Nourish Scotland Press Release
Friday 9 March, 15:00
Reacting to UK Government proposals to centralise devolved powers on food and farming, [1] Pete Richie, Executive Director at Nourish Scotland said:
“At a time when the Scottish Government has announced its intention to make Scotland a Good Food Nation and a European leader in green farming, Westminster is threatening to take control of key powers.
What this could look like on the ground is:
- over-ruling Scotland’s ban on growing GM crops: England’s always been keener on this, and GM would inevitably figure in any UK/US trade deal
- running agriculture policy and farm support from Westminster, from where the problems of Scotland’s upland family farms look very small indeed
- having to slow down Scotland’s work on reducing food and plastic waste including a deposit return scheme until Westminster has caught up
- not being able to go further or faster than England on issues like food labelling, or regulating pesticide use
- and of course, not being able to manage our own fisheries policy
This is a power grab that doesn’t just affect the politicians – it affects our power as citizens to determine the sort of food and farming system we want. We need to retain and enhance the powers of the Scottish Parliament to become a good food nation.
Scotland already diverges from the rest of the UK on many of these issues, without any problems. Why do we suddenly need less democracy not more?”
ENDS
Contact details:
Pete Ritchie, Executive Director
07794 610148
pete@nourishscotland.org.uk
Notes to Editor:
[1] UK Government has announced 24 devolved areas where it seeks to temporarily retail power post-Brexit, most relating to food and farming. Full list available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/frameworks-analysis