Industry Urged to Seize Opportunities to Communicate with Public

People working in every part of the Scottish red meat industry were today (Friday 24th May) urged by Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) to support forth-coming campaigns and seize every opportunity to communicate the industry’s positive messages.

Speaking at a briefing to announce QMS’s ambitious activity plans for the year ahead, Kate Rowell, QMS Chair, emphasised a key focus of the organisation’s activity for the 2019/20 year will be to upweight the important work it does to protect, as well as promote, the industry.

“The work we do to protect and enhance the reputation of the industry has never been more important,” said Mrs Rowell.

“In the coming weeks we will be launching our brand new ‘Meat with Integrity’ campaign which focuses on the industry’s sustainability and animal welfare messages and QMS is inviting farmers and others who work in the industry to help us with this campaign. The industry’s support will make a huge difference.”

She added: “As a farmer and a vet I am well aware of the challenges faced by our industry and equally aware of the dedication and sheer hard graft that goes into producing the nutritious food source that is quality assured beef, lamb and pork.

“Having spoken with hundreds of people in my first six months as QMS chair I am also very aware of the immense frustration being felt at grassroots level about the wave of unbalanced, and very often totally inaccurate, media coverage driven by some very well-funded organisations with an anti-red meat agenda.”

QMS is, she said, delighted with the response from the industry in support of our recent ‘Know Your Beef’ campaign and keen to build on this in coming months.

“We are encouraging everyone to miss no opportunities to share their pride in the care and commitment which goes into producing the quality assured beef, lamb and pork we are famed for throughout the world.”

QMS is today launching a video as part of its support of LEAF Open Farm Sunday on June 9th to encourage farmers to support the initiative.

“We have this week launched a video as a final major push in our drive to support LEAF’s Open Farm Sunday initiative in Scotland to reach its target of 30 farms actively involved this year.

“I sincerely believe there is a real opportunity ahead of us to unite as an industry to collectively communicate our commitment to sustainable farming and, indeed, our moral obligation to produce a nutrient dense food source in Scotland from a land with abundant water which is ideally suited to converting grass into food.”

Scottish livestock farmers, said Mrs Rowell, share an immense pride in their role in maintaining Scotland’s landscape and providing habitats for wildlife some of which could not survive without the existence of grazing animals. 

“We will also be asking farmers and others involved in our industry to join with us in actively celebrating and showcasing farmers’ commitment to enriching the environment on their farms, ahead of World Environmental Day on June 5th.”