NFU Scotland congratulates Scotland’s farmers for the excellent food they produce for festive consumption.

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Great celebrations like Christmas and Easter are still played out through feasting; long meals, with family and friends gathered to eat, drink and have fun. Throughout history, even when times have been hard, exceptions have been made at special times of the year, and where people have celebrated in what ever way they could, food has been at the heart of it.

We are bombarded with seasonal guilt-inducing articles about the amount of calories we are likely to consume and, while some of us will feel guilty as we say yes to a third or fourth helping of turkey, let’s not think about it and instead enjoy the wonderful foods which have become part of the traditional Christmas dinner.

We may worry two weeks ahead of Christmas that we still haven’t bought all the necessary ingredients for an extensive feast, but don’t despair. Scottish farmers have been planning Christmas for many months, producing a great variety of the food that makes up your Christmas meal.

Moreover, Scottish farming produce is deemed among the best in the world, with prize-winning international meat, fruit, vegetables and dairy products, not to forget whisky. It is made to the highest animal welfare and food safety requirements in the world as well.

As environmentalists have calculated that the average Christmas dinner has travelled a total distance of nearly 85,000 miles to your plate, why bother unnecessarily buying food from elsewhere, when the best in the world is available on your doorstep?

From Aberdeenshire turkey and Perthshire potatoes to Angus carrots, Borders beef and luscious cream from your local dairy, the combination of traditional festive foods has emerged because all these wonderful ingredients are perfectly in season at this time of year!

So, buying Scottish produce this Christmas will not only make sure you have the best food on your table, you will also be cutting carbon emissions, supporting local business and helping Scotland’s farmers maintain our beautiful countryside.

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