Looking at what has been achieved and what still needs to be

Probably not and why should you because looking on the webpage that records what happened on days in history it is notable for how little actually took place.

Perhaps the authors of that website may wish to add a further entry.

Because June 18, 2014, was the day that The Scottish Government, led then by Alec Salmond, published ‘Recipe for Success: Scotland’s National Food and Drink Policy, becoming a Good Food Nation’.

This 28-page part strategy part consultation document sets out their policy proposals up until 2025.

So, with 10 years now on the clock it is time that I revisited ‘Recipe for Success’ and looked at what has been achieved and what still needs to be in the last 16 months of its delivery period.

Back in 2014, the Government’s ambition was summarised in this short sound bite: ‘Scotland can and will become a Good Food Nation’ and noted that the food and drink industry employs over 350,000 people though only made a claim of its value up to 2011, £13.1bn.

Remember those three words ‘Good Food Nation’ as they sit at the heart of what has clearly been a period of a good amount of tax funded activity but, I believe, ultimately failure through systemic foot dragging from Holyrood.

Section eight of Recipe for Success announced that the Government would shortly be appointing a Scottish Food Commission.

Their remit would be to ‘advocate for the importance of food to Scotland’s health, environment, economy and quality of life, and to identify and champion those measures which taken together, will contribute the most to making Scotland a Good Food Nation’.

I have no idea who the members are today or whether it still exists in any meaningful form.

Towards the end of ‘Recipe for Success’ it says that farmers, food processors, and others including retailers, caterers, and public bodies all have a role to play in its delivery and asked for input from them and the wider interested public.

January 2015 saw the publication of Becoming a Good Food Nation which was an analysis of 229 consultation responses.

It identified a tension between reducing environmental impacts and increasing economic growth.

As the years rolled on market disruptors such as Brexit, SNP / Green Party Coalition, Cost of Living Crisis, War in Ukraine and now conflict in the Middle East have all impacted Scotland’s rural economy before, almost eight years to the date the original launch, the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill was passed becoming an act of the Scottish Parliament a month later.

This act requires that ‘The Scottish Ministers must publish, and lay before the Scottish Parliament, a national good food nation plan’.

It gives them 12 months to deliver that plan. That means by July 2023.

Hang on, 12 months? Good Food Nation was first suggested in 2014 and its eventual output will be 11 years later in 2025 with an Act of Parliament cover just its last 24 months.

I doubt that farmers can spend 11 years examining their navels for a plan to produce good food for the nation.

They already do this and have done it for centuries.

Nor, I suggest, can processing businesses hang around for that length of time contemplating a plan.

They have been busy putting the Nation’s Good Food onto the plates of domestic and international consumers during that time.

So, I suggest that in terms of red meat, a Good Food Nation already existed in 2014 and continues to exist to this day.

If left alone by political meddling and undue ideological influences the few will continue to exist and deliver on the original guiding objectives of, social and economic wellbeing, the environment, health, and economic development can be amply met.