History will judge us, says farming chief

The leader of the body that represents Scotland’s farmers has warned that society has “lost all respect” for what food delivers for our health and wellbeing.

Martin Kennedy, president of NFU Scotland, described the situation as “extremely dangerous”.

He said that unless we change our views now on the one thing we cannot do without, “in the not too distant future history will tell us we got it completely wrong”.

Kennedy said that the requirement in Scotland must be to ensure farmers and crofters are enabled to deliver on high-quality food production and, as a result, deliver on the climate and biodiversity challenges we face, “which only active farming and crofting can address whilst also underpinning rural communities and a multitude of upstream and downstream businesses and jobs”.

He added: “Let’s hope instead history will show we made the right decisions.”