Agriculture cannot fail to have an impact on the environment because in fulfilling its fundamental objective – the production of food and other commodities – it must use and modify the natural world. Agriculture is a dynamic industry that has changed significantly over the last 60 to 70 years, largely due to technological innovation that allowed farmers to increase productivity. Regulatory and support mechanisms flowing mainly from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union have also stimulated many changes, not least in increasingly integrating environmental concerns (Section 5.2.2). The idea that production is farmers' primary raison d'être is no longer taken as read because ideas about the future shape and purpose of Scottish agriculture continue to evolve rapidly. As the country navigates its 'post-Brexit' agricultural policy course, it is far from clear how the industry will evolve, not least as Scottish agriculture sits firmly in the cross hairs of those working to tackle the twin climate and biodiversity crises. In many respects, farming is losing the pre-eminent position in the countryside and in rural policy that it has held for so long, and farmers are facing increasing pressure to farm more sustainably, adopt regenerative practices and reduce carbon emissions (Section 5.3.3). The way in which the current debates evolve will have a profound effect on Scotland's natural heritage and climate change mitigation efforts, not to mention on farmers and rural communities, simply because over three-quarters of the land area is at present farmed in some way.

Scotland is not well endowed with good agricultural land, 59 per cent of the agricultural area consisting of rough grazing and just 9 per cent of arable (Thomson et al. 2016). The small areas of the best-quality agricultural land are concentrated in the east (Fig. 5.1).