EDWARD MOUNTAIN: Our farmers must be supported to produce high-quality food
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Holyrood Notebook By Edward Mountain
A few weeks ago I was delighted to support the Food Needs a Farmer rally outside the Scottish Parliament, which was organised by the National Farmers Union of Scotland (NFUS).
Hundreds of farmers from across Scotland were in attendance and made their frustrations clear to the Scottish Government about the ongoing lack of detail regarding the new agriculture policy.
Taking a day away from the farm is far from easy at the best of times, so the fact that so many attended the NFUS rally highlights how serious the issue has now become.
Thanks to Fergus Ewing, the former Rural Economy Secretary, the farming sector is being made to wait until at least 2024 before a new agriculture policy comes before the parliament. That’s far too late.
Stalling for time is not helping farmers, it is only helping the Scottish Government avoid the big challenges facing the sector. As we’ve seen in the last year, fuel, feed and fertiliser prices have rocketed, placing a huge pressure on our food producers.
The situation is critical, and farmers need a long-term plan now from this Scottish Government. Food security must be national priority, especially given the impact Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine is having on global food supply chains.
But time and again, whenever I question Mairi Gougeon, the current SNP Rural Affairs Cabinet Secretary, on how the new farm payment support system will work, I receive anything but clear answers.
For example, concerns are growing that not every farm will be able to apply for all of the available agricultural funding schemes. However, the Cabinet Secretary has not allayed these fears and we still don’t know whether some farms will be excluded from support because they are not in priority areas or priority habitats.
While I welcome the Scottish Government’s ambitious net zero and biodiversity targets, I believe they are forgetting that the first focus for all farms is producing food and managing the landscape.
Cutting out some farms from support would therefore impair their ability to produce the high-quality food that feeds our country.
We need to get the balance right. However, that’s something which is not happening when it comes to balancing the needs of farming and forestry.
Gone are the days when unsuitable land, such as the Flow Country, was identified for forestry plantations. Instead, good farmland is now being bought up to plant trees. That is a mistake. We need to identify poor quality agricultural land for timber production.
While increased tree planting is vital to ensuring Scotland meets its climate change targets, impinging on good food producing land is not the way to do it.
My worry though is that if the Scottish Government’s future farming policy fails to deliver what farmers need, then more will be tempted to sell up to forestry developers.
This will be catastrophic. As I’ve made clear to the Scottish Government on several occasions, we can’t eat trees.
Not only will this undermine our food security, but it will also hurt rural communities too, many of which depend on thriving local farms.
There’s never been a more important time to support our local farmers and, with Christmas now fast approaching, I would encourage everyone to shop locally for their food and drink this festive season.
We are fortunate to have world-class food and drink made on our doorstep, whether that’s quality meats, gin or whisky. But that status will only be sustained if these vital rural businesses continue to be supported.
Looking ahead, I will continue to stand with farmers to ensure they receive the right support they need to feed our country and steward our countryside.
- Edward Mountain is a Highlands and Islands MSP for the Scottish Conservatives.
