Scotland's farming union has urged government to start considering food security as one of its highest priorities. NFU Scotland believes that an increasing reliance on imported food is holding the country hostage to disease outbreaks such as bird flu and foot and mouth, which have this week resulted in certain food exports being banned from a number of countries.

The UK has historically imported tens of thousands of tonnes of poultrymeat from Thailand, which had exports banned earlier this year because of bird flu. The same export ban has been placed on a host of other countries, notably Romania and Turkey this week, as avian influenza spreads westwards. The UK also imports thousands of tonnes of Brazilian beef each year. This week, exports were banned from certain regions of Brazil as a result of an outbreak of foot and mouth.

NFUS believes that the reduction in local food production and an increasing reliance on imports is jeopardising the UK's food security.

NFUS President John Kinnaird said:

"At the moment, the UK Government has no meaningful food security policy. That is hugely worrying in a country where domestic food production is reducing and we are becoming over-reliant on feeding the nation via import routes that can be shutdown in minutes.

"We live in a world of free trade and the UK is obviously not self-sufficient in all food. Therefore, there will always have to be imports. However, as a matter of urgency, government needs to start looking at how it strikes a critical balance between domestic food supply and imports. At the moment, there is not even a political debate on the issue. Foot and mouth and bird flu has to shake the government out of its current complacency.

"In an age where personal security is the most pressing political issue, it beggars belief that food security has been ignored by government for so long.

"The local food industry across Scotland and the rest of the UK is being decimated as a result of a worldwide chase for cheap food. With increasingly globalised trade, disease spreads extremely quickly between countries. We are not immune ourselves, having witnessed the horror of foot and mouth four years ago. However, at least in this country we have full control over how food is produced which allows us to limit the risk of disease as much as is ever possible.

"It is easy to be alarmist about animal disease outbreaks, but I am genuinely concerned that the country could be sleepwalking into a serious food supply problem. Government simply can't afford to wake up to this timebomb after the foreign food supply routes we have become reliant on are shutdown."

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