National Organic Conference 1-2 July 2024
- Food, Farming, Nature, Climate & People

OF&G has been running an annual on-farm food and farming conference since 2008 on an organic farm each July.

The event has grown in attendee numbers and in profile as each year we open the doors to partners who work with us to build a great food and farming conference.

The aim of the event is always multifunctional; to encourage new entrants, to help inform and celebrate existing organic practitioners, and to promote key market and policy messages.

And core to the whole event is giving people the opportunity to come together, share food, swap notes, and to nosey around somebody else's place.

This year the National Organic Conference 1-2 July 2024 will be held on Tim May's Kingsclere Estate in Hampshire.

We are also very pleased to announce that journalist and organic farmer, Sarah Dickins will chair the main conference on 2 July.

On the 1st July with our partners, Organic Arable, the Organic Growers Alliance, UK Organic, and the UK Grain Lab we will be hosting fringe events that afternoon, gathering together for a meal in the evening.

On the 2nd July we will hold the usual NOC; talks in the morning followed by a two-course lunch prepared by Aimee Collins of the prestigious and highly decorated restaurant Five Little Pigs, and as ever the NOC lunch will be followed by the NOC farm walk.

-

This year we are very pleased to announce that for the NOC farm walk we will be joined by the British Grassland Society who will be starting their three day summer tour at Kingsclere. More details very soon.

_

The National Organic Conference has become the place where farmers, growers, researchers and food brands all come together and share experience and insight. Whether you are a longtime organic farmer or just starting to take the first few steps on that path, you are most welcome to come and join us.

Tim May is a fourth generation farmer based on the 2,500 acre Kingsclere Estate in Hampshire. The farm is biologically diverse but also the farm business is brimming with economic diversity. Tim sells grain through Organic Arable and is one of the Wildfarmed contract growers.

He is also trialling different crop varieties for the Organic Research Centre and Organic Arable. This year Tim also has varieties that are part of the new UK Grain Lab Diverse Cereal Seed project.

Tim May not only runs the farm he also runs a project called Pitch Up! Tim started an initiative on the Kingsclere Estate in Hampshire to encourage new entrants to farming, and to help him build an economically diverse and potentially a more resilient farm business. One of the successful 'Pitch Up!' businesses is the Roaming Dairy, run by Oliver Chedgey. Oliver also works with Sophie Alexander at Hemsworth Farm just over the border in Dorset. And more recently Kingsclere have also partnered with the Balcaskie Estate in Fife.

More event details to be announced in the spring.

If you want to take part please contact OF&G Business Development Manager and NOC coordinator,
Steven Jacobs.