Every January, farmers, growers, policymakers, researchers, and activists gather in Oxford for the Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC). It’s an inspiring event filled with conversations and collaborations aimed at shaping positive pathways for the future of food and farming. Among the highlights is the presence of many from the Innovative Farmers community, who come to share insights and breakthroughs from their field labs.

This year, Innovative Farmers partnered with Riverford to host a session on peat-free horticulture. The discussion explored the future of horticulture and how the industry can make the vital transition away from peat.

Here are some reflections and key takeaways from the session:

Emma Restorick – Panellist and triallist in the Farm Net Zero field lab on compost management

“I left the session feeling heartened by the efforts being made towards peat-free horticulture. I think one of the things I was most struck by was Sebastien from Klasmann saying that they were readily exploring possible peat-free solutions, but that others were lagging behind (particularly in the UK!).

Feedback from Audrey’s Innovative Farmers trial group about the poor quality of most current peat-free options (not Klasmann’s, it must be said) was striking and echoed by many over the two days. 

On my small scale, creating peat-free soil blocks is a great opportunity to incorporate biologically rich components like vermicast or bokashi. However, I can see how this becomes more challenging for larger-scale operations.”

Audrey Litterick – Panellist and coordinator of the peat-free blocking trial

“The session was both valuable and relevant. We wanted to get across the idea that making good compost, good media and good blocks takes time. Growers need to consider carefully the full cost implications of making both their own growing media and their own blocks. Nursery-made media can be good enough, and potentially much better than the worst proprietary brands. Although it’s probably not as consistently good for all plant species as the best proprietary brands, perhaps, with practice, it could be.”

Carolyn Coxe – Soil Association Farming Advisor 

“The session brought together a great representation of growers across different scales, as well as supply chain representatives and researchers exploring alternative growing media. Sebastian Kipp from Klasmann-Deilmann highlighted the complexities of creating a new growing medium, as there is no direct replacement for peat-based products. He also noted how some growers in Europe are moving away from blocking to alternative propagation techniques.

The sustainability of alternative media components is another key consideration. Coventry University is addressing this through the Responsible Sourcing Calculator, part of the Innovate UK peat-free plant propagation project. Trials are ongoing with bulk materials such as wood chip, green waste compost, anaerobic digestate, and binders like clay, cellulose, and gelatin. While initial results with crops like lettuce are promising, scaling up production and maintaining consistency remain challenges.”

Highlights from other Innovative Farmers sessions

Innovative Farmers also participated in two other sessions: one on homegrown proteins and another on British fibres. Both sessions highlighted exciting projects and progress across different sectors.

Homegrown Proteins

The UK imports around 6 million tonnes of protein annually, much of it soy that has travelled halfway around the globe. The 'homegrown proteins' session highlighted the need to increase domestic protein production.

Jerry Alford, Senior Farming Advisor at the Soil Association, shared insights from the EU-funded intercropping project, LEGUMINOSE. Jerry is coordinating the cereal/legume intercropping trials in the UK. Speaking about his key takeaway from the session, he said:

“It was a clear demonstration that a whole-farm mixed farming approach, based around protein crops as both fertility builders and feed, is a sound business strategy for making farms of all types more resilient.”

British Fibres

The British fibres session celebrated efforts to reconnect fashion to farming by creating homegrown sustainable fibres. One of the panellists, Rosie Bristow, is a triallist in the field lab working to revive Scotland’s flax-fibre industry. Alongside trialling different varieties of flax in a Scottish climate, Rosie is also developing open-source machinery to turn flax into fibre. 

Rosie shared: “I think my favourite thing about the panel discussion was hearing from the other panellists who are doing equivalent projects but are further on in terms of getting all their infrastructure linked up. It was very inspiring to hear about Fernhill Fibre and British Pasture Leather, who both have farmer-processor-fashion designer supply networks already set up, and to think about where we could be in the future.

It was also great to see such a full room and enthusiastic questions from the audience, which gives me confidence that there will be lots of enthusiastic fibre farmers in the future."