The Global Women’s Strike is speaking at two sessions of the
Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) 4-6 Jan 2023.

We hope you can attend and tell others about the conference: three days of packed sessions, the first day online only, the following two in person & online.

You can register for the online sessions HERE (free to all delegates from majority world countries and to all who would not otherwise be able to attend).

Wed 4 Jan, 9am GMT.  Online.

A Care Income to Protect the Land, the People and the Natural World

Speakers
Selma James
Swati Renduchintala
Pranom Somwong
Dee Woods Chair
Jyoti Fernandez

Languages: English

As mothers, carers, farmers/farm workers, land and human rights’ defenders, women do most of the work of feeding (starting with breastfeeding) and protecting families and communities, the soil and the environment. For doing this fundamental caring work of society, unwaged and low-waged, we are impoverished and denied basic rights, including to the land we work. Organising in self-help groups, women in Andhra Pradesh, India, are leading a massive community movement of natural farmers who regenerate the soil to grow healthy food and stop climate change. Scaling up internationally is crucial. A care income for all natural farmers would empower such movements, encourage all genders to contribute and to refuse work that pollutes. The subsidies now paid to poison soil, water and air, must be redirected to caring for people and the planet, starting in the Global South and working-class communities everywhere, especially Indigenous and other people of colour, who are hardest hit by the climate emergency.

This session will be followed by an interactive Q&A in Zoom. 

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Thur 5 Jan, 11am (GMT). Online.

Swati Renduchintala is also speaking here:

Andhra Pradesh to Africa: Taking agroecology to scale through farmer-to-farmer

Speakers
Swati Renduchintala
Samuel Nyanzi
Rosine Ndayishimiye
Ferdinand Wafula

Languages: English

The Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming Programme is a highly successful government-led initiative involving millions of farmers and eight million hectares of land in India. It revolves around nine key agroecological principles, including the use of indigenous seed, cover crops and keeping soil disturbance to a minimum. Probably most importantly it offers a viable alternative to using chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides.

In 2020, members of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) visited India and were able to witness the success of the programme first hand. As a result, they have started an online learning programme between AFSA members in 12 African countries and Indian farmers in Andhra Pradesh, so that the successes and difficulties of such a knowledge-intensive, rather than resource-intensive system of farming, can be shared with other small-scale farmers around the world. Join one of the trainers and participants from Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya as they discuss the importance of these exchanges, and how they have worked for African farmers.

This session will be followed by an interactive Q&A in Zoom. 

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Selma James is also speaking here:

Thur 5 Jan, 6pm. In person & online.

Agroecology and Feminism: Transforming
our society and our economy

Speakers
Bridget Murphy
Sasha Georgiades
Sandra Salazar
Selma James Chair
Clem Sandison Languages: English

Agroecology, food sovereignty, climate justice and antipoverty economics aim to value all life by ending power relations, including sexism, racism and every form of discrimination. A women’s movement with a practical perspective on agroecology, includes all who identify as women and/or as antisexist, not only to create spaces free of discrimination but to revalue the ‘unseen’ work that mainly women and gender marginalised people do. The global economy could not function without this work. Our struggle for its recognition is integral to creating a future centred on the survival and wellbeing of the human race and the natural world. This panel explores the obstacles women and gender marginalised people face when building the agroecological movement, and how we can act together to overcome them and build humane relationships.