Together with Carlos Barahone [ Managing Director / Specialist in Research Architecture @ stats4sd.org] and Emile Frison [Member and founder of the IPES-Food panel & Senior Advisor to the Agroecology Coalition ] I ran a session at ORFC 2024 titled “How to Measure How Agroecological an Initiative is? Lessons from Tracking Finance Flows to Agroecology“, which comes in extension of my on-going work on ‘measuring agroecology‘.
It was “…An interactive session introducing a new finance assessment tool which will help to evaluate to what extent projects contribute towards the agroecological transformation of our food systems. The toolkit has grown out of work by many organisations, including the global Agroecology Coalition, that together have been tracking the volume and quality of funds flowing towards agroecology. In this session, speakers will introduce and discuss the tool kit and explore its potential uses in many different contexts. This is also an opportunity to contribute to the further development of the underlying methodological framework, which is envisaged as dynamic and evolving over time!…”.
There is no video of the session (yet?), but slides in .pdf and audio in Soundcloud exist.
Not familiar with the ORFC? In my perception/estimation it is the first and foremost gathering of people involved in ‘regenerative agroecology’ at all levels and scales – farmers, of course, but also researchers, activists, policy makers, entrepeneurs, publishers and not only from the UK: the ORFC is a global event. Hear it from the founders and a panoply of participants in this year’s conference of regenerative parties (i.e. people working every day to build a new human habitat through more-than-sustainable practices, rising from the ashes of an already collapsed plough-based civilisation running on empty):
Introductory text from the ORFC website:
About the Oxford Real Farming Conference
Working with partners in the UK and internationally, the Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) brings the real food and farming movement together every January.
An alternative farming conference
ORFC attracts farmers, growers, activists, policymakers and researchers from around the world who are interested in transforming our food system. In 2021 and 2022, the conference went entirely online, but the physical gathering has traditionally been in Oxford and was set up as an alternative to the Oxford Farming Conference, which happens at the same time.
ORFC has always been the place to share progressive ideas. Subjects include agroecology, regenerative agriculture, organic farming and indigenous food and farming systems. The broad programme delves deep into farming practices and techniques as well as addressing the bigger questions relating to our food and farming system.
Driven by the participants
Crucially, it has always been the participants who provide the ORFC programme. The sessions reflect their diversity, ranging from the intricacies of soil microbiology to new kinds of marketing; setting up a micro-dairy to the value of introducing mob grazing and agroforestry to the farm; from the joys and tribulations of farming to the kind of economic structure we need to support the kind of food system we need. It is this diversity of participants and interests that keeps ORFC alive and growing.
A call for submissions goes out in May, and tickets are available from September. The programme is announced in November.
Free online tickets are available to all those in majority world countries – this is defined as anywhere outside Western Europe, the US, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
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ORFC is a programme of the Real Farming Trust. Registered charity number: 1061607. Registered company number: 3336839. Registered address: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3AX.