 The next item of business is a debate on motion 990, known as Mary GVery, on supporting success in food and drink, in Scotland. I rely on all members who wish to speak in this debate, and I press the request-to-speak button now. I call on Marie Gery, cabinet secretary, to I'm delighted to bring this debate to Parliament, allowing all MSPs the opportunity to show their support for food and drink in Scotland just ahead of food and drink for tonight. The pandemic has taught us a lot about what really matters. We realise that being able to go to the shops and buy whatever you need is a privilege not to be taken for granted. We learned that sitting down to eat is a family or a household provides nourishment that is also social and emotional. Today I want to celebrate the contribution of the food and drink sector to Scottish life, not only in feeding us but also in providing opportunity and employment, protecting and enhancing the environment and in helping to define who we are as a nation. Our producers, farmers and fishermen showed tremendous resilience as they navigated the pandemic and now face the stark realities of a new operating landscape brought about by a reckless Brexit deal. The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the sector to recover and to pursuing our goal of Scotland being a good food nation. Creating this good food nation will bring us many benefits. We aim to see a decline in dietary related diseases and a healthier population. We're also aware of the need to consider the environmental impacts. I just wondered whether the Government was able to achieve their ambition in the manifesto, which was to cut childhood obesity by 2030. The member will be aware that the work to tackle those issues is still on-going. We're also aware of the need to consider the environmental impacts of our food consumption and production. A good food nation should be a more sustainable food nation. Scotland already has a reputation for producing world-class quality food. Our aim is to build on that reputation and to secure our future as a destination of choice for those who value quality local food and a place to whom other countries turn in order to learn how to become a good food nation. Does the minister understand the frustration of the farming community that we still don't have a future farm policy in place? It will be the driver for our cuts to the agricultural emissions, but it doesn't look like we're going to have a policy for probably another two years in place. Do we not need a bit more urgency? There absolutely is urgency. That's why we established the agricultural reform implementation oversight board just last week, which will be driving forward the recommendations of the established farmer-led groups, because we recognise the urgency that we want to drive and deliver that change. We've seen the stresses and strains that Brexit and Covid-19 have placed on our food system, so it's more important than ever that our food policies ensure that we're more resilient and that people in Scotland can access affordable healthy food that's locally produced, sourced and available. We're working to make this ambition a reality through a wide-ranging programme of measures on food and diet across the five key areas of health, social justice, knowledge, environmental sustainability and prosperity. The next step is to bring forward a good food nation bill. That bill will provide the statutory framework needed to support development of our future food policy to benefit the wellbeing and health of people in Scotland. Many have called for the right to food to be included in the bill. The right to food is best considered as part of a single, coherent package of legislative proposals via the human rights bill. The human rights bill will set out for the first time and, in the one place, the wide range of internationally recognised human rights belonging to everyone in Scotland. That will include a right to adequate food as an essential part of the overall right to an adequate standard of living, as reflected in our shared policy programme with the Scottish Green Party. Not at the moment, I need to make progress. I know that many were disappointed when we had to shelve plans for the good food nation bill in the last Parliament due to the pandemic, but I want to assure members that we intend to bring forward this bill early in this Parliament. Ambition in food policy on food is no use without an industry, however. I do not need to tell members that, as one of our largest employers, our food and drink industry is both economically and culturally vital to Scotland, sustaining jobs in some of our most fragile and rural communities. It is also one of the sectors that are most adversely affected by Brexit, which is threatening jobs and businesses all around the country, undermining its ambition to double turnover to £30 billion by the year 2030. That is why a key priority last year was to put in place a recovery plan for the sector, the first sectoral recovery plan of its type, and to work closely with the food and drink partnership, and particularly the industry body Scotland food and drink that we have collectively committed £10 million in support so far. UK Government offered extended powers and agricultural bill to enable devolved administrations to develop its own subsidy system. Wales and Northern Ireland took up the offer, but the SNP Government did not. Can the cabinet secretary explain why he is snubbing us off our to extend powers in the UK governance post-Brexit agricultural policy? That is absolute nonsense when it is the UK Government that is absolutely decimating the food and drink industry in Scotland right now. There is no doubt that some sectors suffered due to the pandemic, particularly those dependent on a vibrant export market or