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Voices from the Fields

‘We are Powerful!’ - NFFN England chair James Robinson reflects on an emotional ORFC experience

England
United Kingdom
ORFC
agroecology
Land connection
food system

The NFFN was fortunate enough to have its staff team and many farmers at the 2025 Oxford Real Farming Conference - the highlight of many a farmer and agroecology stakeholder’s calendar across the globe. Having been invited to speak at the closing plenary, NFFN England chair James Robinson shared some personal and universally important reflections on his experiences at the 2025 conference.

The opening plenary at the Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) was already full before I was anywhere near the Town Hall, so I ended up watching a live feed in the Wesley Memorial Church instead. A few words stuck in my mind immediately: Collective. Inclusivity. Sowing the seeds. The beginning. 

We need open minds as farmers. Open to learning. Open to criticism and praise. Open farms - open to the public and policymakers; open to school children, to feed their minds with wondrous things, with nature and food production side by side. We need to show the possibilities. 

If someone is afraid to speak up, how do the rest of us know what we are missing?

Jim Aplin

Not everyone was designed to learn within four walls: we can give everyone an opportunity to shine. Diagnosed as autistic well into his adult life, the amazing Jim Aplin said in his opening plenary speech: “If someone is afraid to speak up, how do the rest of us know what we are missing?” We must give a platform to everyone.

On the first day, I was lucky enough to chair the joint Woodland Trust / Nature Friendly Farming Network session on veteran trees, and the Q&A was a heart-affirming 45 minutes long. Forty-five minutes filled with the audience sharing stories, memories and community tales of important trees and woodlands in their own lives. Sometimes, sessions at conferences go well, and sometimes they go absolutely perfectly. 

I even spent some time down on the floor of the main hall, creating a cloth patch of our farm for a collective ORFC quilt. I just hope the yellow flowerhead I glued on to depict a Cumbrian sun lasts longer than the actual sun we see in Cumbria. Getting back up off the floor though, was quite challenging for my dairy farmer knees…

Farming is sometimes an awful job; we need to share farming’s burden and risk and collectively take heart from the joys of success. 

Sharing stories, seeing friends, making quilts - it all helps, it is all needed. I am absolutely convinced that coming to the ORFC makes you a better person. It opens your mind; it grows connections and tolerance. Farming is sometimes an awful job; we need to share farming’s burden and risk and collectively take heart from the joys of success. 

My life may have peaked on the Thursday evening when I shared the mic at the Hot Poets gig, where four amazing poets, Liv Torc, Abby Olivera, Dizraeli and Testament, performed pieces written for the Gaia ‘We Feed The UK’ project. This project connected 10 farmers with 10 poets and 10 photographers. We were honoured at Strickley Farm to represent North West England, and to be paired with hip-hop poet Testament. 

The Lig is the poem he created, now an everlasting reminder of the generational craft of hedge laying, and the habitat, dialect and tradition it sustains. The poetry gig was so good that it inevitably over-ran, which meant the planned outing to a nice place to eat with fresh, sustainably sourced food was ditched. So, after a few Jäger bombs, my mate Claire and I walked back to the hotel with cheesy chips and a dirty kebab. Regenerative it was not!

The ORFC and everything it stands for began as a whisper, a fine thread from a small group of passionate people who believed what they were doing was the right thing to do. That whisper of a thread has grown into a powerful landscape full of diverse thinking and peoples, filled with strong voices making real changes to improve our farming future. In fact, it will improve all our futures.

We as farmers should feel empowered about the change, not threatened by all the voices aimed our way.

As farmers, we need to open ourselves up and acknowledge that farming is one of the main drivers of biodiversity decline, but understand that we ourselves have not caused that. The policies we followed have. Now, we have the opportunity to make a real difference. We should take the lead. We as farmers should feel empowered about the change, not threatened by all the voices aimed our way. Like Dizraeli the poet said at the beginning of the closing plenary: “Farmers are powerful!”. WE ARE POWERFUL!

The most memorable conversation I had at the conference was over dinner (or ‘lunch’ if you’re not from the north of England), with a young farmer named Els, who had come over with a busload of farmers from Belgium. She and her girlfriend recently began running a small farm and have learned a lot over the last two years. The sparkle in her eyes as she described the wonderment of seeing things happen for the first time was truly joyful; I really did sense that wonderment she had for farming and being entrusted with the land. 

That sparkle of joy has been lost from many of us farmers; we must remember why we do what we do. We need to take back control of our farms from the agronomists and contractors, and learn to understand what the farm is telling us. Weeds are just indicators of an imbalance we can correct with natural methods. Bring back the scruffy corners, messy hedges and verges. Leave space for rivers to flow and grow. 

We must enjoy our farms. Love the fields, smell the soil, cherish our trees. 

Become connected to our farms once more.