Access To Land
The very beginning of the year (05-07 Jan. 2022) marks the time again for the Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC). Originally conceived as a hybrid affair, combining an in-person conference with a smaller onliine conference - the content boosted by livestreaming sessions from the in-person event, the rise in Covid numbers during December meant that the ORFC team had to take the inevitable decision. On December 15 (continued over Christmas and New Year) the organising team began the process of transfering everything to being online.
So ORFC Global Mark 2 came into being - with 3,728 participants from at least 20 countries including Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, Kenya, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Australia, India, the US, and Europe - and all six continents. 500 of them contributed to the 136 sessions which this year included a new land justice strand. There were 26 exhibitors in total. Interpretation was provided in six languages. In the end, the conference that used to be the gathering of the UK agroecology community has turned into something truely global.
A nice write-up from Ursula Billington on the conference and its highlights appeared on ARC2020.
You can catch all of the sessions now up on ORFC’s Youtube channel.
ORFC22 Session: Getting Soils in SHAPE - Putting Soils at The Heart of UK Farming Policy
ORFC22 Session: Designing the Right No-Till System to Fit Your Climate, Soil, Materials and Goals