which were affected by outbreaks. However, the effects of Covid have only added to the severe and significant impacts of Brexit. Put simply, the Tories could not have designed a worse Brexit deal and all that we warned of is now coming to pass. I know that some would like us to all pretend that Brexit is done and dusted, but that won't wash. They know, we know and indeed our hard-pressed food and drink businesses know that worse is to come. With further custom and border checks still due to be implemented, some starting this autumn, others in January next year, the full impact of Brexit is still to be realised. To add insult to injury, the much lauded trade deals being secured in an attempt to replace the reported £18 billion being lost across the entirety of trade from being ripped out of the single market are nothing but a damp squib. What have we got to show for the UK-Australia future trade agreement, not at the moment? Same as we had before, only now Australia gets to bring more of its food products into our markets, competing with our own producers of quality red meat, in particular tariff free. Previous UK Government modelling suggested that agriculture and semi-processed food sectors would lose out from an Australia trade deal, so we have every right to be nervous about the impact of the trade deal, which frankly is only the start. We were not involved in the negotiations that resulted in this agreement and were not involved in the negotiations that are still going on, despite the impact that this deal will have on devolved responsibilities. Daily, we hear of new and emerging challenges, the shortages of HDV drivers, workers in processing and manufacturing, as well as associated skills shortages across the industry. Labour and skills shortages, such as those, labour the extraordinary recklessness of this hard Brexit. The cabinet secretary raised the issue of HDV drivers. Obviously, there is a shortage across Europe and supply chains have struggled on that basis, but one of the other issues facing communities like mine in the highlands and islands is the lack of local infrastructure, such as the ferries, and being able to produce off the island. There has been an issue there. We called for the minister to come and give a statement on ferries. As the cabinet secretary of the islands, will you give your backing for one of your colleagues to come here and give us a statement on when our island communities can expect reliable ferry links? It is quite convenient for the member to gloss over the issue of HDV drivers when we know from the letters and the briefings that we have seen from industries that is migration, which is one of the key issues here, which the Tory amendment completely ignores. I will be taking an intervention. Could we have less noise from certain two positions, please? Thank you, Presiding Officer. We certainly should not forget that, as businesses face Brexit border disruptions and barriers to trade, which cost UK food exporters £700 million in January alone, the UK Government dismissed industry concerns as teathing troubles. Will these teathing troubles are now a chronic problem? Only last week, a letter issued jointly by the Scottish Food and Drink Industry called for immediate action from the UK Government to solve the growing labour crisis, with NFUS Scotland echoing that call in its own letter to the UK Government. I have also written to the UK Government to reinforce that strong messaging from industry, however I feel that it will likely fall on deaf ears, as all other pleas have. Scottish seafood. When we look at that, this is a product that is exported to over 100 countries and brings £1 billion a year to the Scottish economy. Brexit has caused real problems in maintaining workforce in the seafood sector. We continue to press the UK Government to put in place a workable immigration policy that permits EU workers to enter the sector and support workers under our fair work agreement. We fully support the fishing sector and calling the UK Government to explain how the Brexit deal struck is positive for the Scottish seafood community. This sector has been let down in quota negotiations, it was hit with the immediate effects of new border controls and now it is facing supply chain issues with labour shortages. What UK ministers described as teathing troubles are in reality new and permanent trade barriers that have undoubtedly no cause long-term damage to the competitiveness of our seafood sector and may be the death knell for some of our exporters and fishing boats. To address the longer-term impact of Brexit, we are developing a new strategy for seafood to help the sector to find new markets, adapt and thrive, and that includes here at home. Financial support is also key, particularly for investment in innovation. To this end, I can announce today nearly £800,000 of new awards to fishing businesses and marine organisations and coastal communities as part of the £14 million marine fund Scotland. Those awards include funding for new storage facilities, a major seafood processor, funding to help young fishers to enter the industry and support for seafood businesses in the north-east to develop seafood processing and deliver training. That is in addition to the £1.8 million already announced for Seafood Scotland to support seafood businesses to access new markets after the severe economic impacts of Brexit and Covid-19, and I look forward to seeing those projects develop. But welcome though that £14 million is, it is a paltry replacement for the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, which should have seen £62 million return to Scotland for the benefit of coastal communities. We are still waiting for details on the long promised £100 million from the UK Government to support the recovery from Brexit