Agricology Blog

We were delighted to take part and attend (in-person and on-line) the Oxford Real Farming Conference a couple of weeks ago. Ever inspiring, we thought we’d give you some of our reflections along with some useful resource recommendations that were highlighted in the sessions that we attended…

Janie Caldbeck and ORC colleagues report back from the EURAF 2024 conference in Brno in the Czech Republic; abuzz with researchers from all over Europe presenting research outputs, along with some interesting talks from farmers...

Steven Jacobs reflects on the importance of building seed breeding programmes that offer more genetic diversity and greater grower control than those currently dominating the plant breeding industry in a blog inspired by a recent seed legislation workshop with The Gaia Foundation.

Marianne Landzettel gives her take on sessions involving the Secretary of State at Groundswell 2022 - including discussions about the way forward for regenerative agriculture, measuring soil carbon and renumerating farmers, and the Sustainable Farming Incentive...

Real Seeds' Kate McEvoy shines a light on the fragility of the seed system and trys to encourage people to think about seed sovereignty as a fundamental part of food sovereignty...

The Prince’s Countryside Fund (PCF) is inviting farm businesses to join our new Farm for the Future programme, which is being delivered both virtually and by local Farm Support Groups in 11 areas across England.

ORC joins the Countryside Charity in seizing the initiative and campaigning for the government to increase UK hedgerows by 40% in line with recent recommendations made by the Climate Change Committee (CCC) 2018 report - 'Land Use: reducing emissions and preparing for climate change.'

Interest among UK farmers in planting trees on their land has skyrocketed recently. Only ten years ago a survey indicated that very few farmers know what the term “agroforestry” means. One conducted least year showed that almost all farmers are familiar with it now.

For organic pig and poultry farmers, living up to the ideal of feeding 100% regional and organic feed is difficult and especially for protein that fulfils amino acid requirements (cysteine, lysine and methionine most notably). Balanced diets are important, not just for healthy growth and production, but also for animal welfare where, for example, an imbalance can lead to feather pecking and cannibalism in poultry.

It is great that the pandemic has highlighted for people the importance of their food, which some perhaps previously took for granted. It has meant a massive increase in sales for us at the Seed Co-operative - the UK's community owned organic seed company - both to gardeners and to commercial growers who are experiencing greater demand.

As part of #OrganicSeptember campaign, Daylesford Organic have been running a ‘Future of Food’ series, featuring interviews with thought leaders in the food, ecology and agriculture industries.

Tim speaks to Colin Tudge and Ruth West, co-founders of The Campaign for Real Farming and organisers of the annual Oxford Real Farming Conference.