On the evening of 6th January 2016, we are very pleased once again to be hosting the
Good Food Oxford evening dinner, as part of the seventh annual
Oxford Real Farming Conference taking place in the Main Hall of the beautiful Oxford Town Hall.
This is going to be a seasonal feast, showcasing the region's finest. For the second year running, we are working with chef Paul Bellchambers who is sourcing delicious organic lamb and pork from Sheepdrove Organic Farm, with vegetables from local favourite Sandy Lane Farm and cream from the fabulous North Aston Dairy.
You can
book tickets for the dinner only, or stay for the whole conference! Dinner tickets are £27.95, or you can book the two day conference plus dinner for £77.50.
Hannah Fenton shares some of her highlights below:
Wednesday 6th January 2016, 10-11am
Retail: The Missing Link in Scaling Up
Most farming activity is to be found outside of cities and most food produced finds its way into cities to feed the people. This food is usually produced from industrial farming, much of it overseas and sold through retailing giants who offer a soul destroying shopping experience.
A vision for city high street retailing to be inhabited by independent stores that offer local food from local farms and offer a heartening human scale shopping experience.
Wednesday 6th January 2016, 1.30-2.30pm
Urban agriculture and community gardening – the offer for urban regeneration & overcoming obstacles
A discussion in finding solutions to the obstacles facing community food growing and agriculture in an urban regeneration context. This seminar will use the knowledge of those in the room, to build on the experience gained by the Community Land Advisory Service (established 2012) and Oxford City Farm, whose journey started in 2007 and who got onto their site in 2015.
Wednesday 6th January 2016, 11.30am-12.30pm
Creating a national food policy based on food sovereignty principles
What would you like to see in a decent National Food Policy? A policy based on health, ecological agriculture, equality and democratic decision making? Here is an opportunity to take part in a process to create a document which will allow us to work together to create the political leverage for significant change. This is a participatory session, leading from a visioning exercise to policy idea workshops, themed on the six principles of Food Sovereignty. Out of this we will collect policy suggestions to feed into the draft document.
Thursday 7th January 2016, 11am-12pm
Community Supported Agriculture in the UK: the movement that keeps on growing
Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a partnership between farmers and consumers in which the responsibilities, risks and rewards of farming are shared. CSAs have been developing in the UK over the last twenty years with over 80 currently in operation and new ones being set up all the time, often with the support of the CSA Network UK.
This session will cover a broad range of possible models including fruit and vegetable growers, micro dairies and community supported bakeries.
Thursday 7th January 2016, 4-5pm
The role of local authorities in securing access to land
This session will look at how local authorities can support those looking to access land for food production. What land is publicly owned, how can people find this out and who or what determines who has access to it and for what purposes?