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Back to Social/Economic/Political Homepage 23 May 2003Estimated Contribution of the Red Meat Sector to the Scottish Economy(Filed 23 May 2003)
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Concluding Observations The contribution of the Red Meat Sector in Scotland to Income and Employment is summarised in Figure 4. From this it can be seen that:
Clearly, without any satisfactory means of validation, the estimates are surrounded with considerable caveats. Figure 4
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There are those who, in pursuit of their political agendas or opportunities for funding, decry the economic contribution that the red meat sector makes to the Scottish economy. Such persons would prefer that Scottish agricultural production be turned off in most of the country in favour of environmental and recreation programmes (2).
“Consumers are replacing producers as the dominant social group”
Dr Dick Birnie, MLURI
Professor Doyle’s report shows that in fact the red meat sector does make an important positive contribution to the Scottish economy. Not only that but the livestock industry in Scotland is one of the Nation’s flagships in terms of producing a quality product. In terms of beef production Scotland is a leader within Europe not only in quality but also in quantity (3).
Furthermore, the livestock industry in Scotland is responsible for much of the care and character of Scotland’s landscape on account of its farmers.
Land-Care totally dismisses the following statement by Dr Bob Aitken, Scottish Countryside Activities Council (2) as arrogant self-seeking nonsense
“...there are better ways of maintaining the landscape than subsidising farmers to do it. Over a lot of Scotland, if farming stopped, it would matter a lot less than we imagine”
Dr Bob Aitken, SCAC
Land-Care deprecates the attempts of certain academics and others who wish to take control of much of Scotland’s land to convert it into a playground (e.g. SCAC), or exert excessive control over what they (e.g. SNH) consider to be the important environmental issues (4). The reality is that the organisations who advocate such excesses have little knowledge, experience or competence regarding land management. Nor do they acknowledge that the high standard of Scotland’s landscape, much admired throughout the world, has been in substantial part achieved by the dedication of generations of farmers.
www.land-care.org.uk
References
1. Estimated Contribution of the
Red Meat Sector to the Scottish Economy. Report Prepared by Professor
Chris Doyle of Larch Research Ltd for Quality Meat Scotland. Version
2, May 2003.
(Download
in Microsoft Word format).
2. Irvine, James (2003). The Arrogance
of Academics pontificating about Rural Affairs. Are they letting
us down?
(Filed 14 May 2003, www.land-care.org.uk,
click here to view).
3. Walker, Jim (2003). Impact of mid-term review on beef: decline would be significant. Scottish Farmer, 10 May 2003, p. 21. (Relevant graphs can be found in Reference 2).
4. PEOPLE TOO response to Amendments
to the Conservation Regulations.
(Filed 8 May 2003, www.land-care.org.uk,
click
here to view).