This week the Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) announced its 2015 programme, which includes key debates on the dairy industry, flooding, soil fertility and TTIP. Taking place on January 6-7th at the Oxford Town Hall, the conference will bring together farmers and growers with scientists, economists and everyone else with a serious interest in food and agriculture.

Speakers at this year’s conference include Robert Craig (Farmers’ Weekly Dairy Farmer of the Year and Nuffield Scholar), Dr. Elaine Ingham, (internationally acclaimed authority on the life of the soil), Neil Darwent (BBC Farmer of the Year), Prof. Mark Eisler (Chair of Global Animal Health, Bristol University), Carrie Balkcom (Exec Sec of the American Grassfed Association) and Daniela Howell (CEO of the Savory Institute) amongst many others.

With over 40 sessions across three streams, the ORFC will examine everything from how to best release the potential of a farm’s resources, to exploring the science, politics and economics of farming, to farmers running their farms as social enterprises. This year's practical stream, Farming Outside the Box, has been organized by John Turner (farmer and co-founder of the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association) and Dr. John Meadley (agricultural scientist and chair of the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association). The focus of these sessions is on farmers taking greater control over their suppliers and markets, making better use of their farm’s natural resources and addressing the resistance to chemicals that nature is developing.

The Oxford Real Farming Conference was launched in January 2010, as an affordable and inclusive alternative to the long established Oxford Farming Conference. Over the last six years it has created a space for discussion, as well as bringing hundreds of farmers together to share best practice. In 2015 the conference will see 500 delegates, over half of them farmers, come together under one roof for the first time in the Oxford Town Hall.

Colin Trudge, author of Good Food for Everyone Forever and co-founder of the ORFC says:

“At the heart of all the world’s affairs – social, political, economic, environmental – sits agriculture. It’s the thing we absolutely have to get right, but we have to do things differently. Come and learn what needs doing, how and why, and who’s doing what, this January at the Oxford Real Farming Conference.”

Tickets are now on sale from £20 and are available from http://orfc.org.uk

On the two days’ following the conference Dr. Ingham will deliver two one-day workshops on understanding and nurturing the life of the soil, a rare opportunity to spend time with this US scientist.