20/08/2026
IS IT EVEN FIXABLE?
The problem isn’t that the farming minister fainted.
The problem is how disconnected government has become from farming.
There’s an obvious joke in there - the last MP to get into trouble in a fridge was Boris Johnson, when he disappeared into one to avoid Good Morning Britain during the 2019 election campaign.
This time though, the poor MP getting the flak, Stephen Morgan MP, says it was the sudden change from the heat outside into refrigerated storage that hit him; and he actually praised the workers who deal with that every day.
But the story is raising eyebrows in farming for a much bigger reason.
The person now responsible for helping shape the future of British farming has come into the job with very little background in farming or food production.
That’s something farmers have been frustrated about for years.
And stories like this are perfect fuel for another round of polarised arguments about farming when, frankly, what we need is more understanding, more collaboration and a bit less shouting from both sides.
Because the people making decisions about farming often have very little experience of actually doing it - yet those decisions can have consequences that last for generations.
The thing about farming is, it can’t be run from spreadsheets and PowerPoints, animals get sick,, calves arrive at 2am, machinery breaks exactly when you need it most and the weather can destroy months of work - the current drought being a fairly good case in point.
Decisions made in Westminster can genuinely be the difference between a family farm surviving for another generation, or disappearing into another statistic that gets used to tell us small farms just don’t work anymore - like our good pal John McTernan who loves to shout about it.
I don’t think you need to have been a farmer to become Farming Minister.
But I do think you need to properly understand farming before making decisions that affect the people producing our food.
So Stephen - and Andy B - Come to Mossgiel.
Not for a staged photo opportunity.
Put the wellies on, start early, milk some cows, wash some bottles, meet the team and look through the numbers.
See what producing food in Britain actually involves.
Farming in Scotland might be devolved, but many of the challenges and opportunities we face are exactly the same as those facing our colleagues across the UK.
So come up, spend a day with us and let’s have a proper conversation about the future of farming.
And don’t worry.
We don’t have a meat fridge.
