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Susie Walker-Munro stands out as one of the rare tea cultivators in Scotland, nurturing tea plants on her family farm in Angus since 2007. She credits the region’s acidic soil with providing the ideal environment for creating a distinctive artisan tea blend. Despite the premium price of around £40 per packet for her top-tier product, it remains a niche luxury rather than a mass-market alternative to supermarket brands. Globally, tea growers face mounting challenges brought on by climate change, including droughts, heavy rainfall, and diseases. Still, some experts argue that Scotland’s relatively stable climate might offer advantages to this budding tea industry.
As the end of the picking season approaches, Susie harvests the final leaves of Kinnettles Gold tea from a walled garden on her family property near Forfar. She acknowledges that Scotland’s northern latitude—at 57 degrees north—limits the possibility of a year-round harvest, unlike countries closer to the equator. However, she suggests that increasing rainfall could improve overall yields. “Our yields are never, never going to be high,” she admits, adding, “Maybe with climate change they might come up a bit, it depends if we get enough rain. Scotland could be absolutely ideal.”
Although Susie is skeptical that tea will ever become a major Scottish crop, others see potential for diversification in response to shifting climate conditions. Adaptations such as the use of glasshouses, already popular in countries like the Netherlands, may become widespread in Scotland and aid in cultivating tea as well as Mediterranean vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, and melons. Pete Ritchie of Nourish Scotland highlights that plentiful renewable energy from future wind farms could make heating these structures cost-effective and reduce food miles. He explains, “We’re going to be able to produce those plants with a lower carbon footprint and provide secure all-round jobs for people on brownfield sites in the cities and also on the islands and remote parts of Scotland.”
Further supporting adaptation efforts, the James Hutton Institute in Dundee employs numerous glasshouses and has recently launched an advanced plant growth centre. This facility simulates future climate conditions expected in Scotland by 2099, including hotter, drier summers and milder, wetter winters. By controlling variables like light, water, and nutrients, researchers can test plant resilience and accelerate breeding of crops suited to upcoming climate challenges. For the last three months, fava beans have been under close observation, with daily photographic records monitoring their growth. Dr. Robert Hancock stresses the need to shift crop breeding from targeting specific environments to developing broadly resilient varieties, stating, “We need to start breeding those crops now and start understanding what Scottish farming’s going to look like.” He emphasizes the importance of timely planning and delivering these crops to farmers, concluding, “Ultimately it’s about what those guys do in the fields that matters, not what we do inside a climate simulator.”
Looking ahead, the farming landscape will also be shaped by technological advancements, environmental considerations, and evolving food demands. Current young farmers are preparing to pass their enterprises to future generations, which will likely see increased reliance on precision agriculture, artificial intelligence, and automation. David Murdoch, chair of the Scottish Association of Young Farmers and a dairy farmer himself, believes traditional skills remain essential but embraces technology as necessary for maintaining competitiveness. He comments, “There’s no point in doing it if you don’t know your cattle, but embracing the technology is what keeps us competitive,” and adds, “Working with larger herd numbers and larger machinery to keep us producing more with less people – that’s the way the world’s going.” Alongside productivity, farming will prioritize protecting nature, reducing carbon emissions, and incorporating renewable energy. The rising interest in nutrient-rich foods could also make crops such as soya, flax, and legumes more common. Wayne Powell, principal of Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), foresees Scotland emerging as “the breadbasket of Europe,” given climate-driven shifts in agricultural suitability. He notes, “Climate change is redrawing the farming map of Europe and Scotland could become one of Europe’s most important climate resilient food regions,” highlighting that access to affordable renewable energy might revolutionize irrigation, refrigeration, and food processing, enabling better value capture from Scottish land and produce.
Over the past 75 years, Scotland’s rural communities have experienced profound transformations, including a marked decline in the farming population. Balancing food affordability and farm profitability remains a major driver for innovation. Yet, the unpredictability of climate change and ongoing ecological degradation complicate such efforts. Still, farmers are accustomed to adapting over short and long timescales. By the close of this century, the appearance and nature of Scotland’s fields are likely to be as unfamiliar to
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