Seòmar agus comataidhean

That is interesting. Thank you.

We are having to mitigate a lot of the impacts of Brexit with the bill.

I thank both witnesses for their fascinating evidence. I am particularly interested in what is happening in the north-east, where my constituency is. In Banffshire and Buchan Coast, we have seen the real effects of climate change, as we have been at the forefront of a lot of storm damage, flooding and coastal erosion, and that has been compounded by the bird flu epidemic. There have been massive losses in the numbers of our coastal birds, particularly at Troup Head. The devastation could linger on for decades to come because of what has happened. At the same time, the perception is that we are overrun with gulls, because they make themselves a bit of a nuisance with the locals.

We are trying to build knowledge about the changing environment in the north-east, given the impacts on our climate, our wildlife and our biodiversity. As you suggested earlier, farmers see those changes, and they know and understand what is going on. They are keen to help as rapidly as they can by, for example, encouraging more clover growth. They are concerned about the lack of butterflies—they are saying that there have not been as many butterflies as they would normally see. There has been a rapid change in the landscape, but there is perhaps not so much public awareness of what is going on.

In the light of COP15—the 15th conference of the parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity—and given the Scottish Government’s biodiversity strategy, what good is coming out of what is going on? What does it mean for the future agriculture policy? How can we energise and educate people to get on board with what is happening?

Not at the moment, but I will in a second.

We cannot just throw in problems, such as a blunderous Brexit, and then stand by mocking the people who are trying to clean up that mess.

Does the member agree that she is cherry picking what has been said in the committee and that she is not explaining in a well-rounded way what was said? NFU Scotland president and agricultural reform implementation oversight board chair Martin Kennedy told the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee that, in relation to coming out of the EU and no longer having long-term certainty of funding,

“we need to be able to look five or six years ahead ... We got used to”

the framework

“that was delivered by Europe, which covered a seven-year period, so people knew what was going to be available. We do not have such a framework at present, which is really concerning.”—[Official Report, Rural Affairs and Islands Committee, 8 March 2023; c 20.]

I thought that I would intervene just to give balance to the argument.

Do you think that Brexit has helped the agricultural sector in Scotland?

I say through the chair that the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill was passed a few months ago.

The farmers in our constituencies—and the whole agriculture sector—talk to us, bend our ears and tell us about the issues and the problems that they are having, and they expect us to come up with solutions and to help them; they do not expect us to use their problems as ammunition in a one-sided debate.

Not just now, but in a second.

We have to be solution focused and go forward working together and doing our best for our agriculture industry. That is what our farmers deserve, and nothing less. They might not have kept the receipts of Brexit, but we have because we are picking up the tab.

Sustainable and regenerative farming is at the heart of the Scottish Government’s vision for agriculture, and rightly so. The twin biodiversity and climate crises are existential, and they will present challenges and opportunities for Scotland’s farmers and crofters. If we are to ensure that there are fewer of the former and more of the latter in the years and decades to come, it is vital that we act with our climate change targets and net zero ambitions in mind.

In my constituency of Banffshire and Buchan Coast, we have already seen the alarming impacts of those crises. We have been hit hard by storms, rising tides and coastal erosion. Acres of forestry has been lost across the constituency as a result of never-seen-before gales. The migration of cod and urban gulls has had a notable impact on the lives and livelihoods of those in my constituency.

While many recognise that we have a climate emergency, not all of us know that we also face a nature emergency. Professor Des Thompson, principal adviser on biodiversity and science at NatureScot told us this morning at the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee that, although there is growing realisation of the nature emergency, we have a long way to go. He said that what has happened with gulls is a catastrophe but it is because of what has happened at sea that the food base for gulls has declined. Gulls are therefore moving inland into towns and cities that are not adapted to breeding, and they are very good at tracking schoolchildren, unfortunately, so that they know where to find food.

What we are seeing with the gulls is just a symptom of climate change. The broader realisation that climate change is contributing to the nature crisis and therefore to the problems that we have right on our doorstep cannot be overstated and our farmers get it more than anyone else. They are witnessing those changes in real time and they understand the challenges that they are facing.

I welcome the Scottish Government’s emphasis on our vision for agriculture and the agricultural reform route map. The emphasis on our net zero ambitions and emissions reductions are in line with our climate targets. We all need to do better at expressing and mitigating the gravity of the twin climate and nature crises, and I praise the minister for her commitment to encouraging co-operative approaches on these issues, and to optimising collaboration with knowledge exchange.

Food security is an area of vital importance. In recent years, we have witnessed many disruptions to the global food supply chains, most recently through Russia’s abhorrent war in Ukraine. The Covid-19 pandemic also posed some difficult challenges to the global food system. Although its impacts are not unique to Scotland, those caused and imposed on Scotland by the hard Brexit were entirely avoidable. The UK Government has done immense and irreversible damage to our world-class food and drink industry and to rural and coastal communities such as the one that I represent, and I commend the minister for her continuing and tireless engagement in combating post-Brexit skills shortages in agriculture and for calling on the UK Government to fulfil its outstanding commitment to fully replacing EU funds.

I thank the member for bringing that issue up because it is a real problem and we are facing a lot of complex problems like that. If we are to look into those problems, we must remember that Scotland 16 years ago is not reflective of the society that we are in right now and that Brexit did not help because it damaged it even more.

We must ask ourselves what the future of food farming looks like. Scottish enterprises such as Intelligent Growth Solutions are taking innovations such as vertical farming to new heights. Home-grown enterprises such as IGS are redefining the future landscape of farming and food. Year-round, reliable, high-quality crops that are scalable and produced in controlled environments without pesticides and with a shorter transit from farm to plate will play a vital role in reducing the carbon footprint of our agriculture industry.

As we heard today, there is also a place for our livestock. The words that were used today were “sweet spot”. It is vital to get the balance right for a sustainable food and drink industry, for the future of our planet and for a health and wellbeing economy.

I must say that I am quite disappointed by the tone of the debate—but that is not coming from those on the SNP benches. All we hear are descriptions of problems, but being descriptive does not offer any solutions. We are willing to work cross-party to come up with solutions to a lot of the issues.