"I want real doors to open up in front of all farmers" - James Rebanks, Oxford Conferences Welcome Dinner, 8th Jan 2025

For a few days at the start of the year, the dreaming spires of Oxford buzz with the conversation of the dreamers and doers amongst farmers and growers. What was striking this year to the FFCC team was the variety of ideas, radical and practical, and the energy and ambition on display from participants at both conferences. We left Oxford wondering how leaders across the sector can capitalise on this potential and make 2025 a year when we start to see real progress on transforming the food system.

A start to answering this question was the inaugural Oxford Conferences’ Welcome Dinner, co-hosted by FFCC, Pasture for Life, Hodmedods and Foundation for Common Land. For the first time, the dinner brought the two conferences together, reflecting a tone that resonated across the next few days. Speeches from Baroness Janet Royall, Principal of Somerville College, Tony Juniper, Chair of Natural England, James Rebanks, farmer and author, and Catherine Stephenson, Somerville student, reflected on common ground, interests and purpose.

In his speech, James Rebanks asked us whether we were being “radical enough in imagining the future food system.” As we reflected on Secretary of State, Steve Reed, speech, laying out his “new deal for farmers” at OFC, we heard that farmers want more. They want to be inspired, valued, resourced and liberated to transition to the kind of farming that so many of them are already pursuing. This comment was typical. “We all know, now, what needs to be done. We need the backing to do it.”

The DEFRA team was clearly in listening mode. We hope they heard as loudly as we did the hunger for government to provide clarity, ambition and resources to support those who are trying to make a reasonable living from land-based work. Treasury loomed large in conversations with government spokespeople. We know from our work in The Food Conversation, that healthier, greener, fairer food really matters to citizens across the UK - and how much support there is for transforming the way the food system works. More than that, the food system is fundamental to national renewal. The policy conversations, in the halls and in the breaks, had us all focussing on how to land this critical message with all members of the Cabinet.

We were encouraged to hear ministers from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland share their relief that working relationships with Westminster have improved dramatically. Whilst the answer to the question “do we need a UK-wide common agricultural policy” was a resounding “No!”, the ministers called for more collaboration, alongside celebrating and learning from the diversity of approaches across the UK.

The Food Foundation’s Executive Director Anna Taylor provided an OFC conference highlight. Calling for a joined-up horticulture and healthy food strategy, Anna spotlit the link between the UK’s poor diet with social inequity. She argued that the UK’s increasing reliance on highly processed cheap food has led to a dangerously weak fresh produce sector and a downward spiral for health.

Over at ORFC, the practical evidence of collaborative problem solving was everywhere. From local authorities working with their communities and NGOs to support new entrants to farming, to farmers opening land to neighbours and receiving support in return. Governments, we heard, both local and national, could do much more to create the right conditions to accelerate this, which in turn revitalises rural and urban communities.

The concept of “public value” is a topic we at FFCC return to time and again. At ORFC, discussions centred on how to express that value in conventional metrics and data. In a panel on ultra processed foods, our Head of Food Futures, Mhairi Brown, reflected that a narrow, commercially led understanding of food’s value undermines our ability to measure the public value of how we produce and share the food that nourishes us.

The conferences are a great reminder that food producers of every kind are exemplars of resilience. They are responding to a constantly shifting set of challenges, including a changing climate, trialling new practices and changing what and how they grow. But working out how to make it pay is the sticking point. In a cheap food economy, scaling up and specialisation tend to win out. Farmers and growers want government to grasp the nettle and set the rules of the game to benefit UK primary producers, as well as protecting nature, reducing climate impacts, improving animal welfare and other critical issues around which there is much alignment.

It is said that OFC and ORFC attract distinct tribes with different concerns. The contrast between OFC’s discussion of precision breeding and ORFC’s position on seeds and genetics is one example. This is complex and contested stuff which needs detailed and serious debate with citizens (not just taking account of the arguments of the commercial beneficiaries). But increasingly there is more that unites the two conferences than divides them. We need more opportunities (like the welcome dinner) to bring people together to debate topics where there is principled disagreement, like the emerging science.

Once again, the farming conferences provide us a brilliant opportunity to listen to many diverse perspectives and to crystalise our thinking about the key issues for the year ahead. As we dive into the detail of the Land Use Framework consultation, a new comprehensive and inclusive food strategy for England, the 25-year farming roadmap, a big question remains unanswered.

In a sector still - in spite of challenges - brimming with ideas, creativity, hopes and dreams, can its leaders offer a matching level of ambition, innovative thinking and practical backing for it to succeed?

David Edwards, Deputy Chief Executive
Dr Charlie Taverner, Farming Futures Policy Lead
Georgie Barber, Land Use & Countryside Lead
Mhairi Brown, Head of Food Futures