“This conference will inform, excite, and inspire anyone” – Tom Martin, EoEFC Chairman
There will be two groups of people reading this article; those who’ve been to a previous East of England Farming Conference, and those who haven’t…yet!
Those who have previously attended could think back to hearing Commons EFRA Select Committee Chairman Neil Parish MP, airing his cutting views on the government’s plans for agriculture, or perhaps you’ll recall NFU President Minette Batters speaking passionately about the challenges in farming, or even UEA Professor of Value Chain Management Andrew Fearne sharing some pretty blunt and – given the current crises – prescient home truths about changes in food production.
Some previous attendees may have even made some significant changes to their business inspired by speakers such as Soil Farmer of the Year Jake Freestone of Overbury Farms, Emily Norton of Norton’s Dairy, or Alec Mercer who launched Packington Free Range. Or perhaps their take-home challenge in previous years was from Edward Darling of Redlist Revival inspiring delegates to farm in a way to encourage our endangered red list species.
This year’s event on Thursday 18th November will take us a step further with a raft of key national decision-makers addressing the conference including former Secretary of State and now Chairman of the Committee on Climate Change, Lord Deben, National Food Strategy Author Professor Tim Lang, and Minister for Rural Affairs and Biosecurity, Lord Benyon, all brilliantly chaired by Joe Stanley.
You can hear from cutting edge practitioners looking at ways to profitably reduce artificial fertiliser inputs and considering the economic and environmental sustainability of plant protection products, from speakers offering to pay land managers hard cash for farming sustainably and fixing carbon, and from entrepreneurial farmers bringing in extra income from diversification; inspiring us all to reduce costs or bring in extra revenue. With Teresa Meadows chairing that inspiring and informative session, who wouldn’t want to hear about all that?!
And in a brand new session – our Skills Masterclass – we’ll be bringing in an internationally renowned negotiation coach to help us all get more from our negotiations and interactions at work, and perhaps at home!
This conference will inform, excite, and inspire anyone. If you’ve never been before, then you can book today at https://eoefc21.eventbrite.co.uk. If you’ve never been before, I suspect you’ll have already booked, but if not, you know what to do!
