Scotland's farmers deserve our support

REPRESENTATIVES of the National Farmers Union were out in force last week as they carried their ongoing campaign for fair prices for farm produce to the very doorstep of MSPs at the Parliament.

Acting on behalf of Scotland's 70,000 farmers, the NFU were on a mission to highlight to MSPs the gravity of the pressing issue of fair prices from supermarkets, and to gain their support by way of a petition.

I personally was delighted to see the NFU demonstrating the seriousness of this situation, not only for farmers but for the industry as a whole and the Scottish public in general, and the urgent action required to tackle it. As the third largest employer in rural Scotland, agriculture plays a vital role in the country's economy and is of immense importance to all of us in Banff and Buchan.

Despite this, however, farmers are not receiving reasonable prices from supermarkets, and struggle to make ends meet while supermarkets cream off the profits. Scottish farmers currently lose 4p on every litre of milk they produce, yet British supermarkets make 10% profit – a shocking statistic. Considering this unjust trading relationship, it is hardly surprising that one in four Scottish dairy farmers have gone out of business in the past four years.

I met NFU Parliamentary Officer Sarah Anderson to discuss these obstacles facing farmers locally in the North-east and indeed nationwide. I, for one, registered my firm support for the farmers' cause by adding my name to the petition. I sincerely hope that it will force supermarkets to address the problem and ensure the preservation of our vital farming industry and the continued availability of Scottish food, the best food in the world, in our supermarkets.

In the coming months, I intend to maintain my focus on farmers' interests and endeavour to defend them to the best of my ability both locally and at parliamentary level. Indeed I recently launched the fourth edition of 'Farming First', my regular agricultural newsletter, which allows me to gain feedback from farmers and proactively raise significant issues with Ministers. It serves as a useful tool in linking the voices of those actively engaged in the agricultural sector to the policy process.

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IN MY continued campaign to save local maternity units from closure in Banff and Fraserburgh, I embarked last week on a fact-finding mission to a birthing unit in Broadford Hospital on the Isle of Skye. I found the experience extremely interesting – not least as the circumstances of this birthing unit are so clearly comparable to our own threatened units that it positively illustrates the efficacy of maintaining our local maternity facilities.

In fact, the Broadford unit delivers only about 24 births on average per year, while the figures for Banff and Fraserburgh are in excess of 50. My tour further impressed upon me the obvious benefits of local provision – enabling expectant mothers to give birth in their own community without the need for a long journey to Aberdeen.

These are amongst the key points which I underlined this week in my submission to NHS Grampian on the matter. Following the Health Minister's refusal to endorse their plan to axe our local units last month, I highlighted these clear advantages of retaining local birth services, citing valuable lessons learned from my Skye expedition as evidence.