NFUS on Big Challenges Ahead for Modern Agriculture

NFU Scotland has called for farmers on both sides of the Atlantic to work together in tackling the big challenges, such as climate change, that modern agriculture faces.

Attending the 34th North American and European agricultural conference, held this week at Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, NFUS President Jim McLaren said the conference demonstrated that the problems farmers face in Scotland, the UK and Europe are remarkably similar to those being faced by our North American counterparts.

Speaking from Niagara Falls, Mr McLaren said:

“Top of the agenda of issues for farmers – whether here or in North America - are fair returns from the marketplace for our produce and concerns over how we, as an industry, tackle the threat of climate change. Achieving a fair reward for the time, effort and money involved in producing food remains a perennial problem but the climate change debate is the one that is moving at pace.

“With the world’s political leaders due to sit down to discuss the environment and climate change in Copenhagen in December, it is likely that this landmark summit will be the launch pad for further targets, restrictions and challenges for our industry. We must turn this attention on climate change to our advantage and promote the positives that the farming industry has to offer by way of solutions. These positives greatly outweigh the negatives.

“Agriculture has long concerned itself with how the climate affects us and what we produce. It is time we focused on how our industry affects the climate. We require proportionate responses from Governments, politicians and decision-makers to the climate change challenge. Our industry is constantly improving its record on climate change and emissions but little measurement or appreciation of this is being factored in to current thinking. We require baselines and targets to be established and agreed with our industry and that these goalposts do not shift at short notice or on a political whim.

“Emissions are also a product of economic activity, and it would be unforgivable if Governments simply export that activity to third countries to carry out on behalf of our citizens. Not only does that achieve nothing in terms of global emissions reduction, but we also lose the valuable economic activity that goes with them.

“Politicians also need to appreciate that they are placing an increasing number of conflicting demands on our limited land area. These demands aim to satisfy policies on food production, food security, forestry and energy provision, as well as amenity and environmental objectives. This sends confusing messages to land managers. To address this, we require strong political leadership and broad international agreement on the best route forward. Copenhagen will provide the opportunity to start this process. We look forward to participating in the wider debate surrounding it.”