Miller to work with NFU on greenhouse gases
While farming groups have often called for science to be put at the heart of policy decisions, NFU Scotland is putting its money where its mouth is by becoming involved in a groundbreaking fellowship with an acknowledged expert on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
The one-day a week posting, which will initially run for a six month period, is funded by the Scottish Environment, Food and Agriculture Research Institutes (SEFARI) – the collective group made up of all the country’s landbased research institutes – with office space and facilities provided by the union.
Dr Gemma Miller, a re se arc he ring hg with the SRUC, took up her secondment with the union this week and said she aims to pull together the scientific evidence aroundghg emissions and carbon sequestration in agriculture and its impact on climate change.
She said that the fellowship would help information flow in both directions – by making the vast amount of scientific evidence as well as the latest research more readily available to the industry, but also to feed back some of the real issues facing producers to the scientific world and to sense check what would and wouldn’t work in the field.
“The agricultural industry is under ever increasing pressure to reduce GHG emissions, to meet national and international climate targets,” said Miller.
“However, the debate surrounding the impact of agriculture on climate change often becomes bogged down by opposing claims, misinterpretation of facts and repetition of myths.”
But while admitting that not every piece of research was good news for the sector, she said that having the evidence to back up the industry’s argument when involved in discussions with policy makers and lobbying groups made for a far stronger hand when it came to negotiating an outcome.
“If the agricultural industry in Scotland, as a whole, can agree on what the current state of play is regarding agricultural emissions and environmental impact, it has a much better chance of moving forward in taking action to further reduce GHG emissions and in improving the image of Scottish agriculture.
“I’ll be creating some materials which will provide a clear and concise summary of the facts, how these are backed up by scientific evidence, and the level of confidence we have that the values reported are accurate.”
Miller said that science played two important roles – clarifying the real roles played by agriculture in terms of its net level of emissions and ability to mitigate climate change and also to help identify which methods and mechanisms the industry should adopt to make the optimum contribution to offsetting the trend towards global warming.
“Our farmers and the people who manage our landscapes really are, and need to be considered as, part of the solution to the climate crisis,” said Miller.