SIR, – I write regarding last week's 'Farming is a Lifestyle Choice'. It is good to see young people take on food production and I applaud their stamina and commitment.

However, I think we are doing a great disservice to young, and not so young, farmers if we do not have a sustainable agricultural system in place which rewards farmers adequately for the food they produce.

This is particularly important now and in the very uncertain post Brexit world. We would be doing a great disservice not only to farmers and farm workers but also to the many businesses and workers both upstream and downstream of farms and, indeed, consumers.

More than 50% of employees in Scotland work in the public sector, (ie their wage /salary is 100% subsidised by the public purse) and they, quite rightly, expect to get paid (even doctors of physics!) The one thing I never hear being said to public sector workers, when complaints are made of inadequate pay is: "If you're not happy why don't you go and take another job?" nor do we say to them: "If you enjoy your job, don't expect to get paid!"

As I have said, they are fully entitled to a reasonable level of pay for all the very worthwhile jobs they do.

Why should it be any different for farmers? They are perfectly entitled to be paid for the equally worthwhile and essential jobs they do.

After all, everybody eats (again even doctors of physics!)! It was government, not farmers, who set up the system whereby certain types of farming are paid partly by subsidy and partly by the sale of their end products, effectively actually subsidising the consumer.

Given that is the present system, farmers are perfectly within their rights to expect these subsidy payments to be made timeously. That is the only way the industry can operate smoothly.

Regarding New Zealand: It is much too simplistic to applaud them for surviving without subsidies. When subsidies were taken away in NZ, was it not the case that their government put money towards bank overdrafts? (It should be noted here that farm borrowing in Scotland is presently more than £2b and in the UK approximately £17b).

The regulation system in NZ is completely different from that of the UK. Also, was it not the case that when the subsidies were taken away, nearly all the processing was in the hands of farmers? Is it not only recently that outsiders were allowed to part own processing?

Surely a lot more detail would have to be investigated before judgements are made.

'Fairness For Farmers'

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