Season’s greetings from ORC
The ORC team would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and thank you to everyone that has supported us over the last twelve months, a year that has been very productive for ORC.
Trees on Farms: Podcast mini-series
Check out the Trees on Farms podcast mini series from Meet the Farmers – a weekly show that profiles people in the countryside and gives you an insight into food and farming.
Peach Hayne organic Christmas trees
Peach Hayne Organics, is UK’s only organic certified Christmas tree farm and family-run in the heart of Devon.
Silvopasture: Benefits For Livestock
Free webinar on Dec 14 at 7pm organised by Farm Wilder, with funding from Devon County Council, will be led by ORC’s Lindsay Whistance “who has been pivotal in generating the recent upsurge in interest around silvopasture.”
Agroforestry Carbon Code project webinar recording
Watch the webinar introducing the Agroforestry Carbon Code project with Soil Association, Woodland Trust, Organic Research Centre. Features ORC’s Will Simonson and Colin Tosh
Organic: Leading the way in a world of sustainability
Soil Association Certification held its annual Organic Trade Conference in October. The line-up featured keynote speaker, Professor Dave Goulson, alongside research experts at The Crow Flies, as well as the latest UK organic market figures from NielsenIQ and many other top industry experts.
Cotswold Grain Network
The Cotswold Grain network is a group of bakers, farmers, brewers and researchers who want to re-imagine the grain economy in the Cotswold, promoting heritage and non-commodity grains and direct distributing locally.
Support our ‘The Future of Farming’ Appeal in conjunction with the Big Give Christmas Challenge
Today we’re launching The Future of Farming appeal as part of The Big Give Christmas Challenge to enable more famers to farm agroecologically. Donate via the Big Give between 29 Nov & 6 Dec and your donation will be doubled.
LIVESEEDING – upscaling organic seed and plant breeding in Europe
ORC is partners in a new Horizon Europe-funded project ‘LIVESEEDING’ – Organic seed and plant breeding to accelerate sustainable and diverse food systems in Europe.
Pitch Up! “The Dragon’s Den of Farming” is Back
Following the first ever Pitch Up! in November 2021 – which saw a wide range of entries from food, drink and farming to fashion, beauty and leisure businesses – the team at Kingsclere Estates organic, regenerative farm is pleased to announce Pitch Up! 2022.
ORC at Organic Matters 2022
The Organic Research Centre and Agricology were partners in the Organic Growers Alliance’s recent Organic Matters conference held at the Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham on October 18th.
Young people’s views on healthy and sustainable food
Think tank Common Vision UK is asking young people aged 14-18 to take part in the #HealthyFoodHealthyPlanet questionnaire for chance to win a £50 voucher
Facilitating Innovations for Resilient Livestock Farming Systems
The new Horizon Europe project Re-Livestock – Facilitating Innovations for Resilient Livestock Farming Systems has started!
Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill
The Genetic Technology Bill threatens our food, our farms and the natural environment. MPs have a chance to change the bill in the House of Commons ‘report stage’ which is scheduled for Monday 31 October.
Factors influencing organic de-certification
Survey aims to to establish the main trends of why organic or former organic farms choose to give up organic certification and switch back to conventional agriculture.
Agroforestry ELM Test seeks farmers
The Agroforestry ELM Test project is seeking farmers with little or no experience in agroforestry to undertake a video interview (approximately one and a half hours) to gather opinions on the content of agroforestry provision within the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Local Nature Recovery (LNR) developed by Defra so far.
New Horizon Europe project focusing on the expansion of agroforestry
ReForest has launched! Agroforestry at the forefront of farming sustainability in multifunctional landscapes in Europe – a 4-year Horizon Europe project, bringing together 14 institutions from 10 European countries with extensive expertise in this field.
Staff news: Welcomes and goodbyes
ORC welcomes Kathrin Heimbach and Christian Gossel and says foodbye to Chiara Tuoni and Ambro Costanzo
ORC Bulletin 137 on its way!
The Autumn issue of the ORC Bulletin (137) has mailed out! The Summer 2022 issue (No.136) is now available for free download.
Summer Mastitis Online Survey
Calling UK dairy farmers! You are invited to take part in an online survey on summer mastitis in dairy cattle
Go Organic’s Organic September 2022
Organic September is about celebrating everything organic and the hard work and dedication that goes into growing while working with nature, not against it.
Leafy salad growers wanted for peat-free trials
Are you a leafy salad grower interested in trialling peat reduced options? Riverford and the Organic Research Centre are developing a new Innovative Farmers field lab
Distance learning Organic Farming programme - Places available for September
There are still places available for SRUC’s part-time post-graduate distance learning programme in Organic Farming for the 2022/2023 academic year, starting early September 2022.
Exploring opportunities for an Agroforestry Carbon Code
The Soil Association, Woodland Trust, Finance Earth, Organic Research Centre and Scottish Rural College (SRUC) have been awarded funding from the Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund to explore the feasibility of developing a carbon code for Agroforestry