Farming: Buzzwords to describe the CAP? I can think of a few

I SPENT a morning last week looking at old photos of farming meetings, while I was in the archives of the Scottish Museum of Rural Life at Kittochside. (Please do not consider that a sad admission as it was one of those horrible windy, wet days that have plagued this month and I was dry and warm.)

The photographs from half a century ago had a degree of uniformity. The audiences were almost always all male and the seated ranks were in their dark grey Sunday suits. There was always a fair amount of cigarette smoke, too, with a visible pall hanging over the crowd.

In comparison, last Wednesday as I glanced around to see those attending the Scottish Government workshop on the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), I was pleased to see some progress had been made towards gender equality. The smokers have long been ostracised and the sombre suits of my father’s generation had given way to a more relaxed informality in dress.

Up front, options on converting farm subsidies in Scotland to an area-based payment system from production-based support were being explained.

Another comparison with a previous generation of meetings came to mind as behind the speaker were a couple of “pop-ups”. These portable advertising displays are today ubiquitous – even the Scottish Government does not seem to be able to hold a meeting without them. (Though I cannot deny they are more attractive than looking at some dull nicotine-stained hotel wallpaper that provided the backdrop to speakers of a previous generation.)