and Covid. At every turn, Scotland's fishing and seafood sectors are being shortchanged under Brexit. But now, more than ever, we need to produce our food in a way that protects the environment for future generations and safeguards our natural assets. Scotland's food and drink success would also not be possible without our producers on the land. The Government is absolutely committed to continuing to support the sustainable production of the world-class food that our farmers and crofters are famous for. As we approach the end of our period of simplicity and stability, work begins in earnest to put in place a successor to the common agriculture policy that will guide and support farming, food production and land use in future. We have a positive vision for our land-based industries, one in which our world-class producers thrive and, along with our other land managers, contribute to our world-leading climate change agenda and respond to the biodiversity crisis. Scotland will be recognised as a global leader in sustainable agriculture. While remaining aligned to the principles of the EU, we will have a support framework that delivers climate mitigation and adaptation, nature restoration and high-quality food production. No, I need to make progress. That includes our commitment to seek to double the amount of land that is used for organic farming by 2026. We will support farmers and land managers who produce more of our own food needs and manage our land sustainably with nature and for the climate. Farming, crofting and land management will continue to play an important role in maintaining thriving rural and island communities. We will support that change to ensure that farmers, crofters and local communities can capitalise on the benefits, have equal equality of opportunity and that there is a just transition. Last week, we laid out our first steps towards reforming national policy for Scottish agriculture. Indeed, that will be one of the biggest areas of reform undertaken by the Government in the lifetime of this Parliament, with wide-ranging and long-term impacts and opportunities. Farmers and crofters are at the heart of our approach, and that is why the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board will be co-chaired by me and NFUS President Martin Kennedy. Our priority is to make early progress in delivering emissions reductions and to agree a package of funded measures that deliver action on key recommendations from the farmer-led groups by COP26. The national test programme will seek to recruit farmers and crofters this autumn with implementation beginning by spring next year. At the same time, we are consulting on the key shared themes and specific recommendations from those farmer-led groups. It is important to get the views of as many stakeholders and in particular farmers, tenant farmers, small holders and crofters as possible to inform our reform agenda, so I hope that members will encourage those and their constituencies to take part in that. It is all of the strengths of the industry that I have talked about throughout my speech today that we cannot lose sight of. As we come to food and drink fortnight, there is a lot to celebrate, a lot to enjoy and to highlight. I hope that members will make the time to do so, whether that is by visiting local markets or producers. It is also clear that this is an industry that is most vulnerable to the damaging effects of Brexit. Scotland's food and drink has a lot to offer, so much potential and ambition, despite the challenging circumstances currently. I am coming to a close. This Government will do everything that we can to support it through such challenging times. The sector that is delivered for the nation throughout Covid is showing resilience and determination, and I firmly believe that the future will be positive if we can all get behind and show the support that the sector deserves. I therefore commend the motion in my name and ask members to support it. Thank you, cabinet secretary. I now call on Rachael Hamilton to speak to and move amendment 990.2. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I move the amendment in my name. I am delighted to open the debate today on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives. Food and drink, as has been outlined by the cabinet secretary, is Scotland's largest international export industry, and with a strong worldwide reputation. Whether it be the quality of our wonderful Scotch beef or our tremendous whiskies, it is Scotland's largest manufacturing sector, employing 47,000 people and contributing nearly £4 billion gross value added to the economy with a turnover of £11 billion. Today, in advance of Scotland's food and drink fortnight, we take the opportunity to celebrate the significant contribution that food and drink makes. All the key workers who have done tremendous work over the past 18 months, whether they are warehouse workers or working in a corner shop as a retailer to our hard-working farmers, getting that opportunity in that window to cut their barley, or indeed some of our fishermen who go out in all sorts of conditions to get the best fish and land seafood across the world. I find it astonishing just a couple of points that the cabinet secretary has made as we celebrate the fantastic work of farmers. I will give the cabinet secretary the opportunity right now to answer me on her point about the future of farm policy, with regard to the news that civil servants would rather cull 300,000 head of beef cattle rather than work with farmers to produce food sustainably and to meet climate change targets. I thank the cabinet secretary for acknowledging that, because I did write to you two months ago with regards to that and Jim Walker's recommendations with regard to the suckled beef premium scheme. That