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Plenary, 28 Feb 2007

28 Feb 2007 · S2 · Plenary

Item of business

Organic Farming

Lochhead, Richard SNP Moray Watch on SPTV

The Scottish National Party very much welcomes today's debate. It has been a long time since we debated agriculture in the chamber. It was debated many times during the first session of Parliament, but the current Government—which controls more than 80 per cent of parliamentary time—has not brought the issue up all that often in the past few years.

I recently tasted a lovely dram of Benromach malt whisky, which was distilled in my constituency at the Forres-based Benromach distillery, which is owned by the Elgin-based company Gordon & MacPhail. Of course, it was a dram from the first bottle to be certified organic by the Soil Association. I know that other malt whisky distillers in Scotland, such as Springbank in Campbeltown and Bruichladdich in Islay, have also produced organic whiskies.

I was interested to note that Celtic Football Club was in the news yesterday because its restaurant is converting to healthy menus that will include organic produce. That has led to panic in the ranks of the club's fans, because the humble Scotch pie, which is eaten at half-time during matches, might now be at risk.

Those two anecdotes show that many people in Scotland are responding to the new demands of consumers, who are now insisting on more organic food. Therefore, there is huge potential for the sector to boom. As the minister said, sales of organic produce throughout the United Kingdom expanded by more than 30 per cent over the past year. That is a great sign. Consumers are now asking for more locally produced nutritious food that has a lesser impact on the environment. That provides the organic sector in Scotland with a massive opportunity.

As the original organic action plan stated, the production of organic food in Scotland meets many of the objectives of "A Forward Strategy for Scottish Agriculture". On the objective of producing food for the market, our organic farmers certainly produce food for a growing market. The objective of protecting the environment is also fulfilled by organic farmers. Another objective was that farmers should embrace change—organic farmers operate in a changing market. The strategy also included the objective of promoting human health and well-being, to which organic farmers certainly contribute.

This is an unusual debate, in that the SNP agrees with all the amendments that have been lodged by members of other parties. We do not even see anything to disagree with in the Executive's motion. It is an unusual circumstance that we should agree with the motion and all the amendments. We hope that the other parties will agree with the SNP's amendment as well.

However, not all is rosy. The subject of today's debate is the Government's "Third Organic Annual Report", which was published earlier today. It would have been useful to have had a bit more time to read the report in full and to discuss it with the industry before today's debate but, unfortunately, we got the usual short notice. Having had a quick look at the report, we have two or three points of concern that I will highlight in my remaining two or three minutes.

First, table 4 on page 10, which is entitled "Hectares under organic aid scheme agreements as at 31 March each year", shows that the total number of hectares included in the organic aid scheme declined from 342,142 hectares in 2002 to 126,746 hectares in August 2006. That represents a drop of 63 per cent, which is a pretty substantial decline in anyone's book. That must give cause for concern. I appreciate that the minister partly explained the reasons for that in her opening remarks, but perhaps she can provide further details in her closing speech on how the Executive intends to reverse that trend.

Secondly, table 5 on page 11, which is entitled "Applicants for organic aid scheme", shows that only 162 of the 314 applicants in 2006 were approved. Barely half of the applicants to the scheme were successful, which highlights the financial predicament that the sector faces because of the limited budgets that are available.

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Plenary, 28 Feb 2007

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