A Nourishing Start to 2023 at ORFC

Lucy and Elsa from the Six Inches of Soil team were thrilled to attend ORFC 2023 in Oxford, the largest gathering of the agroecology movement on the planet. James from the team also helped with the moderation of sessions for ORFC Global, with thousands of people joining sessions online from around the world.

From the thrilling Japanese Taiko farmer-drummers at the opening plenary, to the singing of land struggle songs and stalls serving lovingly produced locally sourced food, ORFC holds the vision for what a socially just society grounded in care for soils, people and the more than human world could look like. 

There was a huge range of sessions from the practical such as DIY perennial propagation, beetle monitoring and seed saving to political discussions on land justice, workers’ rights, GMOs, racial justice and reparations. 

There were policy sessions, strategy sessions, storytelling and poetry. There were also moving sessions that deeply explored the relationship between humans, the land and soils that offered interesting thinking for the film about how truly embed a regenerative way of thinking.

But mostly we just enjoyed meeting fellow food and farming activists and chatting in the convivial atmosphere that was created over the two days at least seven different venues around central Oxford. 

Despite the 1800 participants and hybrid nature of the event, things seemed to run very smoothly thanks to a brilliant conference team and dedicated volunteers. And shout out to Lucy in the Comms team who was so helpful in helping us to arrange a last-minute interview with Vandana Shiva.

We met and made so many friends and can't wait to screen Six Inches of Soil here next year. Thank you so much ORFC for such an energising and nourishing start to 2023!