12 February 2026

The Oxford conferences are where UK food and farming takes its temperature at the start of each year. Held in January, they’re the first major gathering after the holiday break: a  moment when the sector collectively asks where we are, and what’s coming.

In our January dispatch, Angelina Sanderson Bellamy captured the mood, describing a sector exhausted by uncertainty, hungry for clarity, but increasingly recognising that change is coming whether shaped by choice or crisis. Now, stepping back from the heat of the moment, Nina Pullman reports on three sessions that stood out for her in terms of what they reveal about a central question for 2026: will policy ambition translate into something farmers, communities and food businesses can actually work with?

Can horticulture help tackle the health crisis? Horticulture projects working within communities to tackle food insecurity and social isolation are powerful examples of how food production can be connected with tackling the UK’s health crises, and they’re not waiting for Whitehall to catch up.

There is an appetite to reach health through food. In an ORFC session, case studies included The Mazi Project, which helps disadvantaged young people learn to cook and access healthy food and Sims Hill Shared Harvest, a community farm that runs sessions with marginalised people, including refugees. Lily Farmer, programme director at The Mazi Project said members report eating 95% more fruit and veg since accessing the scheme and that people “want to access health though this brave new world of horticulture.” 

A step change in language linking health and diets. Anna Taylor, Executive Director of the Food Foundation, noted a step change in language coming out of government that demonstrates a growing understanding of the links between food, health and affordability. “These two things are subject to discussion in a way that they haven’t been to date,” she said. The National Food Strategy and 10-Year Health Plan make this connection, but it’s unclear whether the policy machinery can deliver what community projects like the Mazi Project are already proving works.

Respecting farmer livelihoods is part of the picture. The Mazi Project buys produce from growers at market prices before distributing to families in need for free. “We don’t accept donations, we buy all our produce. Farmers set the price they need to sell and we pay that. Farmers and their livelihoods need to be respected,” said Lily Farmer. 

Biodiversity Net Gain: A new route to farmer income? Biodiversity Net Gain agreements, carbon offsets and rewilding could become viable new income streams for farmers, but sessions at both conferences identified tensions that are far from resolved.

Small farmers risk being left out. Data literacy and farm size can exclude smaller operations from finance schemes, panellists at another ORFC session warned. Biodiversity Net Gain agreements, carbon offsets or rewilding could become viable new income streams for farmers but if nature financing schemes work only for large estates and corporate landowners, it will deepen existing inequalities rather than supporting the diversification the sector needs.

There’s a tension over taking land out of food production. Some farms are taking land out of production to carry out long-term nature restoration, which helps restore soils and nature but could impact domestic food security. Head of nature, food and resource at Triodos Bank, Simon Crichton, flagged this tension, while other panellists argued the land sparing and land sharing debate is a false dichotomy. Young Wilders’ Molly Easton noted the organisation works on land that is otherwise not used, while co-founder of the Planeatary Alliance, Mike Barry, reminded listeners of the urgency and lack of progress in nature restoration in the UK, as one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries. 

Farmers are stewards of the land, not just food producers. CEO of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, Martin Lines, challenged the slogan ‘no farmers, no food’,  as misleading, given that most UK farmers are not producing crops for human consumption. Farmers should look for income according to what their land is best suited to, whether that is intensive food production or landscape-level nature recovery, he said. This connects directly to the Land Use Framework consultation and the farming roadmap due out this year, both of which will need to grapple with how to reward multiple outcomes from land, not just food production.

Government hopes to fix SFI mess of last year. Speaking at the OFC, Defra Secretary of State Emma Reynolds announced that two windows for Sustainable Farming Incentive applications will open this year, with no further shock closures. The scheme will be more focused, with fewer actions and less complexity, and less land will be allowed to be included to avoid reducing food production. 

Government hails new era of partnership. As protesting farmers’ horns blared outside, Reynolds said that successful negotiations on the topic of the Inheritance Tax reforms have won based on being quiet and respectful. She confirmed a new Food and Farming Partnership board will be set up, following the Batters Farm Profitability Review, and said the government wants to work with, rather than impose on farmers. 

What we’re left with: Across all three sessions, a tension emerged between what policy promises and what’s happening on the ground, with people and projects already trying to bridge it. 2026 will test whether there’s any resolution. We’ll be tracking these threads in future digests.