Farmers are the piggies in the middle
WHILE the idea of a farming turf war may conjure up an image of irate ploughmen throwing divots at each other, there’s an all-too-real one going on in the world of agriculture right now.
Sadly, rather than being the cause of this trouble, farming is caught in the middle of someone else’s battle.
And while turf wars normally conjure up images of small-time criminal gangs, this one is being fought by our political leaders.
Brexit is to blame. But before you quickly turn to another page, it’s really more like an excuse for a battle which has been brewing for some time.
Agriculture has been a devolved issue since the Scottish Parliament was set up and the Scottish Government has had control of farming policy north of the Border.
And while the money which was paid into the EU kitty by the UK came from all regions, what came back to farming, in the form of the Common Agricultural Policy, was handed back directly to the devolved governments.
This meant Scotland not only drew up its own policy but it also knew how much its share of the budget would be, as did England, Wales and Northern Ireland. After Brexit that will change. First off, no one – and that seems to include the UK Government – knows how much will be spent on farming in the future, but most assume it will be less than before.
As the EU will no longer act as the central banker in future, whatever money is made available will come direct from the UK Treasury. However, there is currently no accepted formula for working out the share to go to various countries.
Scotland accounts for about one third of the area of Great Britain – so that might seem a fair proportion to come north of the Border.
But we only have around a tenth of the population – so some might argue that is a fairer way of carving it up.
In the past, Scotland’s share has been around 16% so many would argue that this should continue.
On top of all this it’s also got to be agreed who has the say on how the money is spent to make sure farming survives and the nation can be fed.
A huge challenge. But rather than attempting to sort things out like adults, it appears that our politicians – as a meeting of farm ministers showed last week – are becoming bogged down in a battle over who controls what, rather than getting on with the job of tackling the real issues.