Last Year's Gathering - Barra - 6th, 7th, 8th October 2008

"Crofting - Delivering The Goods"

The purpose of the conference in Barra was to try to chart a course towards recognition for crofters providing public goods. "Crofters deliver significant non-market goods,” explained Patrick Krause, “but if crofters can't make a livelihood from delivering either market or non-market goods then they just won't continue to do it."

 Amongst the speakers was Pam Rodway, an organic farmer and cheesemaker from Morayshire. Pam described the Slow Food Movement by contrasting it with fast food. It stands for food that is rooted in a particular place and held dear by a particular culture; food that gives a fair return to the people who grow and rear it. Perthshire farmer Tom Gray describes his approach to farming as being closer to the crofting ethos than to agri-business. Despite being within a few miles of big livestock markets he chooses cattle from Sthe Western Isles. These are healthier, hardier and more prolific than their mainland counterparts – plus the islands’ isolation from markets also isolates stock from diseases. Crofting Minister Mike Russell offered little new information on the Government's plans for crofting but robustly defended them against criticism from delegates. He said it was time to move forward constructively. "I think there is a good will and support among the public of Scotland – we need to get up and get on with this process now." Nonetheless there was a good deal of concern among delegates at aspects of the Government's response which changed some of  Shucksmith's proposals – not the least of which was a lack of commitment to give greater financial support to crofting.

Another issue was of the future of crofting development. The Government's proposals have ignored Shucksmith's recommendation for crofting development to be within a "powerful crofting and community development body ideally within HIE. Instead it plans to drop crofting into the mainstream of HIE's economic development work. David Lamb of the Scottish Agricultural College said that research suggested a market for the kind of local food produced by crofters, with 44 per cent of UK consumers interested in buying locally and 30 per cent of tourists interested in eating local food on their holidays. The main motivators for buying local seem to be a desire to support communities and producers from that area.

Donald Murdie, SCF's crofting programme resources manager, argued that with at least one-third of Scotland's land mass in crofting areas and 25 per cent of agricultural land in those areas in crofting tenure, crofting land is a vast, but underused resource for crofters. Training and education will be an important part of the process of making sure more land is better used – and to that end he praised the work of two Uist folk, Mary Norton and Neil MacPherson, who set up and run a crofting module at the Sgoil Lionacleit as part of the national curriculum. Michael Russel launched the SCF’s Crofting Mark.

 The hospitality at the gathering did Barra proud. On the Monday there was a fine dinner at the Isle of Barra Hotel where local produce featured high on the menu. This was followed by singing, dancing, accordion playing and piping from four very talented young island folk.
 
Our thanks to iain MacKinnon for this report.
To read a weblog of the gathering by Iain MacKinnon - Please click here

Photos of the Gathering on Barra 2008

For more information please see:

SCF-Barra-Gathering.doc
Booking_Form_2008.pdf

SCF Annual Gathering - 2007 

A varied, unusual and interesting programme was put together for this year’s Scottish Crofting Foundation Conference. The conference took place on Thursday 6th and Friday 7th September at the Ross County Football Stadium, Dingwall. The theme of the gathering was "crofting culture".

As well as a varied panel of speakers and the annual dinner, a feature this year was the first Angus MacRae Memorial Debate where two well-known personalities debated the motion that ‘The regulation of crofting no longer serves a useful purpose’.  Speakers at the Gathering included Professor Mark Shucksmith, Neil Mitchison, Mike Russell and Margaret Bennett.

Also at the conference the four Highland and Island schools involved in the Planting to Plate crofting project - Whalsay, Farr, Sgoil nan Loch and Kilchoan - gave a presentation on their year’s activities.

To download the full programme:   Please click here

Pictures of the 2007 Gathering