Activities 2006
8th February
The Market Penetration Report was launched as part of Environment Week, by the Deputy Environment and Rural Development Minister, Rhona Brankin, while on a visit to Cairns Farm in West Lothian. The Minister enjoyed the opportunity to have a tour of the livestock farm and processing facilities, run by Caroline and Graham Hamilton, and to hear of their experiences first hand. The farm has identified a niche market and supplies customers with quality organic beef and lamb direct through farmers markets in central Scotland under the name "Mrs Hamilton's Beef and Lamb".
31st March
The UK Organic Action Plan forum, organised by DEFRA, was held in Wales. Ron Vass and Kirsten Beddows attended. SEERAD also invited Carey Coombs, David Younie, and Chris Atkinson as representitives from the Organic Stakeholders Group. Everyone agreed that the meeting was a useful event and it was good to see that the UK as a whole are all working similarly to each other. It was thought that the event should continue on a yearly basis.
23rd 26th June
At this years Royal Highland Show the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC) held an Organic Seminar on the 23 June, " Organic Farming and Food For a Bettter Future", presented by David Younie and Christine Watson, after the seminar there was food tasting. This seminar was particularly aimed at reducing food miles, helping the environment and enjoying good food, rather that specifically organic.
The seminars were held at the SAC Pavilion 7th Avenue - stand 156, 2-3pm.
The Organic Trail was organised by Caroline Bayliss.
13th September
In support of Organic Fortnight SEERAD hosted an Organic Producers Forum. This is the third year that SEERAD have held such an event, and as before SAC assisted in its organisation and delivery. The theme of this year's forum was "Adding Value in the Scottish Organic Sector" and was attended by approximately 40 delegates from throughout Scotland, ranging from small scale organic producers to key stakeholders.
This was an all day event with the first part held at the Birnam Arts and Conference centre in Perthshire, where 
there were presentations from a wide range of organic producers, SAC, Soil Association and the retail trade. There were also a number of group discussions based on the theme of the forum.
The final part of the day was a farm walk at Rotmell farm, situated above the Tay valley at the southern edge of Atholl Estate between Dunkeld and Ballinluig. This is a family farm with beef and sheep that have also just recently diversified into poultry layers. The day was rounded of with an excellent barbecue supplied by Rotmell farm and SAC.
Feedback provided by attendees suggests that the forum was very successful and provided a useful opportunity for a positive exchange of views.