The Organic Research Centre, Elm Farm, has announced the outline programme for it’s annual conference, to be held from 18-19 January 2012 at Aston University in Birmingham. The outline programme and further details are available at www.organicresearchcentre.com

Now a well-established part of the UK organic conference calendar, ORC’s 6^th Organic Producer Conference with the theme ‘Developing better organic systems’ and sponsored by Triodos Bank, continues the tradition of bringing innovative organic producers and other businesses together with consultants and researchers to explore the latest ideas for improving the technical, business and environmental performance of organic systems.

With a clear commitment to core organic principles as a basis for developing sustainable food systems, we believe that organic/agro-ecological approaches to food production represent a scientifically credible and justifiable alternative to more industrialised and resource-dependent forms of agriculture. These approaches have relevance not only to certified organic businesses, but also to non-organic producers looking to improve their husbandry and performance.

We are very pleased to confirm that Professor Miguel Altieri, the leading exponent of agro-ecological approaches to farming in the US and Latin America, will present the keynote speech in the closing session.

Leading speakers from the European Commission and Defra have been invited to open the conference with a session focusing on the latest CAP reform proposals and their implications for organic producers.

Work is continuing on finalising other speakers for the event. We aim to publish the detailed programme in early November 2011.