is on record now, thank you. I do believe that this Government has seriously let down farmers. Farmers are now set to be hit by a coalition of chaos and nationalist coalition with the Greens. Just yesterday in the Herald, columnist Claire Taylor made it abundantly clear, and I will quote her, that there is no denying that the agricultural industry has been ignored over the past months and that the relationship between those in power and farming has been damaged in the process. The most damaging nationalism and ignoring of farmers has been through Brexit and the Conservative Party? I might remind John Mason that the biggest export market is the UK and it is very important to the food and drink industry. Sticking a hard border like Emma Harper suggests is who is sitting next to you. Will it seriously be damaging? I am going to make some progress. I have taken two interventions already. The comment that Ms Hamilton has just stated, where Emma Harper said that I wanted a hard border, is absolutely not true. I refute that and thank you for giving me the opportunity to state that in chamber. I would say to the member that, in my view, that is not actually a point of order as understood formally speaking, but the member has made her point. Moving on to the delay in the future farm policy, I want the cabinet secretary to tell us why the farming and food production future policy group report has still not been published. It was FOI'd during the summer and then it is still in draft. On the 100th day since the election, the SNP hurriedly launched the agricultural reform implementation oversight board, which just goes to show you that they have taken their eye off the ball. They are recklessly pursuing now a dangerous deal with the Greens to rip Scotland out of the UK. We have the fantastic chance now to design and construct an agricultural support system that really delivers for Scotland. After the Brexit vote, it took the SNP two years to arrive at a simple consultation on the next steps for Scottish farming. There is little indication of where that is going now as we look beyond 2023. Hearing today in committee that there is a real need to invest in innovation and food production right across Scotland, that is why our motion recognises this. It is about recognising what the food industry is looking for in terms of its asks of the Scottish Government. We know that the industry is the best in the world, but we feel that this Government has failed to address and support the industry in that sense. I have made it clear that the desire for independence, which was announced yesterday through the Nationalist Coalition, will irrevocably damage our food and drink sector. It is well known, as I pointed out to John Mason, that the UK is Scotland's most important customer. As a natural progression from farming, it would not be wrong of me not to mention the Scottish whisky industry, of course. You are talking about the fact that the SNP and the Green Coalition could be damaging or that agreement could be damaging to the Scottish farming industry. You are not finding that a bit concerning that there is no mention of food production at all in the UK Government's own agricultural act, and they have people like Ben Goldsmith advising DEFRA. If you look at what the fishing industry said about the Green and SNP coalition, it is absolutely extraordinary. They did not mention fishing, one of our most important sectors. The livelihoods of people in the fishing industry, fishermen, could be affected by this. Elspeth MacDonald from the Scottish Fishing Federation made it very clear that she was very unhappy that that had not been mentioned in the food production deal of the Green and SNP deal. Moving on to Scotch whisky, it is an amazing industry. We all know that, employing 11,000 people in Scotland and 7,000 of those work in rural areas. We know how important it is to ensure that there are really strong, sustainable and resilient businesses in rural areas where there is depopulation in Scotland. I want to move on, because time is rumbling on as well. I want to talk about the benefits of what has happened with regards to the tariffs on single malt Scotch whisky. We know that the industry has been under a huge threat. That has been a downturn in sales because of Covid. There have been less people going into the visitor centres, but it is important to recognise that some of the markets will be opened up. The Scotch whisky association has recognised that opening up the market to Australia will reduce the tariff by 5 per cent, and removing the tariff by 25 per cent on the US market will help to ensure that the Scotch whisky industry can recover what it has lost and increase some of the sales that it has. Will you ever see an intervention? I would also be interested to hear Rachel Hamilton's take on the impact of the Australian trade deal on our red meat producers, who will be set to suffer from that. In typical Tory fashion, that just happens to have been glossed over. Rachel Hamilton? I think that farmers are more concerned about an instruction that possibly their cattle might be culled rather than looking at sustainable methods of future farm policy. However, the trade and agricultural commission is under statutory footing, and that will be taken forward. There will be an opportunity to scrutinise the trade deals. Even the NFUS and other people have asked for that. There is an opportunity for the cabinet secretary to feed into that. I think that it is a worrying picture, and we need to look at labour shortages, particularly for the resilience of the food and farming sector. However, as my colleagues have said, there are a lot of things going on in the industry. There is a lack of diversity, and there is an ageing workforce. Normally, in Scotland, we have around 50,000 