Farm visits to show action taken on climate change

There has been a long-standing programme to get schoolchildren onto farms to help them better understand the industry – but a novel initiative will begin this week to offer the same opportunity to those in local and national government.

The SAC’s Andrew Bauer.

A series of fact-finding farm visits will take place around the country to highlight to MSPs, MPs and councillors the importance of sustainable food production for the country, and the benefits of agriculture to the Scottish economy and environment.

The farm visits – which are being organised jointly by NFU Scotland, Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) and SAC Consulting – will take place in the run up to the COP26 global climate change summit in Glasgow.

The organisations yesterday said that the focus would be on the environmental innovation which was taking place and would allow the invited audience the chance to see first-hand what farmers were doing to help tackle climate change.

Beatrice Morrice, NFU Scotland’s political affairs manager, said that examples of environmental investment and innovation would demonstrate how agriculture was helping the country achieve net zero – by using and producing renewable energy, investing in low carbon technology, delivering effective carbon capture and improving biodiversity.

The SAC’s Andrew Bauer, said that climate change required concerted action from Scottish agriculture, adding: “But it’s easy to lose sight of the fact we are usually talking about small businesses juggling a huge range of obligations. These events provide parliamentarians with a great opportunity to hear from those doing the juggling, helping promote informed discussion about what needs to be done.”