‘catches a cold’. On this occasion, of course, the global benefits look positive for food and feed producers. It’s not always the case, however. In addition, what goes up also has a tendency to go down again
in the future. By all means ride the wave, but don’t expect it to last for ever.
And finally Br…t! At least I’ve left the dreaded B-word section until now. If you’re still reading (thank you by the way) you really only have yourself to blame. Actually, my focus has switched in recent days from wondering
what might or might not happen to the withdrawal agreement, backstop and the rest, between now (late April) and October 31, to pondering how British farm and feed business leaders will fare in Brussels throughout our ‘winter of indecision’. I would have written ‘summer of indecision’ but that doesn’t work
on so many different levels. I also suspect it will be winter before we get this sorted, in any case. Anyway, my consideration of us, the EU and the next six months,
was prompted by a blog written by Scottish farmer, Jimmy Ireland. He chairs NFU Scotland’s livestock committee and recently attended a series of meetings in Brussels to discuss beef sector issues with representatives from other European farming unions. The first day of his visit was spent discussing the impact on
European livestock production of the drought which hit much of the continent last year; longer-term threats posed by climate change issues and the immediate horrors attached to the European Commission’s determination to continue negotiations with the South American trading bloc Mercosur. All this was done within the safe and welcoming confines of
Copa-Cogeca, the European body which represents both farmers and farm cooperative in Europe, including non-EU members such as Switzerland. The agenda on day two, however, shifted to discussions between
the representative farming group and European Commission officials, a change of focus which Mr Ireland found less comfortable than his first day experience. “Attending these meetings at a time when the UK was expected to
have already departed the European Union left me feeling like I was in limbo,” he wrote on the NFU Scotland website. “I was eager to contribute to discussions but was left unsure of how
relevant our views are to our French and German counterparts and how relevant the future direction of the European Union would be to farmers and crofters back in Scotland.” When I originally researched the post-Brexit status of similar UK
organisations during the immediate aftermath of the referendum vote, the general response was that very little would change, with Switzerland being regularly held up as a prime example of a non-EU state that enjoyed representative peace and harmony. Reading Mr Ireland’s real-life 2019 experience of feeling less
relevant during European Commission sessions, suggests the truth may differ from the many promises made during pre-Brexit times. Now, where have I heard that before?
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