“Our hands aren’t clean either…”

The Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) held in the first week of January each year is said to be one of the most important platforms for the discussion of key issues facing the nation’s food producers. Last week, Harrison & Hetherington Head of Strategic Projects and Communications Laura Millar attended the OFC for the first time, and discovered a powerful combination of urgent warnings and optimistic advice from farmers who are leading the way and industry stakeholders alike.

The overall theme of the conference this year was The Power of Diversity, the first session of the day I attended was focused on the OFC 2024 Report, Is the UK Supply Chain Broken? The session was chaired by the remarkable Ali Capper, an apple farmer from Worcestershire and an OFC director, who introduced the report by saying that, “Profit is key, without profit there is no investment. We are not charities, and shouldn’t be treated as one, or want to be treated as one.”

The report was written by Ged Futter, whose 30-year career in the retail sector includes a role as senior buyer in the world’s largest grocery retail company. The report builds on calls for fairness in the supply chain cost-sharing in meeting farming’s net zero transition. The new business landscape of today’s supply chains requires everyone responsible for feeding the UK’s consumers to rethink their approach to the supply chain before it is too late.

Robert Chapman, Farmer Director of Aberdeenshire Farnlay Eggs, said bluntly that retailers believed wrongly that there is a sea of plenty, and he warned farmers not to overproduce, which plays into the hands of the retail buyer. Mindsets must change, he emphasized, in farming and in the retail sector. Around 95% of consumers do their main food shopping in the major retailers, so farmers must find the strength to strike the right balance with these retailers. The risk v reward for farmers is currently out of balance, and farmers are running on empty bank accounts.

Christopher Brown, the Senior Director of Farming for Asda suggested that farming should stop talking about emissions from farms as if they were jet engines, change their mindsets and market what farmers actually do. Retailers are being called on to pay for their standards, and despite the UK having the highest standards in the world for food production, these are continually being compounded with no additional support for the extra costs involved. Another fine example of imbalance in the industry.

The final point that was made in the session was food security. Is the Government taking it seriously? With a General Election looming this year, in the political session that followed the OFC audience was not surprised to hear a raft of wonderful promises – “more money, more choice, and more trust in agriculture” – from the Secretary of State Steve Barclay, and an equally exciting wish list of improvements from representatives from Labour and the Lib Dems. All promises were received with a very large pinch of salt!!

A lunchtime breakout session on the findings of an independent report on ‘What consumers really want from food’ suggested that for consumers, sustainability and the environment are high on their agenda when buying food, and that shoppers rely on brands more than the Government to do the right thing. The Director of Sustainability and Environment for the John Lewis Partnership said the one thing she would like to see from the Government is transparency in labelling, and clearer messages for the consumer to be able to make more informed decisions of their own.

How the industry communicates the right messages to consumers was also the central theme of a breakfast session I attended at the beginning of my second day at the conference. The session focused on the diverse role livestock play in farming for a greener future. ‘A healthy balance’ – not a sexy statement but a boringly honest one we all need to understand in diet terms in the face of distorted information in the mainstream media.

The demonisation of meat is a perfect example of the problem. Meat and dairy are vital for a healthily balanced diet, and the UK diet today lacks in major minerals and vitamins. Nearly 50% of young girls in the UK are currently low in iron, so why would the media and indeed the Government be promoting the reduction of a food group that can help fix this?

Consumers don’t want complexity. Most just want to feel good about their choices and support their local economy where they can. It is a major challenge to change consumer perceptions and as an industry we must acknowledge that we must do better.

Later sessions in the OFC agenda made striking points about the critical need for action to reduce the appalling waste of 2.9 million tons of food in the UK each year, but the highlights of the day for me were the stories of successful diversification from farmers leading the way in changing the UK’s traditional farming model.

Under the banner of From Waste to Opportunity, Jim Shanks, a 5^th generation farmer told a story of pure resilience and determination in the race to realise opportunities. A farmer whose debt once peaked at an eyewatering £3.8 million is now thriving and running a hugely successful, tomato growing, cow milking, energy producing farming enterprise.

Tom Warner explained how he created 15 acres of botanical gardens on his Northamptonshire farm to supply the ingredients for his phenomenally successful brand of Warner’s Distillery Gin. And for us North Westerners there was an inspiring presentation by Sarah Dunning on how her Westmorland farming family have diversified with the development of their Tebay Service Station business they established 50 years ago.

The Oxford Farming Conference is a cauldron of high-level thinking about current issues and new ideas for the future, a cornucopia of food for thought for the farming industry and the retail sector that depends on our food producers to keep the nation fed.

Having heard from grassroot producers, industry stakeholders, politicians, and royalty I left the conference feeling positive. There were no rages or calls for sympathy – this was a conference that focused on sharing responsibility, working together and illustrates there is power in diversity however you view it.