The Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) has found the paper ‘Steps to Change’ recently published by NFU Scotland to be lacking in understanding of the culture of crofting and crofting communities and has suggestions for future editions.
“The paper that the farmers’ union has put out on their vision for agricultural support post-Brexit is clearly a considerable piece of work,” said SCF Chair, Russell Smith. “It must be very challenging trying to write policy that will satisfy all their members, but they have made a good start on it. There are some aspirations that we would support, such as food production thriving whilst providing positive environmental outcomes, and public goods, things that benefit the public that are not paid for by the market, being supported with public money.
“Unfortunately, the paper comes across as a treatise on the industrial agriculture model, showing a fundamental lack of understanding of crofting and its wider benefits to crofting communities. In fact, whether talking about crofting or agriculture in other parts of Scotland, there is no mention of community whatsoever. Read more…….
