Farming Scotland 2019 Conference: A Changing Climate
Challenges of farming industry in UK and the world.
Last 14th february PANACEA has participated at Farming Scotland 2019 Conference to engage with speakers and participants to approach issues and challenges related to farming industry in UK and to contribute in the discussion.
In the process of networking PANACEA representation by our partner Imperial College London met with people from diverse background who are potential PANACEA stakeholders as farmers, researchers, policy makers and entrepreneurs who are potentially working with non-food crops or might be interested to know about non-food crops.
Around one hundred speakers and participants are invited to join PANACEA platform and take part in online surveys. The contacts made at Farming Scotland conference will be useful for upcoming national value chain events in UK organized by PANACEA, identifying good practice case studies in the region.
The conference had four main speakers: 1) Jeremy Moody (secretary and adviser for The Central Association of Agricultural Valuers) who spoke about the implications and opportunities of Brexit and future direction for agricultural policy and trade for Scotland and the UK, 2) Dr Mike Rivington (scientist at the James Hutton Institute) who presented climate change model results for a period up to 2100 and forecast on rain patterns and drought for the UK, as well as implications for land use and agricultural yields, 3) Kristy and Aimee Budge (farmers from Bigton Farm in Shetland) presenting their farm family and practice history, as well as difficulties encountered with agri-environment schemes and achievements such as winning BBC Countryfile’s Farming Heroes in 2018 and acting as one of the 9 Monitor Farms in Scotland, and finally 4) Ben Pugh (CEO of Farmdrop) presenting his vision behind Farmdrop which is based on a win-win scenario between the farmer and the consumer, while his company applies more in an urban setting it echoed the sentiment of the importance of preserving localised and fresh farming goods.
Read more about the conference: link http://farmingscotlandconference.co.uk/
Picture (Bigton Farm in Shetland)
