One of the Agri Champs recommendations from the public value piece was to encourage government and industry to invest in a societal brand which helps illustrate to taxpayers how their monies are invested, producing safe, healthy food from sustainable farmland whilst safeguarding wildlife. One country who is doing this marketing well is Ireland, as there is currently hardly a trade journal I open on food where there is not a prominent advertisement for Ireland’s vision of the Irish national food sustainability programme, Origin Green (OG). This initiative is run by the Irish food board ‘Bord Bia’ and was launched in 2012. The policy is not without its critics for implementation and consistency, but you cannot criticise the Irish for lack of ambition or vision.

The overall aim of the OG programme is that both farms and food manufacturing businesses sign up to a sustainable agenda, whether that be agreeing raw material sourcing, less wasteful manufacturing processes or social sustainability for the communities where these businesses are based. All three elements are at the core of the ambition. Each business who signs up is then measured against agreed targets to ensure progress is made.

Scotland should consider our own version which joins up all the current efforts, agencies, public-funded initiatives, education and research around the food and drink agenda. OG receives around £32m, according to the last quoted budget figure I found, probably much of this from EU funds.

In pooling our current Scottish resources from our publicly funded food agencies, we might not hit this figure but the outcome might be a more cohesive and joined-up strategy, with less bodies inadvertently competing for fund.

This would ultimately bring all the bodies under one roof, working together to promote Scotland’s ambition, so the message and our entire offer is bound together as one.

The industry image projection is key, as government and public funds are supporting the backbone of our primary food sector, but we are not communicating as well as we could be with the public and consumers at large. The message needs to be fed to the Scottish population and the UK at large, but there are disparate campaigns, which could be much more consistent and persistent – teaching our population to value our food, where it comes from and the skills needed to support the sector.

A collaborative Scottish version, an ‘Origin Blue’, might be mocked for imitation but, as I wrote a couple of weeks ago, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and does not have to be a direct replica but emulate the best bits, be adapted and have learnt from the shortcomings in Ireland before implementation.

In Phelim O’Neill’s article ‘Keep the best of the EU’ from 6 October, he argued to cherry-pick from the successes of the EU, and one of the current elements that work well for us reputationally is the Scotch PGI. Scotch Beef & Lamb is recognised as a premium brand and one of the most valued food-related brands in the world. Why can’t this brand be woven into a wider national food policy, and provide a halo-effect for our sustainable food policy which is renowned for quality, welfare and innovation?

A new policy has to be honest and not only focus on areas where Scotland has a perceived market advantage, but also focus on areas where we are having a negative impact on our environment, as consumers of the future will value a brand with real long-term vision, quality and integrity at its core and they need to be fed the story from the outset and throughout to make any impact on their value base.