Rural communities deserve better from politics

The Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) has been warning that the introduction of Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMA) could have a devastating impact on the crofting sector. The move, a key demand of the Scottish Greens as part of the coalition deal with the SNP, will place strict limits on a range of activities, such as fishing.

The SCF had rightly warned that its negative impact will be felt in rural communities – and not just amongst fishermen.

While the Scottish Government point to its need to meet ambitious net zero targets, industry is quite right to point out that it should be seen as a key part of the solution, rather than just part of the problem.

Too often, such industry arguments fail to be heard by a political class that appears to be increasingly urban-centric, Central-Belt focussed and indifferent to the legitimate concerns of those who work hard to produce the nation’s food – whether on land or sea.

Also, moves to change self-catering regulations that were intended to address city housing shortages, could hit the agritourism sector, while land and estate owners are expressing concern at the potential impact of the up-coming Land Reform legislation.

Politicians point to 'consultation' on both the forthcoming Agriculture Bill and Land Reform Bill, but these ended in December and now, well into May, the analysis of those exercises have yet to be published.

All this has a detrimental effect on the industry's well-being factor. One rural mental health charity we spoke to last week said continuing uncertainty about how support for the agriculture sector was contributing a rise in calls to their helpline and, this week, we cover a new study that shows women in agriculture are showing concerning levels of stress and anxiety.

The divide between agriculture and the politicians and their policy makers seems to be growing. Rural communities should not be thrown under the hydrogen-powered bus in a pursuit of environmental targets and dogmatic political agendas that are blind to the socio-economic consequences to many across rural Scotland.

For too many in agriculture, these are deeply worrying times which could be slightly alleviated by better communication from the Scottish Government about the shape of legislation to come.

Rural communities and businesses deserve better than this.

Cattle kill collapse

Something is afoot in the Scottish cattle kill as the number of under 30-month animals on the hook has plummeted 16% in the last month, according to QMS' published figures.

We know there are fewer cattle on the go and the dominance of spring calving is changing the kill pattern, but some recent weeks had seen the Scottish kill missing a massive 1500 cattle compared to previous years.

This clearly points to some beef supply chain challenges, with enough cattle missing for some kill lines to be half empty. So this leads to the next question, are we looking at some major changes in the Scottish abattoir sector in the coming weeks?