The Worshipful Company of Butchers and City Livery Events

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Hosted by The Worshipful Company of Butchers' and sponsored by ABP, City Meat Lecture 2025 will take place on Wednesday 26 November. This event is open to everyone in the Meat Industry, including Liverymen and non-Liverymen and promises to be topical and insightful. 

Topic: Is there a role of livestock and meat in a modern society?

For millennia livestock farming and meat consumption have been played a central role in both the economic and social fabric of our society. But much more recently there has been a raging, sometimes acrimonious debate, often fuelled by misinformation, as to whether we should celebrate and defend our meat heritage or look to other ways of consuming quality protein as part of a balanced diet. 

This Lecture will explore whether meat consumption still has an important function to play in modern Britain in terms of the health and economy of the nation as well as its environmental credentials.

Speaker: Professor Chris Elliott, PhD, FRSC, FRSB, MRIA, OBE

Professor Chris Elliott founded the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast and is also Professor of Food Security at Thamassat University in Thailand. He acts as a Senior Scientific Advisor on food safety and authenticity to a number of UN agencies

Chris led the independent review of Britain’s food system following the 2013 horsemeat scandal.

He is a recipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Royal Society of Biology. He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2020. In 2024 he became the Honorary President of the Society of Food Hygiene and Technology and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna.

Panellists:

Baroness Minette Batters 

As the first woman president of NFU, Baroness Minette Batters has been a positive force within the agricultural industry. She served as President of the National Farmers Union from 2018 to 2024, having previously served as Deputy President from 2014 to 2018. Minette now runs the tenanted family farm in Wiltshire, a mixed farming business including a 100-cow continental cross suckler herd, as well as sheep and arable.

Appointed as a crossbench member of the House of Lords in 2024 and made a Deputy Lieutenant to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in 2021.

Jez Fredenburgh, Senior Analyst on Food and Climate, ECIU

Jez Fredenburgh has worked in food, farming and environmental communications for 15 years. She cut her teeth in journalism on Farmers Weekly's business desk, covering supermarket buying practices, trade wars, and the day-to-day business of farming. She then worked as a freelance journalist for Farmers Guardian, BBC Future and National Geographic, reporting from Europe, South America, and West Africa. As a communications consultant she's advised the Sustainable Food Trust, Grantham Institute for Climate Change Research (Imperial College), Food Farming and Countryside Commission, Soil Association, WWF and the Prince’s Countryside Fund.

For the last 3 years, she has focused on UK food system transformation at the University of East Anglia, managing knowledge exchange for a 3,000-strong network of academics, policy makers and food system actors working on net zero. She is now senior analyst on food and climate at the Energy, Climate and Intelligence Unit, where she ensures journalists have access to evidence-based information.

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When: Wednesday 26th November 2025

Timings: 6pm - 9pm.

Lecture starts promptly at 6.30pm.

Where: Butchers' Hall

Dress Code: Business Attire

Cost: £102 per person inc VAT

The Event 

Doors will open at 6pm and the lecture will start promptly at 6.30pm. It will be followed by a Q&A session and discussion with our selected panellists. 

The formalities will conclude at about 7.50pm and be followed by a buffet supper, providing a fantastic opportunity to meet up and network with Liverymen and others involved in the meat industry.

The event will finish at approximately 9.00pm. 

Following the lecture our panellists will discuss the issues raised as part of our Q&A panel, facilitated by our lecture's Chairman, Assistant Stuart Roberts.

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50% discount available for WCB Young Butchers and Corporate Partners Nominees

So, bring your friends and colleagues to this important event that will be both thought-provoking and inspiring.  

Please note that if you need to cancel your booking 14 days or less before the event takes place, a cancellation fee will be incurred at the Full per person ticket price rate.

If you have any questions or need assistance with your booking, please email bookings@butchershall.com

Booking for this event has now closed.