Scots industry ‘hung out to dry’ by climate report
The farming industry was left feeling stitched up and hung out to dry by this week’s coverage of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change and land use.
NFU Scotland yesterday said that the farming industry’s responsible approach to tackling climate change was being lost in the headlines which had been generated in the coverage, adding that some media outlets needed to take a “reality check” on the Scottish position.
“Here we have a headlinegrabbing global report that, by its very nature, takes no account of an individual nation’s environmental credentials, farming systems or the steps it is already undertaking to tackle climate change,” said union president Andrew Mccornick.
He said that climate change was a critically important issue for Scottish farming, with farmers operating on the front line, having to adapt to changing weather patterns and increased volatility at farm level in order to maintain their businesses and still produce high quality food.
“Government figures on reductions in emissions show that Scottish farmers and crofters are already playing their part in reducing emissions from farming.”
But while he said that the industry had to go further, this should not be at the expense of adversely impacting the nation’s ability to produce food which would simply increase reliance on unsustainable food imports.
“The IPCC report only deals with the global scale and it is too simplistic to just take high level global messages and apply them to Scotland.”
Stating that some media outlets needed to undertake a reality check before applying the report recommendations to a nation like Scotland he said that with a grass fed red meat industry based on land which could grow no other crops, Scotland’s livestock industry was part of a “virtuous cycle”.
He said that while it made little sense from a climate change perspective to cut down tropical rainforests to create grasslands to rear livestock, areas like Scotland with existing grassland and plenty of water could produce high quality protein while sequestering CO2 in the grass and peatlands.
Chair of Quality Meat Scotland, Kate Rowell said that Scottish beef and lamb utilised the grass and rough grazing which makes up over 80 per cent of Scotland’s agricultural land – and which could not grow cereals, fruits or vegetables.
“It’s also vital to note that Scotland’s production systems differ to others in other parts of the world. Scotland’s grassland acts as a carbon sink and grazing animals provide habitats for wildlife and help to maintain the landscape,” said Rowell.
She added that the IPCC report also acknowledged the role sustainably-produced meat has in a healthy balanced diet, alongside coarse grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables: “This diet, according to the report, presents major opportunities to help limit climate change,” said Rowell.