shortage of lorry drivers. We need to ensure that we are training people up, we are skilling people up, we are giving people vocational apprenticeships, and we are ensuring that we have a resilient food chain. However, just to bring it round to a really positive note, we are celebrating the success of Scottish Food and Drink in the next fortnight. I think that this Government needs to get its act together, and it needs to show farmers and food producers the way forward. We simply cannot produce high-quality, well-renowned food and drink products unless this Government gets behind farmers and they get them out of the dark and give them further clarity. I now call on Colin Smyth to speak to a move amendment 990.1. I want to begin by saying thank you on behalf of Labour members to Scotland's food and drink sector. Thank you to our farmers and crofters who, in the face of uncertainty of Brexit and the lack of direction that we have had on the future of agricultural support, still continue to deliver world-class quality food that Scotland is rightly proud of. Thank you to our fishers who let down by that post-Brexit deal and completely omitted, I have to say, from the SNP Green coalition agreement, to continue to play their part in our nation's food security. Thank you to our shop workers who, when we have been able to work from home, they continue to work on the front line, and along with producers, processors, wholesalers and deliverers, put the food and drink on our shelves to keep the nation fed during the pandemic. I thank you to the more than 18,000 food and drink businesses in Scotland who turn over £14 billion a year for employing more than 115,000 people. It is an immense growing contribution to Scotland's economy and Labour supports the aim and the Government's ambition 2030 paper to keep that growth going and double turn over to £30 billion by 2030. It is a sector facing enormous challenges to keep those shelves full, not least because of the double whammy of the pandemic and Brexit. This week, the Food and Drink Federation warned that chronic staff shortages have left Scotland's food industry at crisis point. The letter signed by industry partners to the UK and Scottish Government appealing to them to get their act together when it comes to access to labour and support for the sector makes stark reading. The report and a survey of businesses in the sector, 93 per cent, have job vacancies. 90 per cent describe those vacancies as hard to fill and 97 per cent say that they will struggle to fill vacancies in the future. The letter is clear. It says that, I quote, we have now reached crisis point putting the growth, viability and security of many Scottish businesses in jeopardy with a knock-on impact for consumers. We need action now to save Christmas. That letter was backed up today by the National Farmers Union in Scotland when they wrote to the UK Government highlighting the impact of the labour shortage. There is no more obvious illustration of that crisis than the current lack of heavy goods vehicles drivers and the impact that is having, for example, on getting milk to the processor, an issue highlighted by the NFU in their letter. In the short term, I recognise that we need to urgently break down the barriers that the UK Government has put in the way of access to overseas labour. I will take an intervention. Jimi Halkins Johnson? I thank the member for taking intervention. He was at the committee this morning, where this issue came up in the economy committee. Does he recognise that there is a shortage of HGV drivers across Europe at the moment? Although lots of efforts can be put into attracting new people in, if places such as Germany and other countries are facing exactly the same problem, we are competing with that that is not a problem just that the UK and Scotland faces. It would be unfair to say that the failure to be able to access overseas labour is not impacting to that problem, but I recognise absolutely that some of the labour shortages that we are facing today are caused by a multitude of structural factors that do go beyond Brexit and the pandemic. There is also a difference, and it is important to highlight that, between a labour shortage and a skills shortage. That means doing more to train our own workforce to ensure that people have the skills to meet demand in the labour market and that they are being paid a decent wage. It also means taking a fresh look at our supply chains. The food and drink sectors' hard work and innovation during the pandemic mitigated the worst impact of the sudden shift in demand from food service sectors to the food retailer and the halt in people being able to move freely, but the vulnerability of supply chains to major upheaval was absolutely clear. The capacity to adjust rapidly is seriously limited and we cannot ignore the precarious nature of our food and drink system, which is under enormous strain. The sector has responded well to the crisis, but we should not be dependent on a largely reactive response. We need to have a far more strategic joined-up approach to managing our food and drink system and robust contingency planning to ensure that the sector is prepared for future emergencies, and we have a more cohesive and comprehensive policy on food from the farm to the fork to waste through a proper national food plan. At the centre of that plan must be embedding farming and food production, for example, at every level in education and having a far bigger focus on procuring and promoting local. It simply cannot be sustainable that the majority of the fish that we eat is imported while the majority that we catch is exported. The Scottish Government local authorities, the NHS and other public bodies spend £11 billion a year in goods and services, including food. For far too