Columnists

Martin Kennedy: It is important we get future policy right for farming and food production

Martin Kennedy's Guest View: History must show we made the right decisions
Not many industries can claim they are the oldest industry in the world, in fact there’s only one – farming and food production.

In 1906, American journalist Alfred Henry Lewis stated: “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy.”

PREMIUM The Scottish Farmer speaks: Without higher prices there will be food shortages

Claire Simonetta

PREMIUM Claire Simonetta's Farmer's View: Building resilience and flexibility into ag-policy

John Harvey from Drum Farm Ref:RH270420998 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer

PREMIUM John Harvey: helping my Holsteins through a heatwave

Rory Stone of Highland Fine Cheeses – Scottish cheesemakers need to upsell as the whisky industry has so successfully done, and promote their wares as premium products

Rory Stone It’s not just the luck of the Irish – it’s determination, vision and hard graft.

Jim Brown Ref:RH0111170305

Jim Brown Farmer's View: Weathering a storm of political upheaval and uncertainty

THE CONSERVATIVES aren't attacking the EU over greening's negative effects on farming, because they aspire to be even greener

Richard Wright Green cuts and food security make unlikely bedfellows

The Scottish Farmer speaks: From seed potato wars to show time longevity

Leaders The Scottish Farmer speaks: From seed potato wars to show time longevity

Ref:RH131217045

John Elliot Why we all need to have a prostate check-up

The pursuit by Europe and the UK of a green net zero agenda appeared to work when there was the backstop of imported gas from a country not known for its green credentials

Euro Notebook Time to ease back on the green pedal that Johnson put flat to the floor

Crown Estate Scotland

Leaders The Scottish Farmer's View on Crown Estate plans and the 'Cost of Farming Crisis'

Alasdair Macnab

Alasdair Macnab Using 'big data' can head off farmers' move into slave labour

HOPES of a bumper EU harvest are withering under the fierce heat

Richard Wright Drought is the latest in a long line of shocks to our food system

Farm every week like its Farm Safety Week

Please don't take risks on your farm

Every Scottish government that's been voted in since devolution has vowed to cut red tape and yet these utterances seem to have been largely made up of Boris-like porkies

Leaders The Scottish Farmer speaks: Counting the cost of farm assurance - where's the gain?

Jim Walker Ref:RH250118034

Jim Walker Has Northern Ireland been reading our 'book' on future farm policy?

THERE WAS a time when politicians recognised the importance of national food security in a turbulent world

Richard Wright No outcome of the Conservative Party's leadership race will see farmers celebrating

The weather's been fickle and ill-divided this year so far

Leaders Scotland's water divide and a market out of balance?

James Porter, checking the crop of Malling Centenary strawberries Ref:RH19617393

James Porter Soft fruit growers on a race to the bottom

Good bye Boris ... what happens next is open to conjecture, for agriculture a newminister is essential given the trade deals that have been agreed

Richard Wright Boris Johnson leaves a sour legacy for farming

It's all happy faces at the Highland!

Leaders Extracting the max

Norman Bagley Time to concentrate on COP and not chase exports

When wars are being fought on farmland, food security suddenly becomes a much more pressing issue

Euro Notebook Today's global power dynamic radically changes how people see food security

Science and Sustainable Agriculture

Karen Holt Gene editing in UK – Karen Holt points out good reasons to follow Canada's tack

WHATEVER farmers have to pay for fuel this coming harvest is going to have a real impact on the price of food

Opinion The Scottish Farmer speaks: Farming can be the solution to food inflation

Jim Brown Ref:RH0111170305

Jim Brown Food production all set to take centre stage

As Brexiteers are fond of saying... its happened, better get used to it

Euro Notebook London's response to the food crisis lags behind Brussels – so whither the Brexit bonus?

John Elliot Ref:RH131217050

John Elliot Moving ahead to create everlasting memories

Tractor in a minefield

Richard Wright War has reminded the EU why it has a Common Agricultural Policy

The Royal Highland Show celebrating 200 years

Opinion Royal Highland 200 – a shining beacon for all agriculture in Scotland

Hamish Waugh The carbon issue and how to solve it

NFUS president Martin Kennedy has launched a stout defence of agriculture having proven that farmers are listening and doing something about climate change, while other industries seem to be able to buy a tree and get themselves off the hook!

Opinion Farming, wildlife and climate change battle it out for news space

Kathleen O'Donnell of Fragomen

Kathleen O’Donnell Which is the best hiring option for fruit and vegetable farms?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson (Pic: Jeremy Selwyn/Evening Standard/PA Wire)

Opinion Desperate for friends, might Johnson rediscover his rural MPs?

Jim Walker Time to deliver on the eating quality of Scotch meat

Comparison with New Zealand welfare standards is a warning shot to the industry

Opinion Defending our markets from cheap foreign imports

Richard Wright's Euro Notebook: An imperial rise through political fall-out?

Richard Wright An imperial rise through political fall-out?

James Porter - wondering why supermarkets put more effort into promoting junk food than healthy fruit and veg Ref:RH19617394

James Porter Delaying the junk food clampdown is shortsighted

WESTMINSTER'S vision of a 'green' countryside pushes food production to the sidelines

Opinion London must end its denigration of farmers and food production

ALL OVER rural Scotland, old bridges are reaching the end of their working lives - and there doesn't seem to be a plan to put that right

Opinion Infrastructure is everything

Andrew Moir We really need a severe dose of realism

Prime minister Boris Johnson loves emulating his hero, Winston Churchill, who in reality would be appalled by the present government, not least in distancing itself from Europe

Opinion We are witnessing the end of the cheap food era

Who misses the old MacRobert Pavilion? What is this shiny new thing in its place?

Opinion Not all change is bad – and this is still our one and only Highland Show

Doug Niven Ref:RH300119128 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer

Doug Niven Global grain and oilseed markets tighten due to war and weather

John Scott of Fearn Farm:

John Scott We can’t rely on others to tell our farming story

Jim Brown (Pic ref:RH0111170305)

Jim Brown Celebrates a few anniversaries in his Farmer's View column

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales during the State Opening of Parliament, where he delivered the Queen's Speech outlining the government's plans for the coming parliamentary year (Pic: Ben Stansall - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Opinion Westminster clings on to its undeliverable greening policies

Gene editing relies on highlighting or suppressing genes that already exist within an organism's own genome - it does not, as with genetic modification, draw on genes from other species

Opinion Our future lies in the genes

John Elliot (Pic: Rob Haining)

John Elliot Making sheep faulds that allow you to go with the flow

Alasdair Macnab Ref:EC210519625

Alasdair Macnab Learn the new language of change– and take our future into our own hands

Over trade alone, farmers – many of whom, particularly in England, supported Brexit – have not done well

Richard Wright When no deal is better than any deal?

RHET Forth Valley raised £3000 to conribute to practical education of agriculture for schools across the district

Opinion RHET Forth Valley raises £3000 to contribute to education within schools

Love them or loathe them, carbon audits will be a necessary evil if we are to defend food production against anti-farming sentiment

Opinion The Scottish Farmer speaks: Getting Scotland's new agri-policy rules right

Lucy Mitchell is the new National chair of SAYFC Ref: Paul Watt

Lucy Mitchell SAYFC is back with a bang