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 From The Wellies - December 07

November and December in the agricultural world is conference and end-of-year-meeting time for the great and the good in agriculture.  One theme that has been discussed is the reluctance of the EU to allow Genetically Modified Crops to be grown. 

Other parts of the world are forging ahead with GM technology while most of Europe is becoming a GM backwater.  All sorts of things can be done with genetic modification, such as making crops more drought resistant, or breeding in disease resistance and with an ever-increasing number of mouths to feed, farmers are going to need every available tool at their disposal.  The one thing we have to be sure of is that adequate testing of new technology is carried out and that customers are comfortable with this technology and have confidence in the food they are buying.

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Another emerging theme from the conference season has been the short supply of labour on farms, particularly during the 4 month Autumn period which covers harvest from late July right through the potato harvest, to the end of the Autumn sowing of cereals in late November.  

Most large arable operations require extra drivers during this busy period and today’s modern tractors and their accompanying machines require well-trained, highly skilled operators to drive them. Migrant workers are taking an increasing number of these jobs and farmers and machinery rings are quickly switching on to this very useful pool of labour. 

Many employers are also waking up to fact that employees are becoming fed up with working continually throughout the Autumn period, only getting the occasional day off when it rains.  Employment conditions for these skilled workers in other jobs such as haulage and the construction industry, offer good wages and regular time off, so agricultural employers are going to have to improve conditions to retain key staff. 

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The livestock industry is slowly recovering from the foot and mouth outbreak caused by the leak from Pirbright* Laboratory on the 3 August.  The news that a second leak occurred at the end of November but was contained on the premises has done little to inspire confidence among the country’s livestock farmers.

 Everyone agrees that a shut down of the premises is the correct thing to do until the problem can be rectified, but it is also frustrating that production of the ‘blue tongue’ vaccine has also been stopped due to the shut-down.

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Whatever is on your menu for the festive season, all we can ask of you as consumers is to buy local or Scottish produce where possible.  Asking restaurants and hotels where they get their food from can also be an interesting experience.  Answers can range from the name of the local farm or butcher, to a red face and an admission “it comes from the delivery company and I don’t know which country it came from originally”. 

If the answer is Argentina or Brazil for country of origin, then the suggested course of action is to “vote with your feet and find somewhere else to eat”.  Failing that inform the Scottish Farmer magazine of the name and location of the establishment and they will gladly publish the details in their ‘Name & Shame’ campaign.  Country of origin labelling in restaurants and food outlets is one of the things on the wish list for 2008.

*A quick check of my spelling on the spellchecker gave a suggested alternative for the word ‘Pirbright’ as ‘airfreight’, perhaps this is a suitable way of disposing of the DEFRA officials who run the place.

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