ORFC Conference Director Francesca Price picks out her must-see sessions at #ORFC22
Thursday’s programme is packed full of incredible sessions, it’s difficult to pick out a few BUT if I was attending rather than working at the ORFC this year I’d be going to the following….
9 am – I’d want to catch Nourish Scotland’s session on Local Relationships For Global Climate Action: Reflections On Food And Farming At COP26 And COP27, as I want to understand more about what went on with food and farming COP and this is a chance to hear from organisers from all over the world.
11 am – A difficult choice between the global session Silent Pandemic: The Silent and Environmental Costs Of Pesticide Production and Use with three incredible speakers and the really important exploration of false solutions such as natural capital and carbon offsetting markets in the session on The Financialisation Of Climate Change And Biodiversity: False Promises; Fake Solutions? And then there’s the amazing session about Regenerative Women on the Land..
At lunchtime, I would take the opportunity to join life-long activist, Satish Kumar, in a meditation tailored to address the stresses and strains of the last two years and reflect on our relationship with nature and the living world. But there are other great sessions happening at the same time.
2 pm – What a dilemma! I think I’d go to the Main Hall for Restorative Continuous Cropping Using Heritage Cereals: How To Produce All The Grain We Need Without Destroying The Planet. John, Colin and Marina are all inspirational speakers and offer ideas you won’t find anywhere else but the ORFC!
4 pm – Land, Race and Empire will be an amazing session with Corinne Fowler, author of Green Unpleasant Land. Hosted by LION’s Sam Siva, this will be a conversation about the colonial histories that have shaped the British landscape.
5.30 pm – I definitely want to see the session on Indigenous Concepts Of Wellbeing In Relation To Food And Agriculture as I love the idea of the Latin American concept of buen vivir or “good living”, becoming an organising system for our lives – and food systems – in the West. Great to have speakers from three continents too!
7.30 – Too difficult to choose between indigenous speaker, Bruce Pascoe and soil health superstar, Elaine Ingham, so I’d probably pour myself a glass of wine and settle down to listen to Sam Lee’s wonderful folk tunes, live from his living room in London!
Good-luck with all your choices! And remember, those sessions you don’t make it to will be ready and waiting for you to watch after the conference has ended.