AllyR:
st_george: I get very annoyed when people focus so heavily upon British agriculture.
St george, I agree with much of what you say, but not this bit. We can best turn our efforts to helping world issues by ensuring that our own contribution is properly managed. We must concentrate in building up the best agricultural industry we can. This will lead to healthy exports and imports so that we can play a positive and lasting part in the wider field of world food supplies etc.. Here in Angus alone we have some of the best agriculture in the world; the best of: beef, lamb, pork, venison, fish, seed and ware potatoes, soft fruits, vegetables, malting barley - for the finest whiskys, and so on. We are not alone, every part of Britain can or could put forward a similar list. This success has been achieved, or continued, mainly by the efforts of farmers and local businessmen, and, I am glad to say, by the present Scottish Government.
It is important that the new Government in Westminster recognises and appreciates our farming industry for what it can achieve. The Government must pave the way ahead by creating the right conditions for our industry to prosper and cut out the hindrances of unnecessary political interference and side-tracked nonsenses mainly associated with appeasing an ill informed public and keeping civil servants at desks.
I think that perhaps I did not express myself quite as I would have intended in my original post, which will serve me right for trying to write while my boss is in the room.
I certainly did not want to imply that British agriculture is unworthy in any way. I am aware that the UK has a long history of farming excellence and a great rural tradition. I agree that the UK industry must be as strong as possible, but I would add the thought that the best way to achieve this is to focus efforts on areas of agriculture where we can be sustainable and as subsidy-free as possible, as well as fit into a more planned global system of food production. If this means that a few traditional crops fall by the way-side because they can be more efficiently produced elsewhere, so be it.
While agriculture is normally associated with a stick-in-the-mud conservatism (small "c") what is needed now is a radical rethink of the way the industry as a whole opperates. Central to this, as you say, is the need for which ever party is in power to have a solid respect for our industry's strengths and the creation of conditions in which the industry can flourish. For me, one of the key conditions that must be met in order to guarantee the long-term success of UK agriculture is to address the issue that you raise in your line "appeasing an ill informed public" - I would like to see agriculture forming a part of the national curriculum, first to ensure that the ignorance to which you refer becomes a thing of the past, but also in order to encourage more young people into the world of agriculture in terms of their careers.
How can the industry move forward when the average age of a farmer is 60? We need innovative, computer-literate, 21st century minds coming into the industry, not crumbling old boys who wouldn't know a computer if it dropped on them (sorry Dad!) When I left university two years ago, where I studied languages, and announced to my friends that I intended to look for work in agriculture they all looked at me as if I was a madman, or had declared my intention to hack my own legs off at the knee. THIS MUST CHANGE! There is huge potential for growth (geddit?) in the industry over the coming decades, but with that opportunity comes the inevitable risk that if we get it wrong, both as a nation and more importantly as a species, we could be up the proverbial creek without a paddle in quite a serious way.
G