Oxford Real Farming Conference 2024
LOUISA ELLERKER
Maya, Miriam and I started off this year by attending the Oxford Real Farming Conference. This is a conference that brings people together who want to transform our food and farming systems globally, but with a UK focus. I spoke on a panel about Plaw Hatch, chaired by Gabriel from the Biodynamic Land Trust, where we discussed succession and the future of land ownership, training new farmers and Plaw Hatch as a viable alternative business model. It was great to share experiences and meet lovely people. Day-to-day farming, especially in winter, can feel fairly isolating. So the conference is a warm reminder that there are lots of us out there trying to produce fair and nutritious food. A few other talks we enjoyed were natural weaning, funding for local abattoirs, British pasture leather, the case study of seaweed farm Car-y-Mor and future of land ownership. It’s great as a lot of these are recorded and put on YouTube - so I will be spending some free time watching the talks I missed at the conference!
If you’d like to watch any of the conference, you can find the playlist on Youtube. Check it out and maybe see you there next year!
