. Respond in writing or verbally to others – what emotions does this soundscape evoke in you? Has the audio exhibition enhanced your understanding of land justice? What do you believe is the power of audio storytelling? How does the topic of land justice relate to you?
Facilitators:
Georgie Styles (The Landworkers’ Radio co-producer)
Dora Taylor (Farmerama)
How soy animal feeds are driving deforestation in the Amazon: an Indigenous perspective (film screening)
Join LWA’S Jyoti Fernandes for the premiere film screening of a new short documentary commissioned by the Landworkers’ Alliance as part of our upcoming animal feeds campaign, which explores the impacts of soy production in the Amazon from an indigenous perspective.
“The Kayapo community of the Brazilian Amazon want UK farmers to understand how genetically modified soya – grown to feed pigs and poultry in this country and around the world – is destroying the rainforest and their indigenous way of life. This 15-minute film was shot by young Kayapo filmmakers in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso especially for this year’s ORFC.”
Where? Christopher Room (St Aldates Church) When? Thursday 6th, 13.00-13.45
