Image caption, Susie Walker-Murno has been growing tea on her family farm in Angus since 2007
ByKevin KeaneScotland environment, energy and rural affairs correspondent- Published2 minutes ago
Susie Walker-Munro is one of a handful of tea growers in Scotland.
She says the acidic soil creates ideal conditions for the perfect artisan brew.
Costing about £40 per packet for her most expensive product, it's not going to replace the supermarket brands any time soon.
Droughts, intensive downpours and diseases have created challenges for tea growers across the world as they deal with the impact of a warming planet.
But some experts believe Scotland's relatively settled climate could give the tea industry here a helping hand.
Image caption, Only the top few leaves are picked from each bush to make the perfect tea
As the picking season draws to a close, Susie plucks the last few leaves before proudly pouring me a small glass of her Kinnettles Gold, which is grown in a walled garden on the family farm near Forfar.
She believes Scotland's latitude – sitting 57 degrees north - will always be a bar to having a year-round crop like those countries close to the equator.
But she says wetter weather could help boost production.
"Our yields are never, never going to be high," she says.
"Maybe with climate change they might come up a bit, it depends if we get enough rain. Scotland could be absolutely ideal."
Image source, R Gates/Getty ImagesImage caption, Workers transplanting sprouts into the ground on a farm at Haddington in 1950
Susie isn't convinced tea will ever be a major crop for Scotland.
But others say it could be one of a numbers of options in the future, as farmers are forced to diversify and adapt to a changing climate.
Rethinking the way we farm the land might be one way to extend the range of crops produced.
Countries like the Netherlands are already embracing glass houses, which could become more commonplace in Scotland. Susie says they would be a good way of growing more tea.
They would also allow Scotland to produce more Mediterranean vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, and even melons, according to Pete Ritchie from campaign organisation Nourish Scotland.
He says an abundance of renewable energy from wind farms later in the century will make heating them relatively cheap and will cut down on air miles.
"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," he says.
Image caption, Scientists at the James Hutton Institute in Dundee are stress-testing plants like fava
The James Hutton Institute already has a large number of glass houses – but it is going even further by artificially creating the sort of conditions that may exist in 75 years.
Climate modelling shows that Scotland can expect hotter, dryer summers and milder, wetter winters by the end of this century.
The institute's new advanced plant growth centre is effectively a climate simulator.
It's able to control plants' light, water and nutrient intake to test how they cope with stresses - and then select species which are likely to fare best against all that climate change can throw at them.
For the past three months they have been experimenting with fava beans, which are photographed daily so scientists can monitor their progress.
Dr Robert Hancock says they need to switch from breeding crops for specific environments, such as hot or dry climates, towards ones which are more generally resilient.
"We need to start breeding those crops now and start understanding what Scottish farming's going to look like," he says.
"Farmers need time to plan, we need to get those crops out to the farmers and registered.
"Ultimately it's about what those guys do in the fields that matters, not what we do inside a climate simulator."
Image caption, Farmer David Murdoch says technology will play an even bigger role in the future
The farmers of the 22nd Century are probably only a generation away from those starting out in the industry today.
That means the current crop of young farmers will have to give the closest consideration to the businesses they hand on to their own children.
And that means more precision farming, more artificial intelligence, and automation.
Modern tractors and combine harvesters are so high in technology such as GPS steering that it's no longer such a leap to consider autonomous harvesting.
But the chair of the Scottish Association of Young Farmers, David Murdoch, believes traditional skills will always be important.
"There's no point in doing it if you don't know your cattle, but embracing the technology is what keeps us competitive.
"Working with larger herd numbers and larger machinery to keep us producing more with less people - that's the way the world's going," says David, who farms dairy with his father at Beith in North Ayrshire.
Image source, VCGImage caption, The use of glass houses to grow food is becoming more common
But it's not just food production that will drive future changes in farming.
Protecting and enhancing nature, offsetting carbon emissions, and renewable energy production are already shaping the farms of tomorrow.
Health innovations may also play a growing role, with obesity drugs already showing a demand for proteins and nutrient-dense foods.
Soya, flax and legumes could become a more common sight as conditions for growing them become more favourable and that desire to grow them locally continues.
Prof Wayne Powell - the principal of Scotland's rural college, the SRUC - predicts that Scotland will become "the bread basket of Europe".
That title is currently used to describe Ukraine, because of its abundance of fertile agricultural land and exports of crops including wheat, maize and barley.
"Climate change is redrawing the farming map of Europe and Scotland could become one of Europe's most important climate resilient food regions," he says.
"The possibility of access to cheap renewable energy could also transform the economics of Scottish farming from irrigation, refrigeration, food processing, so that we can capture more value from our land and food."
Image source, Bloomberg via Getty ImagesImage caption, Modern agricultural equipment is often computerised, using GPS to steer
Scotland's rural communities have seen major changes over the past 75 years which have resulted in far fewer people working the land.
Pressure to keep food affordable for consumers while farms remain profitable will be a key driver of innovation.
The changing climate and the continued destruction of our nature prevent that being a simple equation to calculate.
But farmers are used to change – in the short, medium and long-term - and by the end of the century our fields will probably be as unrecognisable to today's farmers as all those who have gone before them.
