2010 - 2024

In the shadow of the climate crisis, the management of common land faces its biggest change since World War II. Focusing on the Lake District, this session will address the importance of upland commons for biodiversity, carbon, water storage and access – and for rural communities whose labour has shaped this landscape over millennia, underpinning its World Heritage Site inscription. The current government support scheme for farmers ends in 2024 and, with ELM far from…

In this in depth account of a single farm, we will hear from Rebecca Mayhew, who alongside her husband, Stuart and their two children, owns Old Hall Farm in South Norfolk. Rebecca and Stuart have converted a once intensively farmed pork unit covering 500 acres into a regenerative oasis. The farm now has multiple farming enterprises, including a 60-head Jersey herd producing raw milk that is sold locally and nationally and within which the calves…

Last year, in collaboration with other labour rights and farming organisations, the Landworkers' Alliance produced a report looking into the structural drivers of labour exploitation in the UK's industrial horticulture sector, and how supermarkets are reaping the rewards of this exploitation. The report revealed how the new UK seasonal worker immigration scheme is facilitating worker exploitation, and provided workers with a platform to recount their experiences of both abuse and resistance. In this session, Landworkers'…

From “climate-neutral beef”, to nature-friendly pesticides, big ag’s powerful PR machine spreads influential narratives – and employs underhand methods – to maintain the polluting status quo. Drawing on examples from the UK, EU and global context, in this panel the investigative journalism outlet DeSmog – and friends – will put corporate tactics under the spotlight. The session will be an insight into the misleading narratives used by big business and will equip ORFC participants to…

Two women will share their families' colonised and colonising experiences with their traditional foods and the traditional foods of Indigenous people on the land they settled. Jessica Milgroom's grandfather grew up as a descendant of settler families from mixed European heritage on Ojibwe reservation land in Northern Minnesota. He was instrumental in commercialising wild rice that Indigenous people in Minnesota held sacred as food and ancestral relatives. Jessica will share how that influences her life's…

As the trinity of égalité, liberté and fraternité, we need a new trinity for the age of ecology which has wholeness, integrity and cohesion. Satish Kumar proposes the trinity of soil, soul and society. Our reverence for the earth, our care of the soul and a just order in society represent a vision of sustainability, spirituality, justice and a holistic vision for the future. In a workshop session Satish Kumar will elaborate the concept of…

The Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming Programme (APCNF) is a highly successful government-led initiative involving millions of farmers and eight million hectares of land in India. It revolves around nine key agroecological principles, including the use of indigenous seed, cover crops and keeping soil disturbance to a minimum. Probably most importantly it offers a viable alternative to using chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides. In 2020, members of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa…

In this session we will show how fibre crops have been rediscovered and are generating excitement in many applications from very low to very high tech applications. We will show how cultivation will address emissions and response to climate change in at least two big sectors. Transport and the building trade have an unacceptably high carbon footprint, which these crops can target; but they are also good for on-farm sustainable soil improvement, reduced inputs and…

This performance session looks at the ways in which folk music-making can map sociocultural change at land and sea. This relates to environment, landscape, activism and traditions. Lucy Beattie is a sheep farmer from the North West Highlands of Scotland. Lucy recently completed a PhD which looks at the connections between science and society. Luke Daniels is a folk musician originally from South Oxfordshire now living in Scotland. They will explore the concept of musician-as-science…