A WORKING group consisting of producers, consumer and environmental organisations has been formed to develop future policy on farming and food production.

This Food and Farming Production Group has been tasked with deciding how best to use Scotland’s natural assets to produce food and mitigate the impact of climate change – and how to support such activity if Scotland has to leave the EU. No hard deadline has been set for the group concluding its work, only that it will make its recommendations during the course of 2020.

Convening the first meeting of the group while at the Royal Highland Show, Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing said: “People are the food and farming industry’s greatest resource so I am delighted that such an array of talented, experienced and knowledgeable people has agreed to join this group and I look forward to convening its first meeting today. It will provide its views and expertise to support Scottish Government officials in making recommendations on future farming and food production policy built around the six principles set out earlier this year to Parliament.

“Scotland’s landscape and climate provide us with an unrivalled natural larder. We need to develop policies which support both, to ensure that our status as a high quality producer of food is maintained and grows.

“Crucially, we need an integrated approach that will ensure that Scotland’s land assets play their part in responding to and mitigating the global climate emergency. I look forward to hearing the proposals.”

The group's members are:

  • Andrew Watson (Chair), director, Scottish Government
  • John Kerr, head of agricultural policy, Scottish Government
  • George Burgess, deputy director, Scottish Government
  • Martin Kennedy, National Farmers Union Scotland
  • Sarah Millar, Quality Meat Scotland
  • Lucy Husband, Scotland Food and Drink
  • A representative from Citizens Advice Scotland
  • Marion McCormick, former Aldi executive
  • Robbie Galloway, Scotbeef
  • Aoife Behan, Soil Association
  • Anne McCall, RSPB Scotland
  • Deborah Long, SE Link
  • Ian Muirhead, Harbo
  • Joyce Campbell, sheep farmer, entrepreneur
  • James Graham, Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society
  • Lisa Buchanan, crofter
  • Robert Graham, Graham's Family Dairy Group
  • Hugh Campbell Adamson, Stracathro Estates
  • Alison Milne, Demperston farm
  • Lochy Porter, Angus Fruits

The group will focus on the period beyond 2024 and will test proposals to support farming and food production as a key part of a flourishing rural Scotland, including the impact on climate change, the loss of biodiversity and maintaining the rural population.

Commenting on his invitation to join the new Food and Farming Production Group, NFUS vice president Martin Kennedy said: “I thank the Cabinet Secretary for the invite to join this group where my priority will be ensuring that farmers and crofters receive clear messages on direction, future policy frameworks and funding with far greater urgency than has happened to date.

“The challenges faced by Scotland’s farmers and crofters in a post-Brexit era are vast and the reality is that many of the business decisions being taken now, won’t come to fruition for several years, but are being taken in a vacuum of uncertainty.

“Our Brexit confidence survey launched today clearly shows that as frustration levels grow around Brexit uncertainty and a need for direction on funding and policy, confidence levels are being eroded.

“Three years on from the historic Brexit vote, Scotland’s farmers and crofters had a justifiable expectation that they would have had a clearer path ahead by now," said Mr Kennedy.

“There has been a plethora of valuable consultations and reports in that period – Scottish Government’s Stability and Simplicity; recommendations from Scottish Government’s four agricultural champions; the report from the National Council of Rural Advisors; the Griggs review into Greening and the Simplification task force," he noted. "This group must quickly build on that platform.

“NFU Scotland’s ‘Steps to Change – a new agricultural policy for Scotland’, published in 2018, puts some flesh on the bones of what a new policy might look like and it is a document widely consulted on and endorsed by our membership. The previous reports and our own document must be crafted into something that provides direction and focus for our farmers and crofters.

“Budget responsibility sits with Westminster, but policy direction sits with Scottish Government and ‘Steps to Change’ gives me a clear mandate on what I will be using to represent NFU Scotland’s farmers and crofters through this group, which is charged with the vital task of setting the future direction for our iconic food and farming sectors," he concluded.