‘Positive moves’ are the only way to shape post-brexit farm policy
Farming groups and organisations need to get in fast and offer solutions rather than highlighting problems if they are to influence the crucial discussions on post-brexit farm policy.
That was the message spelled out to sheep farmers in Stirling at yesterday’s annual general meeting of the National Sheep Association’s Scottish region.
Perthshire hill farmer and chair of the Moredun Foundation, Ian Duncan Miller, said that while a policy vacuum existed it was better for the industry to offer practical ideas rather than wait for the government to draw up its own plans from a blank piece of paper.
Speaking as the country prepares to draw up its first domestic farm policy in almost 50 years Duncan Miller said: “Don’t wait for a consultation to come, get in first and show them what should be done”.
The NSA’S national chief executive, Phil Stocker – who introduced the organisation’s new regional coordinator Grace Reid – agreed but added that the sheer number of meetings to draw together policy set to be introduced in a matter of months would stretch any organisation’s ability to cope.
But with each of the UK’S four administrations likely to take a different route, Stocker, who had been involved in discussions with them all, said that the Scottish Government was the only one to explicitly state that it intended to continue to support farming and food production.
Asked by industry “elder statesman” John Cameron if it was likely that the UK government would live up to its commitments not to allow cheap imports of inferior quality food in trade deals, Stocker said: “While they are likely to portray things in a way that suggests they have lived up to this promise they are likely to do something different – and we need to watch out for the term ‘equivalence’ being used to hide different standards.”