Frances Moore Lappe’s bestselling book, Diet for a Small Planet was published in 1971 and taught America the social and personal significance of a new way of eating. Today, it remains just as relevant, exploring such critical themes as the connection between food and democracy.

Sharing her personal evolution and how this groundbreaking book changed her own life, world-renowned food expert Frances Moore Lappé offers ORFC delegates the opportunity to share in her experiences of…

Pathogens are repeatedly emerging out of a global agrifood system rooted in inequality, labour exploitation, and unfettered extractivism by which communities are robbed of their natural and social resources. In response, some propose agricultural intensification under the guise of sparing ‘wilderness’ – an approach that actually leads to greater deforestation and disease spillover. The false solution to divide people from nature would omit many forms of peasant, Indigenous, and smallholder agriculture methods that are integrated…

Working towards Net Zero to reduce global warming has well and truly arrived for us all and is even more important now as we strive to reach Government targets and look to the possible new requirements and structures of future farming payment schemes. Farmers are key and incredibly well placed to help deliver this globally through a range of changes and options for their farming practices.

This session on reaching Net Zero or even Sub-Zero…

Farmer Managed Seed Systems (FMSS) have, for hundreds of years, played a crucial role across the African continent in ensuring a diverse diet for millions of people and sustaining biodiversity. However, there is no continental law governing seeds in Africa and corporates have taken this as an opportunity to grab resources from the agricultural sector - which still occupies 70 % of the population into Africa - and sell them seed, fertilizers and pesticides. In…

COVID-19, Brexit and economic disruption are changing the UK sustainable food and drink markets, presenting new opportunities and challenges for organic farmers. This session outlines emerging trends and explores how farm businesses are adapting to build resilience in a time of change.

A changing world provides new opportunities and challenges for organic farmers.

Drawing on robust organic market trend data, and featuring speakers from flagship organic farm businesses, this session offers valuable insight into…

ADVANCE REGISTRATION REQUIRED. LIMITED SPACES: 50

Farmer-to-farmer learning is a pillar of the food sovereignty and agroecology movements, enabling territorially-specific learning and alliance-building to support farmers’ livelihoods and broader socio-political transformations. Most accounts of experiences in this field are based on rural contexts and rural farm models. However, the broadening food sovereignty and agroecology movement is also reaching out to urban and peri-urban farmers, some of whom were once rural and found themselves absorbed by expanding…

We cannot prevent climate and ecological breakdown without radical change to the food we eat and how it is produced. The IPCC Special Report on Land Use shows the extent of change required to restore natural carbon sinks, to help mitigate against temperature rises of 2 degrees and beyond, and adapt to avoid the worst impacts such as flooding and food shortages.

The CEE Bill lays out a pathway for the creation of a strategy…

To understand food sovereignty, we must understand the current issue of power at the root of our food system. Indigenous leaders, Chris Newman and Jo Jandi not only recognise the centralisation of power but are also actively working to redistribute power in their local communities. How? By democratising and embedding food sovereignty into our food system. Chris brings his experience from Sylvanaqua Farms in the Northern Neck of Virginia, and Jo Jandi brings his experience…

This session will hear from four projects in Western Europe pioneering ways of providing access to land for ecological food production and new entrant farmers. We’ll learn of different business models used in the UK, Germany, Belgium and France to inspire different models across the world and give insights into the context in which these projects operate and the practicalities of making them work.