Production of local food is hard work – but it is possible
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COLUMN: From the Croft by Russell Smith
We often and quite justifiably complain about the weather but the last couple of months have worked out well for us.
The snow and sleet at the beginning of April was just before our lambing started, the rest of April was dry and then we got rain in May to bring the grass on as the lambs started nibbling.
Can we have that every year, please? It is ironic that that good weather in the last three weeks in April is the key driver of lamb mortality – despite all our best efforts, fancy medicines and advanced management techniques.
The Scottish Crofting Federation hosted a seminar on line about local food production. Five businesses that are producing and selling food from their crofts featured from different parts of the Highlands and Islands. All were making a go of it and in doing so were helping their local community, reducing food miles, improving the environment, making friends and getting a great deal of satisfaction out of their work.
However, they all had put a great deal of work into it, improving the fertility of the soils, putting up polytunnels, planting shelter belts and investing in packaging and marketing.
They sold variously from the door, through local shops, delivering veg box schemes and over the internet. And they generally made a modest profit, sometimes alongside outside jobs or other croft activities.
So, it CAN be done but it is hard work and can require investment up front to get the business going. Some polytunnels qualify for CAGS but check on eligibility before going ahead. Horticulture is being included in CAGS now so that should help with fencing. But LFASS and BPS aren’t necessarily helpful to market gardening. And you certainly don’t get paid for the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that you engineer.
Increased costs are hitting us all – one egg producer wondered whether he could carry on given the price rises he would have to impose to cover the cost of feed coming into the islands.
Delivering veg boxes across the country is becoming uneconomic because of fuel price rises. Even getting to farmers markets becomes marginal as diesel prices shoot up.
Crofters thinking about getting into food production and direct sales were worried about the requirements about food hygiene standards, labelling, and other legalities and had met with mixed responses from environmental health officers around the country. SCF are planning to pull together guidance and have a follow up seminar looking at these aspects. And don’t forget insurance cover as well.
So we need to square the circle of consumer demand at a reasonable price with the needs of the crofter to cover their costs and make a return on the time and work they put into producing good quality food. Maybe we all have to value our food more and be prepared to pay for environmentally sound food of good provenance. This also applies to lamb and beef and the SCF is part of an industry wide group (the Scottish Red Meat Resilience Group) that is seeking to promote consumption of red meat and counter some of the misleading information that is being put out there.
n Russell Smith is a crofter at Bonar Bridge and a director of the Scottish Crofting Federation.
