Give us the money - and farmers will do the rest
NFUS president, Andrew McCornick
IF SCOTLAND gets a fair share of cash post-Brexit, farmers ‘can deliver’ across a whole range of areas, from climate change to feeding the nation.
That was the message from National Farmers Union Scotland (NFUS) president Andrew McCornick as he rattled through the latest developments in matters such as land reform, an imminent rent review report, share farming, cattle electronic identification and LFASS regulations.
The Scottish Government is determined, he went on, to pursue the Good Food Nation initiative through Scotland Food and Drink, and ‘we need to be involved with that’.
Addressing Argyll and the Islands NFUS members at the regional AGM, Mr McCornick said: ‘We are food producers, and we need to be producing what the market wants.’
He then offered a mild rebuke to the assembled Argyll and Islands members for failing to generate much enthusiasm for being involved with a union environmental committee.
Expressing disappointment, the union president added: ‘Climate change is a reality, and within that farming is getting pil- loried, particularly livestock producers.
‘We need to be part of the solution and put more effort and more thought into it.’
The union president then revealed that he was sitting on the ‘Women in Agriculture’ taskforce, for which he joked that he was ‘ideally suited’.
He said: ‘There is a great resource out there among women in farming. I’m seeing changes already, and let’s see how it works going forward.’
On the vexed subject of Brexit, Mr McCornick spoke about Michael Gove, the UK Government secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, wanting things to become ‘greener’, adding: ‘That’s why I say we need to be part of the climate change and environmental agenda.
‘The population is growing and we need to feed them. Agriculture is important and he [Mr Gove] needs to recognise that.’
Mr McCornick gave his thoughts on how a new British regime might work: ‘I think there will be an overarching framework we’ll need to work within,’ he said, ‘covering things like crop chemicals, cattle movements, meat movements and such like - even down to food labelling.
‘We need something to bind us together, because our biggest market is still south of the border.
‘But if we have adequate funding - it’s got to be ring-fenced and not under a Barnett formula and fairly distributed - I think we’ll go a long way to getting something we can deliver.’
He concluded: ‘But we need the money to be activity-based and to go to people who are actually out there doing the graft.
‘Yes, we need improvements in productivity and the environment, but this has to be underpinned by financial stability.’
NFUS chief executive, Scott Walker
Scott Walker began by thanking every union official and member.
The union chief executive said: ‘The union couldn’t function without them. It is they who determine union policy and which way we turn.
‘It’s then up to me and other staff to make sure it happens.’
On the role of headquarters staff, he explained: ‘We have to be out there making contacts, making sure that doors are open where we need them to be.’
The union is not fixated entirely on Brexit, he continued.
‘Brexit is just one of many, many things that we are doing at the moment. Every union committee is dealing with a huge number of issues. Some don’t have the same traction for the press, but a lot of activities are going on in other areas.’
The union is changing its tactical focus as Brexit looms, Mr Walker explained. ‘First and foremost our focus has been here in Scotland, because that is where the decisions were made. In the past we also dealt straight with the EU.
‘But we now need to focus a lot more on the UK government without taking our eye off the ball on Europe or the Scottish Government.’
He added: ‘Much of our work in the future will be about securing money, which is essential before you can decide what to spend that money on.’