‘Food security isn’t Government’s top priority’ says Farm Ness farmer

Highland News & Media

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00:00Farmers have got a wee bit of a tough time I would say

00:03I just think unfortunately we are falling down the pecking order

00:09It's like it's a necessity and we've had it just there

00:14Everything's just at our fingertips

00:16Just now we're used to living in a world like that

00:19And I wouldn't want that to change

00:20But if it does change in any way

00:23If there's a war or anything like that

00:25We are only 55% in Britain

00:29We can produce 55% of our food

00:32So that's not a good place to be for me

00:33But I don't think the government at the minute

00:36I don't think it's a top priority for them to have food security

00:39And I think that's quite scary

00:41I mean I personally think what would I want my government doing

00:44As a mum for my children in school

00:46My children are primary school age

00:47I firstly want the food on their plates in the school canteen

00:52To be local food

00:53Local carrots, local potatoes, turnips, beef, lamb

00:57We have that in Inverness

00:58It's right outside their school

00:59We drive past cattle to go in the gate of the school

01:02And I think with the latest changes as well

01:04And the tax for farms

01:06Children were at that march yesterday

01:08Saying like I wanted to be a farmer

01:10But it's not just farmers' children

01:12There are other children out there that aren't from farms

01:14That would want to become farmers

01:15And that's been taken away from them as well

01:17And they might not have even understood

01:19That farming was an option for them

01:20Because they'd never set foot on a farm

01:22All of these options are just being taken away

01:24Basically I think they're trying to stop people

01:26Investing in land that aren't from farming

01:29And they're just trying to hurry

01:31Bury money and avoid tax

01:34But where they've set that threshold at a million pounds

01:37Which is the first threshold

01:39I know that it can go a wee bit further

01:41It sounds like a lot of money

01:43But it's not in farming

01:45And unfortunately that's a really hard one to convey

01:48Like an honourable farmer can buy a combine

01:50For a quarter of a million

01:51But what people probably don't realise

01:53The bank owns that until it's

01:56He's paying it off until it's five, eight years old

01:59So a lot of farms have quite heavy borrowing

02:02So adding the possibility of inheritance tax on top of that

02:06Just puts so much pressure on

02:10And I think they've got to be careful

02:11Because people might

02:12Farmers, we just always want to produce

02:14But people will think

02:16What are we doing here?

02:17You know we don't make much

02:19For that million pounds

02:20Or a turnover of a million pounds

02:21We make pennies

02:22There's no clear picture of where we're going

02:26There's no clear picture of what the government actually want

02:29So do we feel supported?

02:31No

02:32I think we're in a period where

02:34We just don't know where we're trying to get to

02:36What we're aiming at

02:38We produce the food

02:38We produce the food that goes into vegetarian meals

02:42It all comes from a farmer

02:44Your beer, that starts with a farmer

02:46Whiskey starts with a farmer

02:48I think just remove some of the uncertainties

02:53And give us some clarity

02:55We're not only a farmer

02:56We look after the ground

02:59Like us here, we've got bees

03:01And we've done a lot of environmental work

03:04You know we're the people that are best placed to

03:07Go into this next phase of farming

03:09Whatever it is

03:10We came post-war

03:11And they just wanted production of food

03:14They actually wanted us

03:15The government wanted us to rip out hedgerows

03:17To produce more food

03:18Because that's what was needed at the time

03:20We're now at another crossroads

03:22We're not going to stop them

03:23Taking in cheaper food if that's it

03:25But we look after the countryside

03:27So who's best placed to do that?

03:29It's probably the farmer

03:31So why not work with us?

03:32Support us

03:33Let's produce food

03:34And look after the environment

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