Scottish farmers' ability to produce food 'at bottom of priority pile'

Farmers' ability to produce food is 'placed at the bottom of the pile' of the Scottish government's priorities, NFU Scotland's president has warned.

Martin Kennedy used his address to the union’s AGM in Glasgow on Thursday (9 February) to call on politicians to focus on what farming can deliver for Scotland.

Addressing delegates, the Highland farmer, who was re-elected for a further two-year presidential term, said farmers' ability to produce food was too often 'viewed as least important'.

“There is still too much ill-informed rhetoric from a loud minority within our population on our industry," he said.

"There are government decision makers on both sides of the border who are unaware of the unintended consequences of their policies.

“All too often, our ability to produce food, not just ourselves but for others who are less fortunate, is placed at the bottom of the priority pile and viewed as least important.

"That fails to recognise that without food production, we will not be able to address any of the many challenges ahead as we will not have the people on the ground with the skills, knowledge and technology to do it for us."

Mr Kennedy added that he had 'major concerns' when it came to the lack of understanding of what happens in Scotland’s countryside.

"As food producers, we are only one percent of our population," he told delegates, "We deliver the most important energy source of all and yet there is a far bigger percentage who claim to be the experts.

“Thanks to farmers, the vast majority of the population go about their daily lives with few concerns about how their food arrives on their plates because of a remarkable, underestimated industry."

In his speech, he highlighted that many of the political decisions made at a UK level currently affecting the industry were made by those no longer in post.

Since the union’s AGM was last held in person in 2020, the industry has dealt with three different prime ministers, three chancellors, three Defra Secretaries and three home secretaries.

Mr Kennedy warned: “The lessons learned from Brexit, the Covid pandemic and the devastating war in Ukraine must open government’s eyes in terms of what is important right now and the critical role that the nation’s food producers play."

From a Scottish perspective, as a result of the Bute House agreement, Mr Kennedy also identified a hardening of the green agenda as 'seriously worrying'.

"[This is] only from a food security point of view, but also from an environmental perspective due to the lack of understanding of how our rural landscape works," he said.

“If we get our future policy for Scottish agriculture wrong, and listen to the ideology of those blinkered people who cannot see the wider picture, then we will go in a backward direction.

"Poor policy will drive change on an unimaginable scale and it will not be farmers and crofters that will be jumping, it will be our consumers who will point out that this happened on the watch of a government who were taken in by false rhetoric.

“To get our future policy correct, we must listen more to those who live and breathe this industry," Mr Kennedy said.