Back to HOMEPAGE Scottish Minister for Rural Affairs dispensed
both cheer and gloom at NFUS agm
on 22nd February
James Irvine
Teviot Scientific, Cultybraggan Farm, Comrie, Perthshire
Filed 23 Feb 08
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Members of the National Farmers Union Scotland (NFUS) held their agm this year at Dunblane Hydro. They were addressed by the new Scottish Rural Affairs Minister, Richard Lochhead. He took over the role from Ross Finnie (1) when the Labour/Liberal Democrat coalition lost the general election in May 2007 to the Scottish National Party (SNP). The SNP so far have managed to retain power with a majority of one.
To date the farming community have been impressed with the genuine interest he has shown in Scottish farming, and with his willingness to fight Scotland's corner with Westminster's Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). It would also appear that he is prepared to put Scotland's case in more emphatic terms to the political juggernaut of management incompetence known as the European Commission (EC). Certainly, although far from satisfactory, farming matters have been handled much better in Scotland than in England and Wales. But here in Scotland we continue to be seriously held back by both Defra and the EC, and some seriously damaging policies that persist within Scottish Government.
Richard Lochhead got a hearty round of applause during his address when he vouched that he would not let Scottish farming go under: that he would not allow Scotland to lose its food security. He and Jim Maclaren, NFUS President, appeared to have a good working relationship with regard to many of the problems that face Scottish farming, but there were clear areas where their policies widely diverged. The new Minister clearly has a more approachable style than the Major Mannering performance of his predecessor - the wee accountant from Gourock with the big deep voice.
Richard Lochhead, Scottish Minister for Rural Affairs,
addressing NFUS agm 22nd Feb 08
(To enlarge photo Click Here)
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Jim Maclaren is an enthusiastic advocate for Genetically Modified (GM) crops. He rightly argues that, unless we are permitted to feed our livestock with products that contain GM ingredients, the costs of GM-free ingredients will escalate to economically unsustainable levels. This is particularly likely to happen if, as expected, South America switches its market to China and away from Europe. China is interested in feeding its people and livestock and not the least bothered whether what they or their animals eat is GM-free or not. There would then be a great scarcity of GM-free crops available for Europe. One had to wonder if, for all the superficial gloss, we in Scotland were going to suffer from the emotionally driven, didactic policies of the SNP in terms of such fundamental matters as GM crops and nuclear energy. We desperately need both, and soon. The rest of the world has been eating food derived from GM crops for very many years, and there is no evidence that it has done them any harm. The scare mongering of faith groups such as the Soil Association has to stop.
While the devolved government in Scotland may take a strong stance against the introduction of GM crops, they apparently have little problem with the importation of beef from cattle that have not only been fed GM soya and other products, but have also been hormonal enhanced. The majority of the Scottish public, as in the rest of the UK, seem perfectly happy to buy such beef just so long as the price is right.
While the Scottish Executive (or Government as it prefers to call its devolved self) is to be praised for wanting to have a greater say in matters concerning Animal Health and Welfare in Scotland so as to include monetary control, there are major anxieties as to why Scotland has not yet ordered any Bluetongue vaccine to counter the obvious and serious threat from Bluetongue reaching Scotland during the next few months, spreading to well north of the Tay by October. Science would have no hesitation in saying that it is best to vaccinate before a disease arrives rather than waiting till after it has. Yet that is the crazy policy of the EC. But Scotland;s Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO), Charles Milne, is still trying to get the various stakeholders to agree that vaccine be ordered in sufficient quantity to cover all the cattle and sheep in Scotland.
Jim Maclaren, President NFU Scotland
(To enlarge photo Click Here)
©www.land-care.org.uk The problems that arise from putting short-term trade advantage and the niceties of prolonged political debate before science are all too clear to see in terms of what has happened with regard to the spread of bluetongue in Continental Europe. The Royal Society of London in its Inquiry into Viral Diseases in Livestock in 2002 clearly warned that the UK could be susceptible to Bluetongue Disease, although the serotype could not be predicted. It would seem that nothing was done in terms of planning. Certainly, the numerous Member States on the European continent appear to have had, and to continue to have, no coherent vaccination policy.
In the discussion that followed the Minister's address, Professor Bill McKelvey, Chief Executive and Principal of SAC, expressed his concern that, in spite of the Minister's stated intention to support scientific research in Scotland, the income to Scotland's research establishments is scheduled to fall in real terms by 20% over 5 years.
While Richard Lochhead got a round of applause for promising not to let Scottish farming go to the wall, there is little evidence from what is actually happening that Scotland will not loose much of its livestock farming in the Less Favoured Areas (LFA), which constitute 85% of Scotland's total land mass.
Hilary Benn, a most unconvincing Defra Minister at Westminster, is threatening to cut farm subsidies and spend the money in the vain attempt by the UK Government to lead the world in measures to prevent global warming, although the UK itself can only, at best, make a tiny contribution. But Mr Benn and his boss, Gordon Brown (the Scotsman who is presently the Prime Minister for the UK at Westminster), appear to be content to economically ruin the UK (including Scotland) in the process. Here again we have ideological policies taking over from reality.
For all the fine words of Richard Lochhead, the reality is that Scottish farmers are set to loose even more of their subsidy support as it gets transferred, through so-called voluntary modulation, to support aspects of the rural economy other than productive farming. The numerous quangos or agencies of the Scottish Government continue with their interfering - and often ill-informed - bureaucracy. We hear yet another promise - as every year - that red-tape must be cut, but it just gets worse. For example, many would agree with the comment, addressed to Richard Lochhead at the agm, that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is "out of control".
There is encouraging news that the Scottish Government intends to appoint a fair trade ombudsman who might have some teeth. But fair trade will need to extend to the agricultural industrial firms who have seen the rise in grain prices and fuel costs as a reason to disproportionately escalate the cost of feedstuffs, seeds and fertilizer. Although the consumer may well pay much more for the product it is likely that that the farmer will receive little benefit.
Richard Lochhead is in a difficult situation in so far that he has inherited a hornet's nest of problems created initially by Margaret Thatcher and her disastrous Fountainblue Agreement, through to the damaging idealistic Land Reform laws passed in Scotland, and the enormously damaging fines imposed by the EC on Defra and the Rural Payment Agency for making such a mess south of the border in terms of late payment of subsidies to farmers.
But at least Richard Lochhead appears to be genuinely trying to defend Scottish farming and Scotland's food security. Please may that impression last. Livestock farming in LFA - especially the suckler herds - will need to have production support. If it cannot be called a headage payment, then some other formula will have to be worked out, but worked out it must be.
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Reference
1. Irvine, James (2007). Eight years of Ross Finnie as Scottish Minister for Environment and Rural Affairs: what did he have to say for himself at NFUS agm, Dunblane, February 2007?
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 02 Mar 07, www.land-care.org.uk Click Here to View
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