Farmers Jeer at Junior Minister Douglas Ross MP

Many Scottish farmers are beginning to raise concerns about post-Brexit policy changes and the impact it will have on our food standards in Scotland. Douglas Ross, the MP for Moray and new Junior Minister at the Scotland Office, learned this for himself as he was publicly jeered after he addressed the Scottish NFU AGM in Glasgow last Thursday.

According to Farmers Weekly, this happened when Ross suggested in answer to a question from a farmer that “clear labelling should be enough to deter consumers from buying cheap food imports”, brushing off any idea of keeping firmly and legally in step with the high food standards presently imposed by European law.

The same journal reported that immediately afterwards, Scottish NFU President Andrew McCornick responded by saying to the Minister:

“If we are going to allow products into this country that would be illegal for us to produce, that is not acceptable.”

McCornick has a strong point. As he added later, the UK Government would be selling farmers “down the river” if it allowed two sets of food standards to develop – one for imported food which would be substantially reduced and sell for lower prices, and one for locally produced food that would be more expensive.

The outcome of that in any free market is inevitable – the cheap and bad will chase out the more expensive and good, bankrupting many Scottish food businesses. Given how such businesses have grown in the past 13 years this simply cannot be allowed.

Ross’s declaration poses a severe, indeed existential, threat to many Scottish success stories and if that policy also extends to the entire food and drink industry then it will also decimate the whisky sector because some American producers are desperate to sell their product, not matured for a minimum of three years, into the UK market on the same shelves, and with the same name, as the real thing produced with generations of care and experience by craftsmen and women in Scotland and laid down in carefully stipulated conditions for that minimum period.

McCornick went on to say, publicly, to Ross that he and his fellow farmers were very anxious that “whoever is negotiating these trade deals” is made aware of these matters and added:

"We would like to see something with a bit of teeth in here to make sure that is not happening.”

The UK Government must finally honour the promises they have made for the past three and a half years about respecting the devolved settlement, and as a result ensure that the UK negotiating stance on the key issues in food and drink standards is reached only after detailed discussion with the Scottish Government, within whose devolved competence those matters actually lie.

As with genetically modified crops, we know that the highest standards are not a barrier to markets, but a vital attraction for our core and continuing customers. In other words, we know – unlike Ross and his Tory colleagues – the value of things, not just their price.