The National Farmers Union, Scotland (NFUS) released a statement last week calling for a moratorium on support scheme rules to allow crops to be grown on Ecological Focus Area land. Highland farmers have expressed dismay at the suggested relaxation of environmental rules and highlight some of NFUS’ ‘deeply flawed’ logic.
An Ecological Focus Area (EFA) is an area of land upon which you carry out agricultural practices that are beneficial for the climate and the environment. The main aim of an EFA is to improve biodiversity, using the following practices: leaving land fallow, field margins, growing nitrogen-fixing crops such as peas and legumes, growing catch crops, green cover, implementing agro-forestry and sustaining or planting hedges.
NFUS have stated that their concerns over global food security due to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine have promoted this moratorium request, where they suggest current EFA land should now instead be turned over to “grow cereals, nitrogen-fixing protein crops such as peas and beans or grass”, all for use as livestock feed. Note: nitrogen-fixing crops are already part of EFA schemes.
Col Gordon, farmer near Invergordon and a director of Scotland the Bread said:
“I’m very disappointed to read of the NFUS’s request for this moratorium. At a basic level, with around 80% of Scotland’s cereal going towards alcohol production and animal feed and less that 0.1% of Scottish wheat being used for bread, the logic that in order to “address the growing concerns around future food security” we simply need to grow more crops is deeply flawed. But for NFUS to use the tragic and ongoing humanitarian crisis to attempt to push through a potentially far-reaching change in agenda is, unfortunately, shameful.”
Legumes provide additional protein sources for livestock. Currently Scotland imports much of its additive feeding, largely used in intensive livestock systems. The cost of this feeding (soymeal and others) is currently very expensive (3 year high according to Markets Insider) with import prices for high quality protein feed likely to rise.
NFUS stated that taking land out of EFA would equate to a maximum of 17,500 hectares (25,000 rugby pitches) liberated for their suggested usage. That many rugby pitches seems a lot, but in fact it’s only 4% of what is already used for cereal production in Scotland. Currently approximately 470,000 hectares of land in Scotland is used for cereal or oilseed crops, 80% of which is used for alcohol or for animal feed. Much of EFA land is near ditches, often poorer land on the edge of arable fields and it is suggested that this would not be suitable for growing cereals and grains.
Donald Ross, ex-chairman of Highland Grain and mixed farmer from Easter Ross said:
“I feel the aims of NFUS have been very poorly communicated, particularly on their slot on the radio. A lot of EFA land on my farm is poorer land, with much sandier soil. It is used for growing grass and therefore feeds livestock already.”
Ariane Burgess, Scottish Greens MSP for Highlands and Islands said:
“I share Highland Good Food Partnership’s concerns about NFUS’ call to allow crops to be grown on Ecological Focus Land. I don’t accept that it is necessary or proportionate to allow this on the basis that the Ukraine situation is driving food insecurity meaning we need to produce more crops. This is not a question of there not being enough land to deliver food security but how the current crop is being used.”
George Monbiot writes in the Guardian (16th of March) and highlights some of the similarities between this ask to bring land set aside for nature into production and the call from some MPs to resume fracking due to the energy crisis. He comments that in both cases, the ‘environmental damage would greatly outweigh the tiny increment of production’.
If food security is of such concern to NFUS, perhaps they should be calling for some of the huge proportion of land used for alcohol production (mainly to earn export income) to be redirected towards growing crops for people to eat. We should be moving towards more environmentally friendly farming (including importing less high carbon footprint crops, to feed animals), and many businesses are already doing this. This should be our focus.