Enabling on the Ground Transition: Building Capacity for Net Zero Literacy in Farming and Rural Communities

The Enabling transition to net zero Topic Advisory Group hosted a webinar on 4th November 2025 Building capacity for net zero literacy in farming and rural communities.

Three expert speakers reflected on their own experiences in capacity building for net zero literacy from different perspectives.

Brady Stevens and Sarah Erbanova from the Food & Footprint Team, SAC Consulting, Part of SRUC, described the Carbon Literacy Training for Rural Industries and shared key insights from an analysis of Scotland’s Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS).

Rachael Madeley-Davies, Head of Environment (Technical) at AHDB took A Farmer’s perspective and talked about the importance of getting the language of carbon right, carbon myth busting for farmers and addressing the farmers’ question ‘What’s in it for me’ ?

Dr Julie Finch, the Agriculture Governance & Compliance Manager for Kepak, shared a processor perspective from across red meat supply chains, outlining the challenges in achieving / reporting change at scale and opportunities to enhance capacity and uptake.

Presentations were followed by a Q&A session where issues included: making the economic case for sustainable farming practises that prove short term gains to farming business; the importance of skilled adviser as specialists, integrators and facilitators, as well as building up trust and credibility in this new net zero context; and not communicating net zero as a separate activity (recognising that adaptation and mitigation are already part of farming systems).