In the 1990s, famine in North Korea killed 3 million people; many surviving children “lacked full cognitive ability”. Rice yields had more than halved, falling from eight tonnes per hectare down to three tonnes due to a misplaced faith in artificial fertiliser and other agro-chemicals and widespread abandonment of grassland, livestock and crop rotations. The soil had died and physically collapsed. Globally, the farming industry remains dependent on these chemicals, leading to widespread decline in…

Many grass-fed/regenerative farmers have been “going against the grain” for years. There are signs this is changing as more farmers are looking at regenerative techniques, especially with changing subsidies in the UK. US ranchers Doniga Markegard and Will Harris are leading the field when it comes to grass-based farming systems and regenerative land management. 

Will Harris took the leap 20 years ago. He is a sixth generation farmer on his family farm in Bluffton, Georgia.…

Award-winning inventive singer, folksong collector, conservationist and founder/director of The Nest Collective Sam Lee sings a special show of folksongs inspired by nature and for the Oxford Real Farming Conference.

Singing songs from his repertoire of ancient traditional British folk songs, this concert will dig deep into the numerous stunning songs that connected our forbearers to the land. For 15 years Sam has collected songs from across the UK and Ireland mostly recording the last…

What needs to be in place to change the behaviour of governments and institutions to encourage long-term thinking? This session will look at the approach adopted in Wales – the introduction of a law to protect future generations – through the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Despite global commitments to climate change and biodiversity from UN member states, passing this act in 2015 thrust Wales into the global spotlight as the only country…

At this time of multiple pandemics, of police violence, coronavirus, climate chaos, and unprecedented economic crisis, we are being called to put our food and land sovereignty dreams into deeper practice. Soul Fire Farm is an Afro-Indigenous community farm in New York that raises vegetables, fruit, herbs, eggs and poultry for people living under food apartheid, and is part of a growing movement to uphold everyone’s right to land, honor the people who grow our…

Two best-selling Australian authors, Charles Massy and Bruce Pascoe, discuss the similarities between the indigneous farming practices of Australian First Nations people and regenerative agriculture techniques. They will look at how the Australian First Nations people are revitalising many of their traditional agricultural practices, like farming yam daisies, fire-stick farming, fish and eel farming and also, paludiculture: the cultivation of food and animal resources in wetlands.

Migration of young people away from rural areas is taking place across the world, with fragile infrastructure and services cited as some of the key reasons for this demographic shift. Atop of the day-to-day disadvantages that rural youth face, the climate emergency, the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis threaten their futures. How can rural young people be better supported to create the change they wish to see in their rural areas? How can…

To put the world to rights – and it certainly needs putting to rights! – we need to re-build our lives around food and farming, particularly around the principles of Agroecology and Food Sovereignty. Radical change is called for, and to bring it about we need to dig deep: re-define our goals (what are we trying to achieve in life?); re-think and re-structure agriculture and the food culture that goes with it; re-think the underlying…

Three African women, Jennifer Amejja, Edna Kaptoyo and Rita Uwaka, speak about the importance of women’s cultural, traditional knowledge and practice for food sovereignty, agroecology and community forest management. How they grow nutritious food, use and protect medicinal plants, select and exchange seed, establish vital community seed banks, provide livelihoods and support the local economy. Also how they protect forests, many of which are sacred, and ensure replenishment and restoration of watersheds.

Indigenous women…