The Oxford Farming Conference council has cancelled the in-person attendance of the 2022 conference, which will now run as an online-only event.
The organisers said the decision had been made “with deep sadness”. The event is a culmination of 12 months of work and will feature speakers from all over the world. A virtual event will still go ahead with the addition of the science lecture, debate and fringes, running online from 5-7 January 2022.
Joint co-chairs, Barbara Bray and Sarah Mukherjee said: “Like many other organisations, we have been monitoring announcements and developments across the UK and internationally on the Omicron variant. Delegate safety has always been our primary concern.
“Whilst we are confident that the measures we had put in place to safeguard delegates were robust, the groundswell of concern nationally and internationally, combined with the lack of clarity about regulations likely in the weeks ahead, made this decision inevitable.
“The OFC is in good financial health, but we must face the fact that this decision will create a very large deficit for us, as a small charity that dates back to the 1930s. However, the decision is the right one to make.”