Kate Rowell

Kate is a qualified veterinary surgeon and farmer. She worked in a small, mixed veterinary practice in the Durham Dales for 7 years and for the last 22 years has been running the family farm, along with her husband where they have a herd of 80 suckler cows as well as lowland and hill sheep flocks totalling around 1000 ewes. The business has participated in several environmental schemes.

Kate was a member of the Board of Quality Meat Scotland for 2 years before becoming its current Chair. During this time, she was also Chair of the Cattle and Sheep Standards Setting Body which oversees standards development for the QMS Quality Assurance scheme. Kate was also a member of the first Just Transition Commission in Scotland which was set up to identify key opportunities and challenges in the transition to a greener economy and to provide recommendations to Scottish Ministers on the practical and affordable steps to achieving this outcome.

Kate was a Board member of South of Scotland Enterprise Agency (SOSE) for the first 2 years of its existence and played a part in developing the first strategy document. She was also involved in an Energy Strategy committee which was tasked with identifying areas for future focus relating to the transition to greener power generation and distribution, and she continues to sit on the SOSE Economics Committee. Kate was also part of the group which developed the Regional Economic Strategy for the South of Scotland.

Kate is a member of the Trade and Agriculture Commission, a body set up by the UK Government to scrutinise new Free Trade Agreements before ratification by Parliament. The remit of the TAC is to advise on the extent to which measures applicable to trade in agricultural products are consistent with the maintenance of UK levels of statutory protection in relation to animal or plant life or health, animal welfare and environmental protections.

Kate also sits on the Scottish Government Agricultural Reform Implementation Oversight Board (ARIOB) which is supporting implementation of agricultural policy reform. As part of a co-design approach with Government, ARIOB is working to design a new support system and approach to enable farmers to cut emissions and address the biodiversity crisis while ensuring the continued production of sustainable, high-quality food.

Kate is a member of Moredun’s South of Scotland Regional Advisors Committee