Better Jobs and Better Farming or What would it look like to have a million better jobs in UK farming? Government and food industry policy, which affects farmers in the UK and overseas, fails to adequately protect nature and promote sustainable farming, and undermines the resilience of rural economies and the ability for farmers and others to make a good living on the land. With our panel we will discuss an alternative vision and debate whether a target of a million good jobs for better farming and land-use is feasible or helpful in the UK, and what impact would it have? And more broadly discuss what the structural reasons are –government policies and corporate practices– that undermine rural economic resilience and sustainable farming, that a plan for a million good jobs for better farming would need to challenge e.g. land policies, and subsidies, for sustainable farm/land management. Speakers: Chair – Kath Dalmeny, Sustain Colin Tudge Other speakers TBC Britain now needs about a million more farmers (for starters) and must rely heavily on migrants – who we often treat very badly. More broadly, the present global “free market” economy obstructs Enlightened Agriculture (“Real Farming”) and is clearly unfit for purpose. In this session two leading thinkers seek a path through the minefield – including how to turn the “problems” of migrants into opportunities for all. Speakers: Tom Lines Felicity Lawrence Lucy Ford (Chair) What determines where scientific research is focused in universities and research institutes? How much freedom do academics have to determine what they research? Is there too much concentration on patentable and saleable products - on seeds rather than systems? This session will hear from a range of academics and researchers to discuss these issues. Speakers: Professor Carlo Leifert Dr Michel Pimbert Dr Jonathan Latham Helena Paul Industrial livestock production is dependent on feeding human-edible cereals to animals. This is inefficient. For every 100 calories fed to animals in the form of cereals, just 17-30 calories are returned for human consumption as meat or milk. This core inefficiency brings other inefficiencies in its train. Feeding cereals to animals is a wasteful use not only of these crops but of the land, water and energy used to grow them. The need to grow huge amounts of grain to feed factory farmed animals has fuelled the intensification of crop production with its use of agro-chemicals and monocultures. Recent studies show that intensive agriculture has eroded the quality, productivity and biodiversity of UK soils. A new report by Compassion in World Farming "Cheap Food Costs Dear" reviews the literature that seeks to calculate the cost of the above negative externalities of industrial livestock production. The report shows that the costs of these externalities are immense. These costs, however, are not borne by the consumers of industrial animal products but by taxpayers, third parties or society as a whole. In some cases the costs are borne by no-one and key resources such as soil and biodiversity are allowed to deteriorate undermining the ability of future generations to feed themselves. The report argues that these externalities must be internalised if we are to develop a livestock sector that produces nutritious food, nurtures the natural resources on which farming depends and delivers high standards of animal welfare. Speakers: Peter Stevenson (Compassion in World Farming) Tim Lang (City University) Better Jobs and Better Farming or What would it look like to have a million better jobs in UK farming? Government and food industry policy, which affects farmers in the UK and overseas, fails to adequately protect nature and promote sustainable farming, and undermines the resilience of rural economies and the ability for farmers and others to make a good living on the land. With our panel we will discuss an alternative vision and debate whether a target of a million good jobs for better farming and land-use is feasible or helpful in the UK, and what impact would it have? And more broadly discuss what the structural reasons are –government policies and corporate practices– that undermine rural economic resilience and sustainable farming, that a plan for a million good jobs for better farming would need to challenge e.g. land policies, and subsidies, for sustainable farm/land management. Speakers: Chair – Kath Dalmeny, Sustain Colin Tudge Other speakers TBC The bar opens in the Main Hall at 5pm For more details please click below: Good Food Oxford Evening Dinner Evening Entertainment A session to discuss the current state of campaigning & lobbying for better food & farming with a specific focus on how these groups can work together to better effect. This session will aim to identify avenues and opportunities for introducing Food Sovereignty Principles into national policy, including existing and proposed initiatives, and to explore ways that people working on different angles on sustainable food and farming can work more effectively together to make Food Sovereignty a reality. This will also address DEFRA 25 year Food and Farming Strategy, including views from two people who attended the consultations. This will also cover the debate arising from the Square Meal Report. A session hearing from speakers from Confederation Paysanne, Via Campesina international and Patrick Mulvany looking at examples of international peasant struggles and how these may be appropriate to what is happening in the UK. This will cover historic land rights both legal, (Charter of the forest and the commons), and de-facto (open field system.) It will address issues such as: - How these historic rights have been eroded through law and practice in the form of enclosure, mechanisation of agriculture and rural-urban migration. - Distribution of land in the UK today. How a Victorian land ownership pattern has persisted and is now directly subsidized by a quasi-feudal CAP. - How CAP is consolidating land. - How can housing and farming campaigners work together to create a movement to re-distribute land in a way that will provide the farms and homes we need. The session will conclude with a general discussion on how we build the access to land movement we need. Speakers: Humphrey Lloyd
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