Under cover vegetables production UP 400%! – Scotland’s agricultural economy – positive news ignored because it does not tell the correct story

By Professor John Robertson:

Search for ‘BBC Scotland’ agriculture and all they have is the above image and The village that a religious sect helped to found, yet released only days ago there is Results from the Scottish Agricultural Census: June 2024. Do they have a ferm correspondent at all at Pacific Quay?

Anyhow, from this important release, it’s a mixed sack which I am not competent to fully evaluate because Scotland’s farmers have been producing less of somethings to keep Reporting Scotland happy and more of other things to force them to avert their eyes.

I guess it’s complex – market fluctuations, shifting demand for different things, climate change, government interference, wars, organised crime?

So, here are some of the things you won’t hear anywhere else, just chosen by me, in the same way the editor at Reporting Scotland just chooses different stuff she wants you to know:

  • Triticale UP 75%
  • Spring oats UP 12%
  • Protein peas UP 23%
  • Maize UP 45%!
  • Lupins UP 36%
  • Strawberries UP 26%
  • Vegetable grown under cover UP 400%
  • Tomatoes grown under cover UP 200%
  • Poultry up from 11 to 12 million
  • Deer up 7.8%
  • Donkeys up (not including new Labour MPs) up 8.9%
  • Camelids up 11.1%

Oh, OK, tatties doon.

Source:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/results-from-the-scottish-agricultural-census-june-2024/documents/

Support Scots Independent, Scotland’s oldest pro-independence newspaper and host of the OBA (Oliver Brown Award) at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/shop/

The Oliver Brown Award for advancing the cause of Scotland’s self respect, previously awarded to Dr Philippa Whitford, Alex Salmond and Sean Connery: https://scotsindependent.scot/?page_id=116

About Oliver Brown, the first Scottish National Party candidate to save his deposit in a Parliamentary election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Brown_(Scottish_activis

8 thoughts on “Under cover vegetables production UP 400%! – Scotland’s agricultural economy – positive news ignored because it does not tell the correct story”

  2. Some mince to go with your tatties..

    https://meatex.co.uk/2024/10/16/scotlands-red-meat-and-offal-exports-surge-to-137m-qms-survey-reveals/?srsltid=AfmBOorIvOge0zL_OTK_Mt0Gs1nkpXG3uITWRG8bxGixiMBAHw7iDi_Q

    “Scotland’s red meat and offal exports beyond the UK have experienced a significant rise, reaching a value of £137 million, according to the latest survey by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS)

    The report highlights a remarkable recovery in the sector, with a 26% increase in export value compared to previous years.”

    Liked by 4 people

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  3. Meanwhile, from the land that enjoys the benefits of a British Labour Party governing with devolved powers, from Wales (with my emphasis):

    Headline: ‘Welsh dairy farming faces crisis as over 280 farms exit the industry’ (published 26 October, 2024)

    Headline: ‘Farms budget tops agenda as union meets government heads’ ( 5th October, 2024)

    NFU Cymru Deputy President Abi Reader is quoted: “Our discussions today focussed on securing a multi-year budget for Welsh farming, a budget that, in totality, needs to increase to around £500m annually just to keep pace with inflation.”

    Adding: “With the Rural Affairs Budget subject to the largest cuts of any Welsh Government department last autumn, it is imperative that this budget is restored, and inflation taken into account when the Welsh Government draft budget is published later this year.”

    ‘Headline: Welsh sustainable farming scheme may alter due to protests’ (27th February, 2024)

    ‘The move comes after a poll showed just 3% of farmers trust the Welsh government and 87% of farmers believed the SFS (sustainable farming scheme) would neither support their business nor deliver positive environmental outcomes. Just 6% said they would opt into the schemes in their current form, which many consider to be unnecessarily prescriptive and complex.’

    Source https://www.thescottishfarmer.co.uk/topics/nfu-cymru/

    It would be good if voters in Scotland DIDN’T go into the 2026 Holyrood election with eyes wide shut! For the avoidance of doubt, I have no wish to talk down Wales but talking down the longstanding British Labour Party government in Wales is another matter entirely, as is the party in Wales’ refusal to acknowledge the twin ‘elephants in the room’, Westminster and the Union.

