Comment: Policies to improve quality of rural life must mean jobs

By ANDREW ARBUCKLE
Published on 20/08/2012 01:21

RECENTLY, I was asked to do the ringside commentary at Kinross show and, after a fine parade of the top livestock, the vintage tractors came into the ring.

There they were, puttering around, gleaming in their restored existence, enjoying this new lease of life.

Their owners were, almost without exception, former farmers, farmworkers or folk who had originally some connection with the land that triggered this vintage passion.

Outside the ring, the modern day monsters were seen in the trade stands with about ten times the horsepower and 100 times or more electronic capacity.

As I drove home that day, I passed a number of farms which in my youth were working units, each with their own farm staffs. Now, almost all the smaller ones have been taken over and are no more than out-farms, with the steadings being used for machinery storage, if they are used at all.

On others, the original buildings have been demolished and in their place, and mostly out of place in my view, have been built a small clutch of modern-style houses.

For their town-working owners, this is country living. For the local economy, this has largely been disastrous as they shun the local shops, arriving home from their daily toil with a boot full of goodies from one of the major retailers based on the outskirts of the big cities.

The local schools suffer as well, as the offspring of these country dwellers are often carted off to city schools with mummy or daddy instead of getting on the bus to the local educational
establishment.

On those that are still working farms, the workforce is mostly within the
family, with no-one employed.

By this time on my road home, I was thinking that there is no truth in the mantra much spouted by farming leaders that farming provides the engine room of rural economies. It is only part of the rural economy and a reducing part at that.

I am neither a Luddite in wanting to smash up the hi-tech machinery of the modern day nor a romantic wanting to see a return to a rural idyll which never existed.

But we now have a system where the market rules; where efficiencies come well above society and where a large amount of subsidy money is channelled towards a small number of people.
The forthcoming reform of the Common Agricultural Policy is not exactly hurtling down the track but it is coming and one of the few certainties in the new package are more environmental policies.

That has been one of the cornerstones of Commissioner Ciolos’s plans since day one.

Yet nowhere in the vast amount of paperwork that the reform has already generated nor indeed in the 3,000 or so objections and alterations to the current proposals do I see any whiff or substance of any social policy.

Perhaps when they return from their holidays next month, the MEPs should consider how they can incorporate policies which will help retain some social fabric in our rural communities.

A long time has passed since John Cameron advocated a link between receiving subsidies and employment. Subsidies being paid linked to the number of people working on the farm. He saw such policies as helping to ensure viable communities in our remote hill areas.

Is it not an appropriate time for bringing such a policy in? The country is in recession. In fact, Europe is in
recession.

The only industry that has
appeared at all recession-proof has been agriculture.

Unemployment is high, especially among the young, and having a disaffected generation coming up may be the worst legacy of this recession. So I would advocate a policy where support was paid provided it was linked to
employment.

For those who consider such a move is anathema, let it be optional. If you do not want to be trammelled by taking on employees, that is no problem. You would not get any cash linked to that policy.

The question might be, what would such “artificially employed” people do? I use that emotive term to prevent anyone else coming in first with it.

My answer is similar to many who love and live in the countryside. We see 101 possible jobs around today’s farms. Farms where fencing is neglected, where buildings are run down; where notifiable weeds flourish, and so on.

I recall we had an old grieve on the farm and I can never remember him being stuck for a job for anyone.

Perhaps we need to look at how we can get more people working in the country without losing our competitive edge in producing food.