COP30, climate change and farmers, virtual-reality pig abattoir and Chris Brant Award

December 10, 2025·33 min·2 clips

Charlotte and Hannah host from AHDB's Christmas conference, teasing insights from COP30 and a virtual pig abattoir tour.

A feed notice comes first. Listeners hear that this is The Ag Show on the Old Food and Farming channel, with a prompt to search and subscribe in the right place. Then the room takes over. Charlotte Fawkes-Reese and Hannah Clarke are at Chesterford Grange for AHDB's Christmas staff conference, clearly enjoying the chance to see colleagues somewhere other than Teams. The format is looser than usual, but the show still gets back to its practical rhythm. After the conference chat, the forage update lands with real numbers. Emily Udall points listeners to Piers Badnall's Forage for Knowledge analysis, after noting 12.5 to 12.6 ME, 22% dry matter, and 19.7 crude protein. The message is plain enough: keep that forage quality up. Pork sustainability comes next. Zanita Markham talks through work that touches the pig's housing environment, the natural environment, research trials, industry links, government agencies, internal teams, and knowledge exchange with farmers. It sounds like a job with very few repeat days. Her section gives a two way view of how pigs are reared and how production connects to the wider environment. Virtual reality is the part with the sharper hook. The pig abattoir and farm projects are framed as tools for showing how British meat is produced, processed, and how farms and animals are kept. The reputation angle matters here. VR is tied to marketing, exports, farm visibility, animal conditions, and trust around production. The episode ends on a warm, human note, with the hosts glad to be recording together in person, enjoying the festive setting, and mentioning the colleague who missed it.

As heard by us

COP30, pig-tech, and farm realities stay linked in an episode with a live-event feel.

This AHDB staff conference episode moves from COP30 and farmer buy-in into the ordinary pressures of day-to-day farming, then shifts again into virtual reality in pig abattoirs and the question of reputation.

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Why you'd press play

COP30, pig welfare, and an AHDB staff-conference listen with a practical farm-side view.

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