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    1. This may also be of ‘interest’:

      The NFU Cymru website has this headline from 22 October 2024 ‘NFU Cymru calls for confidence boost in the Welsh dairy sector’.

      NFU Cymru Dairy Board Chairman Jonathan Wilkinson is quoted: ‘.. we are encouraging consumers to back our Welsh dairy farmers by looking for the Welsh flag when they are shopping or enjoying dairy products out of the home.’

      Seems these flag obsessed people get everywhere! What’s wrong with Great British milk or beef or lamb or potatoes or fruit or …. even haggis, whisky?

      Liked by 4 people

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  4. O/T Mike  Amesbury , Labour MP, was filmed confronting a man who was lying on the road and shouted: “You won’t ever threaten me again, will you?

    Cheshire police have said that an assault had been reported and that no arrests had been made.

    Earlier today someone had altered his, Amesbury’s, Wikipedia page to include noting that as well as being a Labour MP he was also a “street fighter” Ha Ha.

    So if an assault has been reported to the Police , and then I assume is being investigated, then I also assume that he , Mr Amesbury, will be suspended by the Labour party until the investigation is concluded.

    After all Labour are very very quick to judge and suspend other MP’s in their party are they not !

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  5. OMG the BBC website is going for the SNP big time.

    They smell blood (again) so they think they are going for Gold.

    It’s 21.17pm and on the BBC Scottish Politics page they have not one, not two but three articles on the Green party not going to support the Scottish governments budget.

    One story headline (2nd story)

    “Scottish Greens withdraw support for National Care Service”

    Another headline (3rd story)

    “Scottish Greens warn SNP not to take budget support for granted”

    Another Headline (5th story)

    “Greens on verge of pulling support for National Care Service”

    The 5th story is no longer relevant really based on the 2nd story now confirming that they, the Green party, have indeed now apparently “withdrawn their support for National Care service” but still it, the 5th story, stays as an article, on the BBC website on the Scottish Politics page.

    I guess three stories , on their Scottish Politics page of their BBC website on this same topic against the SNP , then makes it seem even more mega #SNPBAD.

    The 5th story is 3 days old.

    The 3rd story is 1 day old

    The 2nd story is 4 hours old.

    The top story on their Scottish Politics page is a #LabourGood story with a headline that states:

    “Budget to bring ‘era of growth’ for Scotland – Murray”

    Apparently Scotland will reap “growth” benefits from the Autumn Budget while the same Autumn budget has been , by the Labour PM Keir Starmer , issued for what seems like ages , with a prior warning for people within the UK to expect the “autumn budget to be painful“.

    Ian Murray, just after polishing his brass neck also declared in that BBC #LabourGood article that “”While Labour cleans up 14 years of Tory mess, the SNP created a mess of their own making, having wasted £5bn over their years in office due to their own buy now, pay later policies”.

    “Buy now pay later” ?

    What ?

    Like PFI (Private Finance Initiative) that Labour championed and implemented in Scotland that resulted in a £30 billion bill for Scottish taxpayers.

    The deflection is strong in Murray is it not.

    However that is his, Murray’s, and also Labours forte is it not.

    Do as I say not as I do , where also rules for us as a UK party and rules for you as a party who do not support the UK state. (basically a case of do as we, the UK government, tell you Scotland).

    Meanwhile Labour in Wales are the government that neither Labour UK nor Labour in Scotland would want anyone to scrutinise too closely or challenge on all that they do and also do not do, how much they spend, their ‘deficit’, what they spend their budget on and how they perform as a devolved government. (Neither does the BBC in Scotland want anyone in Scotland to know any of this either in relation to Labour in Wales).

    Maybe yon BBC Verify does not monitor BBC Scotland (for obvious reasons).

    Liked by 1 person

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  6. Tatties down, eh? Nae wunner.

    a) Since the pandemic, there has been a surge in veg production in allotments and home gardens, tatties being among the easiest and heaviest cropping.

    b) Many Scots, like me, are drastically reducing their carbohydrate intake. I can’t remember when I last bought tatties.

    However, the First Minister will no doubt be called on to apologise for the reduced demand for tatties.

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