AS spring finally arrives and Scotland stirs from the slumber and darkness of winter, new beginnings, new life and new challenges beckon for Scotland’s farmers.

There may be a late sting in the tail from winter yet, but by and large we can see the days getting longer, the snowdrops blooming and the skylarks taking to the air. On the hills the snow still has a grip but the curlews with their burbling call and peewees with lazy flapping air displays, are arriving.

There is still time for spring growth before the hill lambings get going in mid to late April. Preparations for the spring work of ploughing and planting are moving at a pace to catch the early chances to sow, low ground lambing sheds are full of sheep and calves are being born. For farmers, the gears are cranking up and time as ever is never long enough.

With all of this going on it’s not difficult to understand that very few farmers will be paying much attention to the political machinations going on in Westminster and Holyrood. However, if what the UK Government has just done to the fisherman is anything to go by, farmers, and especially hill farmers, should be paying very close attention indeed.

The power grab is real, and it matters, not just in terms of politics but how it will affect the every day life of farmers fisherman the entire food and drink industry, and ultimately you and your families, every time you sit down to eat.

The Keep Scotland the Brand campaign came in for criticism recently as a result of some online abuse directed at Walkers shortbread for using the Union flag on some of its boxes.

There is no doubt that certain folk have misunderstood the ethos behind the campaign’s message. Its founder, Ruth Watson, has repeated many times #keepScotlandtheBrand is non-partisan, apolitical and for everyone to get behind because food matters to each and every one of us. Food and drink is the fastest-growing and most ambitious sector of our economy, employs more than 350,000 people, accounts for 19 per cent of GDP and provides all of us with high-quality, safe, affordable food from right here at home.

The Tories’ response to the Scotland brand campaign is nothing more than deflection. They are trying to minimise the very real threat to our unique selling point as an internationally respected and renowned food producer

What individual companies do with their packaging is a question for them and is entirely their right. Equally as consumers, we have a right to give these companies our views on the products we buy.

That doesn’t mean we boycott them, it means we tell them we want Scottish provenance celebrated in the visual packaging branding and marketing of these products. In fact, it makes financial sense to do so, particularly here in Scotland. There is clear evidence of increased buyer certainty and preference, and therefore sales, in Scottish branded products.

In the red meat sector, the Scotch brand commands a premium both south of the Border and abroad. Perthshire raspberries and strawberries, Scottish salmon and shellfish, whisky, shortbread, Stornaway black pudding, Arbroath smokies and bridies, and many others are unashamedly Scottish and should carry that flag of provenance wherever they go. It should be Brand Scotland, not Britain.

So why the spate of Union flags across so many of the products on our shop shelves? This example of flag-waving nationalism was the brainchild of Westminster’s Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra). Their 2015 initiative to make Britain a “Great Food Nation again” saw decades of excellent branding initiatives right across the UK swept aside. I believe they are doing this in their crude attempts to mimic the tremendous success they saw happening in Scotland’s food and drink sector thanks to the globally recognised effectiveness of the Scotland the Brand strategy.

We need to send our politicians a much stronger message. By retaining powers over labelling agriculture environment and fishing, they are effectively retaining the powers that determine the very future of our food and drink industry.

Why should a success story like Scotland’s food and drink sector be swallowed up and subsumed by a failing Westminster Government?

Hands off our Parliament and Keep Scotland the Brand are two campaigns that should unite everyone of all political persuasions that our brand identity and parliament are not for sale this time. Our very future depends on it.