long, public procurement has been a narrow focus on price and cost reduction. We have failed to maximise the benefits of low-carbon local supply chains and to minimise the vulnerabilities and risks from an over reliance on international supply chains. The key to changing that is how we support our local food producers. Labour has long advocated the development of local food strategies, but that cannot be a top-down approach, which is all too common with this Government. Support for the sector must be local. It cannot be central organisations and agencies simply handing down grants to local businesses. It needs to be intense on the ground. I certainly will. I agree with a lot of what Colin Smyth is saying about public procurement. He agrees with me that procuring locally would also cut down on the potential of the high potential food wastage that currently happens within the public sector, which in itself should help to tackle food poverty. Colin Smyth? I absolutely agree with Brian Whittle's point. There are so many advantages to local procurement in terms of supporting businesses, reducing our carbon footprint and food poverty. However, the way that we do that will depend on giving local businesses the opportunities to be able to bid in for those procurement contracts. That does, and I come back to my point about local food strategies, need to have intense on-the-ground support for those local businesses, for example addressing both digital and logistical infrastructure to drive the high-volume sales that we need. At the same time, tackling the skills, the confidence and the capacity challenges that a lot of our small and micro businesses face. The importance of food and drink also goes beyond its crucial economic importance. It impacts on our health, our environment and our record on animal welfare. For far too long, far too many people in Scotland have lacked adequate access to food, exposing the gross inequalities that we face today. A nation that provides so much outstanding food and drink is to our nation's shame that so many children in Scotland still go to bed hungry at night. Although our food and drink sector in Scotland has grown, so too has the scandal of food poverty. It is absolutely right that we celebrate the successes of Scotland's food and drink, as we will during food and drink fortnight, which begins this weekend, but we need to rethink how we approach access to food in this country. That means recognising that access to food is a fundamental right. It is deeply disappointing that the Government did not deliver a dedicated comprehensive good food nations bill in the last Parliament. I do not think that it is good enough to simply blame the pandemic, because the commitment to deliver that bill was made at the very start of that Parliament long before any of us had even heard of Covid. A bold good food nation bill is an opportunity for Scotland to lead the way and environmental sustainability, health, healthy eating, animal welfare and working with our trade unions to drive up terms and conditions for our food and drink workforce, who too often are some of Scotland's lowest paid workers. Crucially, we need to enshrine in law the right to food paving the way for a clear duty on our public bodies with clear targets for action that will be backed up by an independent statutory body to ensure that that action is delivered. The cabinet secretary said that the Government will bring forward a good food nations bill early in this Parliament, but he also said that the right to food would not be included in that bill, but that it would be in a different piece of legislation. What the cabinet secretary did not say, and I hope that she clarifies later in the debate, is when we will see that piece of legislation that will enshrine the right to food in law. If the Government failed to deliver the right to food, Labour will, through a member's bill from my colleague Rhoda Grant, build on the work of the Scottish Food Coalition and Elaine Smith in the last Parliament. I therefore move Labour's amendment in my name and ask all members to make a clear commitment to a dedicated, bold good food nations bill in this Parliament that has tackling poverty, and we also introduce a meaningful right to food in Scotland. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. This is the first opportunity that I have had to address the chamber since I stood down as leader of my party. I just want to thank all those who have sent kind wishes over the last few weeks. Perhaps the old adage is true that you are never more popular than when you are dead. However, today it is a wide-ranging debate covering food and drink for tonight, the pandemic, Brexit, food poverty, farm support, as well as climate change. It shows how important the food and drink sector is, not just to our economy but also to the way of life as well as the future of the planet. We are going to vote for Labour's amendment today because it is quite right that it includes a significant reference to food poverty in a food-rich nation. We are going to vote for the coalition government's motion as well. There is not very much to disagree in the motion, but we are going to vote against the Conservative amendment because, bizarrely, it excludes any reference to the disruption that is caused by Brexit. I know that many of them did support Brexit, but to completely ignore the consequences of it is rather naive and is not addressing the real challenges and the consequences of that. The food and drink sector in Scotland is world-class. In my constituency alone, we have got langoustine, porridge oats, whisky, barley producing the whisky, berries as well as the most important product of all the broccoli that is produced all across north-east Fife. It is a very important part of our economy and a