Burning issues to spark fireworks at union’s AGM
s NFU Scotland prepares for its annual general meeting this week, everything on the surface might look calm.
In fact without the excitement of a top-table election – with the only member of the union’s trio of top brass due to stand for re-election being returned unopposed – it almost runs the risk of looking to be a dull affair.
But that would mean ignoring a whole host of issues bubbling beneath the surface.
For a start, the event marks the first of its kind for almost half a century to be held outside what we could soon find ourselves viewing as the cosy confines of the European Union.
And so we enter the socalled transition period, which someone described as that spell when the Looney Tunes cartoon character Wile E Coyote continues running in mid-air after he has shot over the edge of the cliff, unaware of his imminent plunge into the canyon below.
But while 11 months of business-as-usual might lie ahead, as far as trading with our former partners is concerned, that same period will see the gargantuan task of cobbling together not only a deal which gives continued access to this crucial trading block on our doorstep but also with some of the other major global players.
And huge efforts and energy will be required from the union to keep the government on course and avoid seeing the industry being either handed on a plate to the EU or sold down the river to the already-circling US agrifood conglomerates.
The union can’t afford to take its eye off the farm policy development ball either. While the Scottish Government might have been making more of the right noises on the direction which this should take than have been heard down south, getting anything hard and firm on this front from the Scottish Government is like pushing string uphill.
But the administration’s declaration of a climate emergency and the setting of even tighter targets on greenhouse gas emissions could see the reins yanked roughly from the hands of those who might have had the industry’s interests at heart and the direction of travel abruptly changed.
Especially so against the constant backdrop of the media led on by single interest groups with an agenda aimed at disrupting Scotland’s livestock industries, using a constant drip-feed of claims and statistics on environmental and health issues which don’t apply to our production methods.
Then there’s the issue of migration policy and ensuring there’s enough people on the ground not only to graft on farms but also to fill the crucial downstream slaughtering, butchering and other processing jobs that marks another challenge for the union.
The other difficult reality is that, as change forces its way forward, there will inevitably be winners and losers in the industry – and trying to keep every sector and every individual happy might be one of the biggest juggling tasks which NFUS faces.
Perversely this has been most obvious in what should have been viewed as a major win for the industry – the award of £160 million for being hard done by in the allocation of EU convergence funds.
For despite the union pushing for this back-payment to be shared across the board, the Scottish Government succumbed to the temptation to divert a large chunk of the funds from the first year’s allocation to cover the shortfall in Less Favoured Area payments.
While it would be difficult to argue against funnelling these funds into the harshest areas of the country which were facing cuts, the Scottish Government effectively saved itself £13 million in a move which might be compared to an adult confiscating their child’s birthday money and then justifying this by using it to maintain the kid’s previous level of pocket money.
While diverting £13 million in this way might have rankled other sectors, the writing is now on the wall – in big, bold, capital letters – that £39 million will be diverted in the same way from the second tranche of payments in 2021.
And when it’s read, the major efforts that rounded off last year’s union AGM to smooth things over when there was a ministerial hint that if support funds became tight a bit of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” might be on the cards might need to be stepped up.
So don’t expect a dull AGM – or year ahead.