The Oxford Farming Conference

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Joining OFC Online or In-Person

If you have purchased a ticket to attend OFC24, you should have received an email with more details including how to download the OFC24 app, accessing the online stream and details of the various sessions, venues and speakers.

If you have not received this email, please check your spam box. The email will have been sent from marketing@ofc.org.uk.

If you are unable to locate it, you can contact secretariat@ofc.org.uk

Will Evans, OFC 2024 Chair

2024 Theme - The Power of Diversity

The Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) has always been, and always will be a force for good in the farming industry and community. It brings together people from all corners of the agricultural, rural and food sectors, encourages a hugely diverse range of thinking, and generates ideas and positive solutions for the future.

When I first attended OFC, nearly 6-years ago as part of the Emerging Leaders Programme (now called Inspire), I wasn’t at all sure what to expect. I was surprised and delighted at how welcoming the conference was and amazed to find such a wide variety of people from so many different backgrounds in attendance.

It demonstrated true strength in connecting food and farming through its speakers and audience. It presented views from both domestic and international countries, and geographically, I found myself connecting with delegates from all across the UK. It did not shy away from the difficult discussions and debates, challenged all of us, and offered a unique platform where all opinions could were shared, so individuals could make their own informed decisions. On top of all this, I was fortunate enough to make some lifelong friends.

OFC is steeped in a long and proud history going all the way back to 1936, and has a strong reputation as one of the UK’s leading agricultural events. All of the elements I experienced are why it continues to be so widely renowned worldwide, and why I am extremely proud to be one of the Voluntary Directors, and this year, your 2024 OFC Chair.

Whilst it has always embraced change, responding to industry and consumer demands, it is in the last decade that I really feel the conference has embraced “diversity and inclusion”, and why, when sitting on the tractor one day, I found myself drawn to “The Power of Diversity”.

I am proud to be a tenth-generation farmer, husband and father to four daughters. I truly believe we have so much to celebrate and share around the theme of diversity – our huge range of entrepreneurial farming businesses which have done so much to shape our historic landscape, our many native livestock breeds, our world-leading agricultural scientists, our precious environment that all of us are so focussed on improving, and some of the safest and highest quality food produced anywhere in the world, to name just a few. But most of all, it’s the incredible people in farming that make it such a special industry to be a part of, and this is what we want to celebrate at OFC24.

Yes, the industry is facing significant challenges at the current time, which OFC will continue to face head on – furthering conversations about labour, supply chains, alternative income streams, innovation, attracting new people to our industry, and many more issues. OFC does this really, really well. Sparked by honest conversations with passionate people across all sectors of the industry, those who attend Oxford in 2024 will hear the very best of diversity in all its forms.

Diversity means everyone and every topic is included - OFC24 will showcase the true “Power of Diversity”.

See you at Oxford.

Will Evans

OFC24 Chair

chair@ofc.org.uk

OFC24 Bursaries and Scholarships

The 2024 conference will once again support more than 40 individuals through bursaries and scholarships, allowing individuals attend the event, with a fully-funded conference ticket.

In addition, the Scholars, Breaking Barriers and Inspire Programme will also offer pre-conference activity.

With a strong focus on networking and social activities and a commitment over the last few years to develop OFC so it is as inclusive and accessible as possible, these scholarships and bursaries will enable those who may otherwise face social or economic barriers, the opportunity to experience one of the UK’s leading agricultural events.

Find out more

OFC24 Report - Is Our UK Supply Chain Broken? - Podcast Preview

The 2024 Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) report firmly states that the practice of farmers subsidising consumers’ appetite for cheap food cannot continue. After years of ‘permacrisis’ fuelled by Brexit, the Ukrainian conflict, the Covid-19 pandemic and inflation running up to 20%, farming’s confidence and bank balances are at an all-time, unsustainable, low, says the report’s author, Ged Futter

 

In this preview podcast, ahead of the report launch at OFC24 in January, the conversation centres on the UK food supply chain, the behaviours within it, what needs to change and how that change might happen, with every actor in the chain taking responsibility and playing their part.

 

Host: Abi Kay, OFC Director and journalist

Interviewees: Ged Futter, Retail consultant and report author and Alison Capper, OFC Director and apple & hop grower

 

To join the report launch in Oxford or watch online, on 4th January 2024, with author Ged Futter, followed by a panel discussion with Chris Brown, Robert Chapman, Tom Bradshaw book your ticket at https://www.ofc.org.uk/booking

Listen to the podcast here