big employer in north-east Fife as well. However, it is under considerable immediate pressure from the double impact of Brexit as well as the pandemic. Material costs and labour costs are just going through the roof just now. There is also a massive shortage on both fronts as well. It is not just affecting the primary producers, but also affecting the supply chain as well. The whole production system has been disrupted and it is causing massive consequences for the whole sector. We have seen it in terms of the shortage of drivers, pickers, processors and, right down all the way to the hospitality sector, there is a massive problem with labour shortages just now. That is why I support the NFUS call just today for the 12-month Covid recovery visa but also a review of the seasonal worker scheme that has just worked this year. It has just got the sector by where there is deep anxiety about future years. We are already seeing decisions by that sector about future investment in the sector. We cannot afford to have a loss of confidence at this critical time when we are already facing pressure because of Brexit as well as the pandemic. Of course, the Northern Isles, which is causing some significant problems with the supply chains, ferries and freight, we need to focus on the coalition Government's responsibilities as well as pointing out the mistakes of other Governments. However, there are medium-term pressures as well. There is deep frustration in the agricultural sector about, to be frank, the dithering that has gone on for some years now. By 2032, we have got to see a 31 per cent cut in agricultural emissions. That is only 11 years away. If this Government has started a process and it is to be fair to the new cabinet secretary, she has just started her new role. However, it is probably going to be another couple of years into those 11 years that we finally see a policy. The NFUS has quite rightly talked about the fact that the inertia that is created by the current system has a pressure towards the status quo to the lack of change. We are going to need significant change if we are going to meet that 31 per cent by 11 years time. The coalition Government needs to move on from the snail's pace that it is operating just now. Of course, we had the future policy group that was set up about three years ago and we still have not heard a word from it. However, the farmer-led groups have just been published last week, but there is a new consultation on the back of that group work. Next year, we will have another consultation on the back of the firm proposals, and I presume that there will be a report on the back of that consultation, and then we might actually see the bill on the back of that. WWF is absolutely right when they say that the longer it takes for the new policy to be developed, the harder it will be for farmers to meet that 31 per cent by 2032, only 11 years—oh, yes, certainly. Thank you very much for taking that intervention. Will the Rennie not agree with me that surely the Government's position of consulting with an industry that is so wide-ranging and so important is far more important than throwing together a quick deal? It is hardly a quick deal that has taken at least three years to produce even one recommendation from a group that was established in the last panel. I accept that, of course, we need to consult with the farmers, but if you endlessly consult and make no decisions, it does not help the farmers one single jot. You know, Mr Fairlie, from your discussions with the farmers, he will know that they are frustrated about the lack of decision-making. We need to move on because they have a massive job to do to meet that 31 per cent by 2032, which is only 11 years away. We have massive tensions between biodiversity and climate change, but we also need to make sure that the Scottish food production is robust and sustainable as well. I should be concluding soon, I think. The tension on forestry, productive land, biodiversity and the energy crops on domestic production, not off-shoring—all those are difficult decisions, but they will not get any easier by delaying them. I wish the minister well in dealing with those challenges. We will support the minister where we can, work together to meet those massive challenges, but she needs to start making decisions. Thank you, Mr Rennie. We now move to the open part of the debate, and I call, as our first speaker in the open debate, Jenny Minto. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I think that it is quite right that Parliament celebrates Scottish food and drink fortnight. I will start by quoting The Scots Kitchen by F. Marion McNeill, a Scottish author, suffragist and a founder member of the Scottish National Party. The art of a country always has its roots in the soil. It is the natural conditions and products that determine the general character of the national cuisine—our natural larder. Argyll and Bute is a natural larder—a lush landscape, nutrient-filled waters and passionate food producers. Wherever you go today in Argyll and Bute, its wonderful food and drink is only a footstep away. Last week, I ate longostine in Obann, then locally caught sea bream served with vegetables from our own allotment, and I toasted a sadly departed friend, Jenny Compton Bishop, from Dura with local gin. In Argyll and Bute, people know the strength of locally sustainably produced, raised or caught produce. Shops proudly display shop local, eat local. My local shop in Port Charlotte gives locals and visitors the chance to buy local produce, and that is replicated across the island and Argyll and Bute. The towns that I have visited during recess have new delis and food shops opening, Obann, Lochgyllped and Campbelltown, and established shops are also expanding their ranges. The Scottish