Looking back on the last year

By NFU Scotland President Martin Kennedy

This has certainly been a year whereby ongoing challenges to our industry have made the year go past extremely quickly.

A highlight was our highly successful #FoodNeedsAFarmer rally at Holyrood, with a great deal of gratitude to all those farmers and crofters who gave up their time to attend and emphasise the fact that food production must be front and centre of future agricultural policy in Scotland.

With over four hundred in attendance our presence could not be ignored, this led to not only the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Islands addressing us, but also MSPs from all the political parties in Holyrood, including the party leaders from the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

Indeed, the Holyrood rally showed just how effective a lobbying organisation NFU Scotland is. That political engagement adding to the many more parliamentarians we hosted regionally onfarm and at local farm shops throughout the year.

It was also fantastic to meet politicians alongside the wider membership at all the agricultural shows, meetings, and events we once again have been able to enjoy in 2022.

There remains massive frustration within the industry about where our future lies, the Scottish Government and indeed the whole of the Scottish Parliament has within its power the ability to deliver a future policy that will not only grow our industry, but to do it in a manner that delivers the wider environmental goals that society has demanded of us.

Our submission to the Scottish Government’s landmark Agriculture Bill, expected to set policy direction from 2025 went in in late November. Our 55-page document was informed by the widest and most comprehensive programme of member meetings and webinars.

We have called for an immediate, clear, and unwavering commitment from Scottish Government that future policy, as defined by the Agriculture Bill, will underpin agricultural activity and Scotland’s iconic food and drink sector.

And we issued the stark warning that if the pursuit of a misplaced vision is all that matters to Scottish Government, then Scotland’s future ‘agricultural support’ policy will fail.