The headline speakers at the 2024 Oxford Farming Conference (OFC24) have been revealed as tickets for the event go on sale.
Tickets for the OFC24 have gone on sale while a list of the headline speaker has been published, joining the group of more than 30 speakers attending the event at Oxford Union next year.
The event, which will be held from 3rd to 5th January, will feature headline speakers such as environmentalist Ben Goldsmith; chef, writer and broadcaster Romy Gill MBE; chair of Westmorland Limited Sarah Dunning; and farmer and musician Andy Cato, who is on a mission to help farmers make the move towards soil-focused farming.
HRH The Princess Royal is often in attendance at the OFC, as she is a patron of the event.
In the conference debate, Goldsmith is to put forward the motion ‘This house believes that farming for food is holding back nature recovery in protected landscapes’. The opposition will be led by Cumbrian hill farmer Will Cockbain.
Other OFC24 keynote speakers include fifth generation dairy farmer Jimmy Shanks, who will be speaking about becoming Scotland’s only producer of tomatoes; Michael Duxbury, the first blind person to go to agricultural college in the 1980s; Dr Diana Onyango, a veterinary doctor improving the livelihoods, resilience and food security of communities in the Horn of Africa; Jan McCourt, who has taken his rural business to an urban area; and many more.
Celebrating differences at OFC24
Welsh beef and arable farmer Will Evans is set to chair the 2024 conference, and landed on the conference theme of diversity while driving his tractor.
Speaking on the event, Evans said: “What the conference does so well is challenge its audiences; putting speakers on stage saying things that we as an industry don’t necessarily want to hear.”
He stated that he was looking forward to hearing from speaker Sarah Dunning OBE, whose parents launched Tebay Services in 1972 after the M6 motorway was built across their Cumbrian hill farm. The services works with local farmers and producers, but has become a popular attraction to people from all over the country.
Evans said: “I hope diversity will be a lasting legacy, rather than a theme that is tackled and then forgotten about.
“It’s very much my hope that we can go forwards united in making agriculture a destination industry for people from a diversity of backgrounds.
“Of course, agriculture is already full of diversity – in its environment, landscapes and the food it produces – so it’s a much wider theme than just about the people within the industry. I want the whole conference to be a celebration of difference. There are no right or wrong answers; but diversity of opinions that we might not agree with but that are very much worth listening to.”
