Oxford Real Farming Conference 2018 Highlights

The impression that we can eat what we want fits neatly with a neoliberal story that treats capitalism as democratic, where people “vote with their wallets”. But this is an illusion. Rather than putting our faith in green consumerism to rebuild food systems, we should strive to de‑commodify food.

Farmer organisations should stop selling agriculture as just another industry and instead reclaim it as a mission rooted in land stewardship and care for animals and ecosystems. But with many farmers locked into debt and infrastructure that bind them to the current model, meaningful change can’t rest on farmers alone, the responsibility rests with society at large.

For 6,000 years, human societies have sought to control water through ever-larger infrastructure. As climate change brings more extreme floods, droughts and heatwaves, a growing number of cities are exploring a different path: adapting to water’s rhythms rather than trying to dominate them.