The opening plenary at the Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) was already full before I was anywhere near the Town Hall, and I ended up watching a live feed in the Wesley Chapel instead. A few words stuck in my mind immediately: Collective, inclusivity, sowing the seeds, the beginning.
We need open minds as farmers. Open to learning; open to criticism and praise; open farms; open to the public and policymakers; and open to school children to feed their minds with wondrous things, with nature and food production side by side.
Show the possibilities.
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Opportunity
Not everyone was designed to learn within four walls; we can give everyone an opportunity to shine. Diagnosed as autistic well into his adult life, the amazing Jim Aplin said in his opening plenary speech: "If someone is afraid to speak up, how do the rest of us know what we are missing?"
We must give a platform to everyone.
I was lucky enough on the first day to chair the joint Woodland Trust/Nature Friendly Farming Network session on veteran trees, and the question-and-answer session was a heart-affirming 45 minutes long – 45 minutes filled with the audience sharing stories, memories and community tales of important trees and woodlands in their lives.
Sometimes sessions at conferences go well, and sometimes they go absolutely perfectly.
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I even spent some time down on the floor creating a cloth patch of our farm for a collective ORFC quilt. I just hope the yellow flower head I glued on to depict a Cumbrian sun lasts longer than the actual sun we see in Cumbria. Getting back up off the floor though was quite challenging for my dairy farmer knees.
Sharing stories, seeing friends, making quilts – it all helps, it is all needed. I am absolutely convinced that coming to the ORFC makes you a better person. It opens your mind; it grows connection and tolerance. Farming is sometimes a tough job; we need to share farming's burden and risk and collectively take heart from the joys of success.
Poetry
My life may have peaked on Thursday evening when I shared the mic at the Hot Poets gig, where four amazing posts Liv Torc, Abby Olivera, Dizraeli and Testament performed poetry written for the , which connected 10 farms with 10 poets and 10 photographers. We were honoured at Strickley to represent North-West England and were paired with hip hop poet Testament. ‘The Lig' is the poem he created, which is now an ever-lasting reminder of the generational craft of hedgelaying, and the habitat, dialect and tradition which it maintains. The poetry gig was so good that it inevitably overran, which meant the planned outing to a nice place to eat, with fresh, sustainably sourced food was ditched. So, after a few Jagerbombs, my friend Claire and I walked back to the hotel with cheesy chips and a dirty kebab. Regenerative it was not.
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ORFC and everything it stands for began as a whisper, a fine thread from a small group of passionate people who believed what they were doing was right. That whisper of a thread has grown into a powerful landscape full of diverse thinking and diverse peoples, filled with strong voices who are making real changes which will make our farming future better. All our futures better, in fact.
Biodiversity
As farmers, we need to open ourselves up, acknowledge that farming is one of the main drivers of biodiversity decline, but understand that farmers did not cause that, the policy did. Now we have the opportunity to make a real difference, we should take the lead and we as farmers should feel empowered about the change, not threatened by all the voices aimed our way. Like Dizraeli the poet said at the beginning of this closing plenary, 'farmers are powerful'. We are powerful.
The most memorable conversation I had at the conference was over dinner (or lunch if you're not from the north), with a young farmer named Els, who had come over with a bus load of farmers from Belgium. She and her girlfriend had recently begun to run a small farm, and had learned lots over the two years. The sparkle in her eyes as she described the wonderment of seeing things happen for the first time was truly joyful; I really did sense the wonderment she had for farming and being entrusted with the land.
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That sparkle of joy has been lost from many of us farmers; we must remember why we do what we do. We need to take back control of our farms from the agronomists and contractors, and learn to understand what the farm is telling us. Weeds are just indicators of an imbalance that we can correct with natural methods. Bring back the scrowy corners, messy hedges and verges. Leave space for rivers to flow and grow.
Enjoy our farms. Love the fields, smell the soil, cherish our trees.
Become connected to our farms once more.