Thread by @DeidreBrock

After years of denial Brexiteers are finally admitting how much damage it will do. Farmers have been warning about this for a while.
scotsman.com/news/politics/…

Access to EU markets is vital for our high-quality food and drink sector - and the protections, like PGI, that we currently have. Brexit threatens all of that. #BrexitDamage

Some folk seem to think that it'll be fine, that we'll simply eat what our farmers produce instead of it being exported. That doesn't take into account that animal feed, fertilisers, and other products that farmers use are imported #BrexitDamage

We import 70% of fertiliser, nearly all animal feed and supplements and plant protection like pesticides – mainly from the EU or under EU trade deals . Some of the fertiliser is classed as explosive and you can’t stockpile it because you need containment facilities. #BrexitDamage

Seeds - we import about a tenth of the seeds that farmers use but all of the forage maize seed is imported and much of the veg, herbage and oilseed rape. If we can't import easily in the next few months it's going to be hard for farmers to produce much at all. #BrexitDamage

Then you get into the thing about EU citizens - get rid of freedom of movement and you lose an awful lot of the workforce, including the vets we need at slaughterhouses and the extra vets we'd need at ports. #BrexitDamage

We'd also lose a lot of the drivers who deliver the fertiliser and so on to the farms, take the animals to slaughter or the crops for processing and then move the food around so it gets to shops. We'd also lose fruit pickers and other farm workers. #BrexitDamage

Just like we'll lose processing workers for the fishing industry. Take away the access to the world's biggest single market as well, or have those huge tariffs imposed, and Scotland's food and drink sector faces some pretty big challenges #BrexitDamage

Anyone living in a city who thinks that farming and fishing are someone else's problems is about to find out that they're very much problems for all of us. Food production and food security might be about to become a couple of the biggest issues in politics