2010 - 2024

We are always hearing that, when it comes to food, people only really care about price. But is this really true? Last summer and autumn, the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission (FFCC) began its National Conversation about Food. Working with partners, FFCC set out to talk to citizens about what they really want from food. Through rigorous in-depth sessions and national polling the project asked about food’s relationship with health, farming, land use, nature, and…

The Black Farmer’s Market CIC is supporting new businesses and food producers to grow, reach new customers and audiences, and to work with experienced traders and business experts to achieve success. Market trading is low cost, no boss, flexible and high return – we are giving ambitious black food growers, with an entrepreneurial flair, the chance to turn clever ideas and sustainably grown produce into sustainable businesses. The Black Farmers Market aims to empower the…

The results are in! Defra has been evaluating its pilots for supporting people to start and scale up land-based businesses. Meanwhile Lantra has been looking at how the apprenticeship scheme has been (not) working for agriculture, and developing plans to improve it, as well as support new voices in farming. Come and hear what they have found out and the future direction for their respective action to support new entrants into farming, growing, and more.

A series of illustrations created as part of ethnographic field work on Detoit’s Urban Farms. Featuring portraits of farmers alongside quotes from conversations and interviews this exhibition centres the voices of BIPOC and Jewish farmers working to reclaim cultural identity and cultivate decolonial land practices. It is a celebration particularly of the incredible black food sovereignty movement in the city which is nurturing abolition, liberation, and self-determination.

This is a space for all those who feel called to work with the land, from the experienced to the curious, where we can reflect on how our spirituality informs our work, or how our work has shaped our spirituality, or perhaps the deep call we feel to do something even if we haven’t figured out exactly what just yet. We’ll start with a short meditation, and then open to a sharing circle to explore…

Join us for an inspiring session convened by the Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA) on SDG0, the unwritten sustainable development goal on love and joy, which can be seen as the ultimate goal of UN Agenda 2030 which outlines 17 other sustainable development goals. Satish Kumar will introduce us to the inner dimension of farming, rooted in the radical love we nurture for the land, the seeds, the plants, the seasons. This inner dimension connects…

If you are wondering about wool and would like to have a go at handling different types of fleece, learn about the processes of turning raw fleece into a useable product or try your hand at spinning or weaving, then come along to our relaxed, informal space. Any ORFC delegates who are interested in wool and would like to help co-create this space, please contact Julie Baber pigsmoor@gmail.com.

Hungry for Change looks at the huge climate impacts of our modern, industrialised food system - which is itself also increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Join Cornish forager Josh Quick as he takes us on a fascinating journey to meet the people working to help us ‘do food better’ as the climate changes - from the gleaners picking waste crops in our fields to projects growing food in unusual places, and a…

The Lost Flock describes a personal journey to save a sub-group of UK’s rarest sheep breed in 2013 and how the closure of the island abattoir led to agroecological farming, involving other farmers in a Community. Jane Cooper of Orkney Boreray (a collective of farmers, craftspeople, and others) will take through the influence of learning about agroecology and the ethos of Colin Tudge, Chris Smaje, and attending ORFC.; now, as farmers, they are working with…