Royal Highland Show 2025

With less than a year to go until the next Scottish Parliament election, there was always likely to be a strong political focus on the Royal Highland Show 2025.

Party leaders including First Minister John Swinney spent time mixing with farmers, growers, crofters and the wider agricultural industry at Ingliston.

Thanks to NFU Scotland, there was also a chance to hear directly from candidates for election next year representing the SNP, Labour, Scottish Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Scottish Greens in a ‘big debate’ on Friday morning.

And there was no shortage of announcements from the Scottish Government, including a headline grabbing statement that Ministers would not be following guidance from the UK Climate Change Committee (CCC) on reducing livestock numbers.

What was announced?

In her last speech to the Royal Highland Show as Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, Mairi Gougeon set out the government position in response to the CCC advice.

Citing “significant concern” in the industry about proposals to reduce cattle and sheep numbers by about 30% by 2045, the Cabinet Secretary said: “Let me be crystal clear; this government has no policy, and will have no policy, to cut livestock numbers.”

A separate statement published on the same day provided some more detail. The government intends to focus on livestock efficiency, reducing emissions intensity of production systems through improved genetics, low methane breeding and uptake of methane suppressing feed products. There will also be policies in the next Climate Change Plan to encourage the uptake of “sustainable and regenerative” farming practices “through incentives and regulation”.

The government also said it would “go further” than the CCC has recommended on forestry, while there was also speculation at the show that other sectors of the Scottish economy may also have to do more on emissions reduction to make the sums add up.

What does this mean?

It was not entirely surprising that the Scottish Government has made this announcement. We said at the time the CCC advice was published that there was a tension between the position on reducing livestock and existing Scottish Government policy. What is not clear is exactly how the government intends to meet its net zero commitments – to which all other political parties have also signed up.

Scientists working on climate change – including experts from SRUC and Aberdeen University – have been clear that it will not be possible to meet the goals on agricultural emissions without reducing livestock production alongside dietary change – consuming less meat and dairy.

However, the government argument appears to be that by being more ambitious in other areas, including in Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry, then it will not have to actively reduce livestock numbers.

The CCC advice was always going to be a huge political challenge for Scotland, given the predominance of livestock farming, the contribution of the red meat sector to the economy and the potential impact on rural communities of loss of agricultural land.

Now, a year out from the election, the SNP government has nailed its colours firmly to the mast, and it was noticeable that during the NFUS political debate, aside from the Scottish Greens, none of the other parties said they would take a different approach.

What else was announced?

Of course, this was not the only announcement at the show.
It was really encouraging to see the launch of the £14million Future Farming Investment Scheme, which opens on July 14. We were pleased to see that applications from organic producers will be given priority, alongside those from new entrants, tenants, small agricultural businesses and tenant farmers.

In addition, small suckler cow herds of 10 or fewer animals will receive a derogation from new conditions on calving intervals in recognition of socio-economic and biodiversity benefits delivered in "remote and fragile areas".

And the Code of Practice on Sustainable and Regenerative Agriculture published with "practical suggestions" on how to farm and croft more efficiently, boost profitability, reduce impact on climate and protect nature. It is important to note, however, that this is guidance, and not a legal/regulatory requirement.

Soil Association Scotland at the show

As well as attending lots of other events, we held two of our own.
The first was a celebration of success stories in the organic sector with the Scottish Organic Stakeholders Group – including a focus on our Give Peas a Chance project funded by Sustain’s Bridging the Gap initiative. This has helped get locally grown organic split peas into school lunches in Aberdeen City, with plans to expand to Aberdeenshire, Moray and Highland council areas.

We were also delighted to be involved in the formal launch of the Scottish Agroecology Partnership. This group, comprising of Nature Friendly Farming Network, Landworkers Alliance, the Scottish Crofting Federation, Propagate, Nourish Scotland, Pasture for Life, the Food Farming and Countryside Commission as well as Soil Association Scotland, has been working collectively on knowledge exchange events on farm for several years. The formalisation of the network also included the launch of a policy platform, with a series of key asks published ahead of the Scottish election next year.

We look forward to continuing to engage with all political parties, as well as Scottish Government civil servants, on how to ensure that Scottish agriculture can adapt to the changing climate and arrest the decline in biodiversity while producing good food for all.