Why Donald Trump's antics mean UK must urgently restore homegrown food security

When added to the myriad of other international crises our country faces, Trump’s antics make it imperative that we reach out to more reliable allies, rebuild economic and security links where we can – and restore our homegrown food security.

At the top of the list surely must be rebuilding cooperation with Europe – a topic that came up time and again this week as I spoke to farmers and food producers at the annual Oxford Farming Conference.

It goes without saying that this requires better military and security cooperation – an imperative that goes in both directions with the EU. It also, however, requires deepening economic and trading links that were intentionally left to wither by the last government.

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Better deal with EU

Securing a workable and effective deal on animal and plant trade regulations with the EU is the obvious first step to better commercial cooperation and will go some way to improving our economy and food security.

Exactly how that is achieved is another matter. The past few years show the harm that can be done to our farmers and food producers when politicians see “getting a deal” as the goal, rather than actual results for our communities and our country.

Recognising the importance of closer cooperation with the EU also brings challenges for the Scottish Government, on areas such as pesticide authorisations and gene editing. If the UK Government and the EU align more closely on the latter, for example, where does that leave Scottish policymaking?

The temptation to diverge (sometimes just for the sake of it) does not go naturally with the sort of economic cooperation we need here.

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Dangers of relying on food imports

At the heart of all of this, of course, is our own homegrown food production. Russia’s war on Ukraine was a wake-up call for many about the dangers of putting too much reliance on food imports to replace homegrown food supply.

That lesson, however, still has yet to filter through to many in Whitehall and Bute House, even as the crises over Venezuela and Greenland (to say nothing of Gaza, Iran, US trade wars with China and more besides) show just how much more fractious and fragile our international system has become.

It is one thing to hope that international trade and conflict will restabilise in the years to come. It would be ocean-going madness to base your national policy, particularly on food supplies, on that tenuous hope.

For as long as the waters look as choppy as they do now, we need both stabilisation and cooperation with our allies and the insurance policy of food production in our own country.

We cannot predict everything that will come out of the great “Trump Tombola” in 2026 or beyond. What we can say, however, is that if we work more closely with our near neighbours – and strengthen our own homegrown production at the same time – we will be better prepared, whatever it may be.

Alistair Carmichael is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland