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00:00Farmers have got a wee bit of a tough time I would say
00:03I just think unfortunately we are falling down the pecking order
00:09It's like it's a necessity and we've had it just there
00:14Everything's just at our fingertips
00:16Just now we're used to living in a world like that
00:19And I wouldn't want that to change
00:20But if it does change in any way
00:23If there's a war or anything like that
00:25We are only 55% in Britain
00:29We can produce 55% of our food
00:32So that's not a good place to be for me
00:33But I don't think the government at the minute
00:36I don't think it's a top priority for them to have food security
00:39And I think that's quite scary
00:41I mean I personally think what would I want my government doing
00:44As a mum for my children in school
00:46My children are primary school age
00:47I firstly want the food on their plates in the school canteen
00:52To be local food
00:53Local carrots, local potatoes, turnips, beef, lamb
00:57We have that in Inverness
00:58It's right outside their school
00:59We drive past cattle to go in the gate of the school
01:02And I think with the latest changes as well
01:04And the tax for farms
01:06Children were at that march yesterday
01:08Saying like I wanted to be a farmer
01:10But it's not just farmers' children
01:12There are other children out there that aren't from farms
01:14That would want to become farmers
01:15And that's been taken away from them as well
01:17And they might not have even understood
01:19That farming was an option for them
01:20Because they'd never set foot on a farm
01:22All of these options are just being taken away
01:24Basically I think they're trying to stop people
01:26Investing in land that aren't from farming
01:29And they're just trying to hurry
01:31Bury money and avoid tax
01:34But where they've set that threshold at a million pounds
01:37Which is the first threshold
01:39I know that it can go a wee bit further
01:41It sounds like a lot of money
01:43But it's not in farming
01:45And unfortunately that's a really hard one to convey
01:48Like an honourable farmer can buy a combine
01:50For a quarter of a million
01:51But what people probably don't realise
01:53The bank owns that until it's
01:56He's paying it off until it's five, eight years old
01:59So a lot of farms have quite heavy borrowing
02:02So adding the possibility of inheritance tax on top of that
02:06Just puts so much pressure on
02:10And I think they've got to be careful
02:11Because people might
02:12Farmers, we just always want to produce
02:14But people will think
02:16What are we doing here?
02:17You know we don't make much
02:19For that million pounds
02:20Or a turnover of a million pounds
02:21We make pennies
02:22There's no clear picture of where we're going
02:26There's no clear picture of what the government actually want
02:29So do we feel supported?
02:31No
02:32I think we're in a period where
02:34We just don't know where we're trying to get to
02:36What we're aiming at
02:38We produce the food
02:38We produce the food that goes into vegetarian meals
02:42It all comes from a farmer
02:44Your beer, that starts with a farmer
02:46Whiskey starts with a farmer
02:48I think just remove some of the uncertainties
02:53And give us some clarity
02:55We're not only a farmer
02:56We look after the ground
02:59Like us here, we've got bees
03:01And we've done a lot of environmental work
03:04You know we're the people that are best placed to
03:07Go into this next phase of farming
03:09Whatever it is
03:10We came post-war
03:11And they just wanted production of food
03:14They actually wanted us
03:15The government wanted us to rip out hedgerows
03:17To produce more food
03:18Because that's what was needed at the time
03:20We're now at another crossroads
03:22We're not going to stop them
03:23Taking in cheaper food if that's it
03:25But we look after the countryside
03:27So who's best placed to do that?
03:29It's probably the farmer
03:31So why not work with us?
03:32Support us
03:33Let's produce food
03:34And look after the environment