'YOU don't worry about global warming when your clothes are on fire.'

'YOU don't worry about global warming when your clothes are on fire.'

Not sure who said it, but I'm guessing that similar sentiments might have been conveyed to our Rural Affairs Cabinet Secretary earlier this week as he attempted to reignite some interest in his future vision for Scottish agriculture.

Asking the industry to lift its eyes from the page at the moment and to indulge in a some blue-sky thinking as to what we wanted our industry to look like in 10 years' time might be construed as misreading farming's current mood more than a little.

Certainly, after the year we've had so far, I would suspect that for many farmers seeing beyond the end of the week would be pretty difficult - and looking to the other side of silage-making or harvest would probably test the most farsighted of us.

So, to think that we'd be up to focusing on a vision for 2025 under the current circumstances might be a little short-sighted.

However, even though I didn't have the good fortune to be in the audience at the Turriff Show when the topic was discussed, knowing some of the good people of that area I've no doubt that similar opinions would probably have been voiced.

And now it even looks as if, like a sleeping giant, the various NFU bodies around the country are wakening up to the grass-root groundswell which has seen sporadic protests and demonstrations taking place in various parts of the UK.

The protests at distribution centres, supermarkets and on the roads - along with the call not to sell our lambs this week - might not have matched the road-blocking, tyre-burning, sh*t spreading, mayhem exhibited by our cousins across the Channel in France - but for an industry with one of the stiffest upper lips around, they represented a pretty loud cry that things were hurting.

Although the direct action might not quite have constituted an Arab Spring, the use of social media and modern communications does offer considerable benefits in running and publicising these sorts of demonstrations.

But it certainly has to be hats off to the individuals who organised and took part in the 'milk trolley challenge' at the supermarkets in Ayr and Kilmarnock at the beginning of the week for pulling off a bit of a PR coup.

It's not easy to attract so much positive media coverage while getting the message over loud and clear - but it was carried out with aplomb on that occasion.

Whether such favourable press treatment would continue if we decided to do battle and enter into a full-scale round of mass demonstrations might be a different question though - but there's no doubt that some minor skirmishes in the foothills are often required to make the depth of feeling known.

Back in 1997, grass root feeling like this was badly read by the union - and proved that, despite the reluctance of the industry as a whole to make a fuss, sometimes a problem has to be recognised and the uncomfortable task of making a loud and clear statement faced up to.

So, we've got to hope that the announcement that an emergency summit meeting of all the UK's farming unions is to be held this coming Monday will see some iron enter into the unions' soul.

Just as they tell alcoholics that the first step on the road to recovery is recognising that there's a problem, then there should be a good deal of 'Hello, my names is … and we're in a crisis' going on at the summit.

And, on the demonstration front, the European farmers' organisation, Copa-Cogeca, also seems set to up the ante a bit - and has called for a protest to coincide with an emergency meeting of European agriculture ministers at the European Council in Brussels, in September.

Farming unions from across Europe are being encouraged to mobilise farmers and staff to rally in support of the sector - and I would guess that some use might be found during the bun fight for some of that low-price milk and spare fruit and vegetables which have been suffering under the Russian trade embargo.

But while protests in Europe are all very well, one thing that must be hammered home to our own politicians is that while UK farmers have been suffering from the same margin-killing down-turn in commodity prices, the effect has been ratcheted up many degrees by the exchange rate problems which have been exacerbating every aspect of what was already a perfect storm.

And, although the CAP reform, now done, dusted and filled in has been put to one side while we revel in the misery of low prices, come BPS payment day there's likely to be another kicking waiting for us.

Although similar doom and gloom was predicted at the last round of CAP reforms, despite the rhetoric, from the UK perspective they probably didn't really hit us as hard as we'd expected.

However, there was one major difference.

Back then, the exchange rate was working strongly in our favour, so much so in fact that it took virtually all the sting out of the changes - not only cushioning us from any significant drops in support payments, but also increasing our commodity prices and at the same time facilitating a considerable boost to our exports.

This time round, though, the boot is firmly on the other foot and we're set to get a right kicking on all these fronts this time round - and, yes, I guess the bruises and scars will probably still be there in 2025.