How has the start of the year been for you?

Please do pop over to the Substack version of this for more photos and a chance to share your thoughts.

I had planned an important update about the planning system … and how it might help hedgehogs - but that will have to wait… Plot spoiler though - we still have not won and still need to keep pushing … so I will!

What I want to write about today, though, is what has filled my first week of work to the point of bursting!!

Over the last ten years or so I have had the good fortune to be asked to photograph the Oxford Real Farming Conference. The 17th outing for the ORFC is very different to its start - which was in a room above a pub - set up by Colin Tudge and Ruth West as a counterpoint to the Oxford Farming Conference.

The Oxford Farming Conference is where men in tweeds try and sell bigger tractors and more potent formulations of biocide. It is not all men, and they do not all wear tweed … but … it gives a flavour. 

The Oxford Real Farming Conference is over 60% women, is brightly coloured, diverse and energetic. And is now far bigger than the original! This year there were 2000 people in person and another 1300 online, 400 brilliant speakers and 150 inspiring and exciting sessions. Here is the album I put together.

Now, if you are wondering how I photographed all that - you will be relieved to know that I did not!! But still took over 3000 pictures - and got tantalising glimpses of so many fascinating sessions.

And why is this relevant? Because the ORFC has at its heart the idea of regenerative agriculture - the production of food with sharing in mind. Sharing the land on which it is grown - so that wildlife stands a chance of making a home - or returning home!

I have deliberately not tried to summarise the contents of the conference - but please do explore the work of ORFC on their website.

Around 70% of the UK is given over to agriculture. And of that, 85% is given over to the production of animal feed … food to feed animals other than us!!

Add to this the fact that 85% of farmed animals are confined in factory farms - industrial units that make a mockery of our picture-book view of a farm where smiling livestock and crops mingle in a bluesky harmony. 

The Oxford Farming Conference promotes the industrial units of death. The Oxford Real Farming Conference promotes an alternative - an alternative as vigorous and exciting as the other is dull and destructive.

Over the years, ministers from DEFRA have learned to recognise the importance of ORFC and started to show their face at both events … this year it was the Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs, Dame Angela Eagle, who joined for a lunch of local (and delicious) food.

If I have one complaint it was that ORFC had a definite lack of hedgehogs on the programme … but I can forgive them that for the work that was done that WILL lead to a better farmed landscape for hedgehogs and the entire assemblage of life that helps secure a healthy ecosystem.

Maybe next year the Hedgehog Street campaign will be able to present something - as we have brand new guidance for farmers and land managers as how best to help hedgehogs coming out in March - this will be a very important document.  

ORFC is far more than just the sessions - as brilliant as they were - it was also about the bits in between where connections are made, friendships deepened, and amazing food eaten … if you are ever in and around Oxford I cannot recommend highly enough Vaults and Gardens … oh, the Thai tofu curry was heavenly - and any chance to feast with the Damascus Rose Kitchen should be taken as well!

More than that, though, was the sense of community that comes with seeing quite so many people sharing a similar world view - starting the year with this boost of energy. This was reflected with the closing plenary - the venerable Satish Kumar - now in his 90th year - took to the stage with his customary twinkle and invoked in us all a sense of the importance of treasuring the beauty we can be a part of … and then came a closing session of music - Charlotte Church, Sam Lee, Simy Singh, Ted Waters and Rupa Marya rounding off two magical days with Oxford Town Hall filled with song.

Thank you to all the organisers - and if you are still reading this on change.org - please pop over to the substack version, so you can see some of the vibrancy I caught in the photos!