ORFC 2026: Seed Central, Biodiversity Focus

This announcement highlights a pivotal seed swap initiative at the Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) 2026, positioning seeds as central to resilient food systems. The event fosters seed sovereignty—community control over breeding, saving, and sharing—to counter corporate dominance and monocultures. Diverse seeds enhance field, garden, and ecosystem adaptability to climate shifts, pests, and soil degradation. Participants exchange heirlooms, landraces, and farmer-bred varieties, prioritizing open-pollinated types for ongoing propagation. Workshops cover saving techniques: timing harvests at physiological maturity, threshing, cleaning, drying to 5-10% moisture, testing germination. Storage demos emphasize cool, dry, pest-free conditions using traditional (gourds, cloth bags) and modern (jars, fridges) methods. Keynote speakers from Seed Savers networks discuss policy advocacy for seed rights, farmer exemptions from patents. Hands-on sessions: packet-making, labeling, viability tracking. The swap builds networks for ongoing swaps, libraries, and breeding collectives. Broader impacts: biodiversity boosts nutrition, flavors, resilience; economic independence via saved seeds. ORFC's legacy as radical farming platform amplifies message. Practical prep: bring cleaned, labeled seeds with origin stories; no hybrids or GMOs. Virtual options for global reach. Ties to regenerative ag: seeds as living heritage. Past events yielded thousands exchanged, new varieties revived. 2026 theme integrates with agroecology tracks. Registration details, speaker bios provided. This initiative empowers growers to reclaim agency, weaving practical skills with activism for diversified, sovereign food futures.