What does ‘re-balancing’ Scottish Agriculture mean asked NFU Scotland President Martin Kennedy, when addressing a reception at the Highland Show, hosted by Scottish-based UK law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn.

He continued: If it means creating a policy that’s fit for Scotland that involves the industry playing its part in addressing the challenges ahead with climate change mitigation and biodiversity enhancement with food production at its core, then this industry is absolutely up for that.

If, however it means a massive shift from food production to simply having an environmental policy that focuses purely on emissions reduction and environmental outcomes with limited focus on food production, then the industry will never meet the targets we have in front of us.

It goes without saying that I have always been extremely optimistic about the industry we are all so proud of here in Scotland, not only because of all it already delivers in terms of high-quality food, environmental contribution, and the socio-economic values it brings to large areas of Scotland.

But I am also optimistic about how, in the future, we can deliver more to show that we are indeed a major part of the solution not part of the problem as some see us.

However, Scottish and UK agriculture right now is facing some of the most serious challenges it has faced in its history.  There is at the moment a perfect storm and I don’t use that term lightly, created by political decisions, the aftermath of the pandemic, which is still causing problems, and of course the dreadful situation in Ukraine which really puts all our problems into perspective.

That said, the repercussions of this war have really focused minds recently on food security.

The ongoing labour crisis is affecting all forms of food production and the impact of extremely high feed, fuel and fertiliser prices, as well as other input costs, puts in serious doubt as to whether many crops will be grown next year.

Yet the response from some of our retailers is it won’t matter; we’ll simply import more.

Well, that’s not good enough, we need our politicians and our retailers to understand more what the unintended consequences are of not taking action immediately, and also to understand that they themselves face the wrath of our consumers if they fail to deliver.

NFU Scotland recently conducted a survey of our members, asking how the current circumstances were affecting their businesses, the response was considerable, and the message was absolutely clear.

Nine out of ten of respondents were going to make changes to their businesses which would involve a reduction in production. This is extremely worrying not only for the agricultural sector itself but also for the wider infrastructure that depends on the profitability of farmers and crofters.

The Highland show is a real example of this.  All the trade stands that are here are dependent on a vibrant profitable industry or they will simply not be there.

Critical mass is something I keep banging on about, and I know that some of our politicians and civil servants do not understand the importance this has to the wider food chain both up and down stream.

Without that critical mass of product flowing through the supply chain, then many of the businesses reliant on that volume of product will find it extremely difficult to remain viable.

It’s a bit like a bicycle wheel that represents the economy, if you pull too many of the spokes out of the wheel it will eventually collapse, and Scotland certainly cannot afford for that to happen given the importance of agriculture, food and drink to the Scottish economy.

What we must realise is that despite all the challenges ahead, Scotland and the UK are still wealthy countries and if we don’t produce enough food for ourselves then we will simply import from other countries who, at the moment, cannot afford to compete with the prices we will pay.

The last thing we want to do is be part of the cause of humanitarian disasters in other parts of the world, simply because we didn’t take food security for ourselves seriously enough.

I think it’s extremely sad that it has taken a real disaster to highlight the importance of food security, however this has now given us a massive opportunity to stand up and be counted.

In terms of sustainable food production, there are few countries as well placed as Scotland to deliver the outcomes we need to achieve.