Government's £10 million investment in Scotland Loves Local is helping to revitalise our high streets, encouraging people back to them. Throughout the pandemic, the food and drink sectors worked together for the common good to support communities. Argyll Bakeries, for example, employed a chef who prepared ready-made meals that became key stock items across the constituency. Distilleries provided hand sanitisers, local holliers supported volunteers to help to distribute food packages. As the First Minister said yesterday, co-operation and working together allow ideas to come to fruition with far better outcomes. In 1784, the French traveller, Fosius de Saffond, tells of the variety and abundance of Argyll's table. On the island of Mull, he described the breakfast table, elegantly covered with plates of smoked beef, cheese, fresh eggs, salted herrings, butter, milk and cream. Current jelly, conserve of myrtle, tea, coffee, three kinds of bread and Jamaica rum. Mr Rennie, no broccoli, sadly. Almost 240, yes, of course. The depth of pride not from my stomach starts to rumble, and it's nice to hear of all those things, but will the member acknowledge that some of the sectors that you're talking about, so then show fisheries, the salmon farming industry and agriculture, have some real fears about the new coalition, new form with the Green Party? I think the coalition that we're forming with the Green Party will also look at everything in the round, will look at both the way that we produce items and also the environment, and I think that that can only be positive for our natural larder. Argyll and the Isles Tourism, I won't tell continue. Argyll and the Isles Tourism Cooperative are wild about Argyll, and they have established taste of place trails. Those support small-scale, high-quality specialist produce, giving visitors an opportunity to speak to local people and sample their very special produce. If you haven't visited Argyll, I suggest that you come and discover that. I know that those trails will capture your imagination and captivate your taste buds. Spirit and beer, there are over 20 distilleries and breweries all using the natural larder of Argyll and Bute in their processes. The water, the botanicals and the peat all enhance their flavour, and with the stunning scenery we are better to raise a toast. Coffee and cake from south-end to Dalmali, in phone boxes, in cafes, in horse boxes. We find a lot of uses for horse boxes in Argyll, and you can find wonderful home baking, washed down with a mug of tiry, crofters, tea or Argyll roasted coffee. There's the seafood trail. Lochfine herrings were historically celebrated for their delicious flavour, and we're sent in barrels here to Edinburgh. Then, as Finlay called her—no, that's a wrong name—sorry. There's also longosteen crab, lobster, salmon, mussels—getting my politicians and my rugby players mixed up, I think—both from Dumfries and Galloway, I believe. Oysters, queenies, halibut, whitefish, the rich bounty of our sea and artisanal sea salt and kelp. The farm produce trail, lamb raised on the hilly uplands, Highland cattle on the less favoured land, milk and cantar and bute, and of course barley for whisky, and some are diversifying into ice cream. Then we have the new vegan trail. Roth says, I love bute foods is the home of cheese, a manufacturer and world exporter of vegan cheese. As I said in my first speech in this chamber, a permanent solution must be found and quickly for the rest and be thankful. We also need reliable versatile ferry fleet. Everyone depends on being able to travel throughout our Gail and Bute safely and easily. I'm pleased that the minister and his team are bringing new energy and commitment to solving these, and I thank the transport minister for his detailed update in the chamber earlier on the rest and be thankful. Of course, our food and drink businesses are currently focused on keeping the shelves full as they face huge labour shortages, keeping employees safe as the pandemic continues, as well as getting to grip with the new processes, paperwork and IT systems that are involved in exporting their products to the EU as a result of the chaos of Brexit. One shellfish operator that I spoke to exported 60 per cent of his catch to the EU in 2019. Now he no longer exports there. He has defined new markets. Thankfully, Scottish Development International has done amazing work in this area, but the food and drinks industry needs Scottish Government support to enable them to adapt their produce to meet the requirements of the new buyers. This morning, at the rain committee, we heard evidence from the food and drinks industry and their fears. It is imperative that this is heard and urgent action is taken. To finish, Presiding Officer, it is said that you are what you eat, and this is true of nations as well as individuals. Our Gail and Bute's larder, Scotland's larder, are vital to our health, wealth and wellbeing. Imagine what we can do with those resources in an independent Scotland. Ms Binto, I am feeling decidedly peckish after your sure divorce of the produce of our Gail and Bute. I would now call Finlay Carson to be followed by Alex Rowley. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It goes without saying that Scotland offers some of the finest produce in the world, and I am delighted to say that much of it comes from my constituency of Galloway and West Dumfries. The area is richly blessed with companies and businesses, both big and small, who have gained either national or international recognition for their produce. The Lactalis Group, Creamery and Sronar, produces some of the finest dairy products sold in over 60 countries, including its seriously strong brand. They are not alone in making their mark, as we have a number of smoke houses such as Marbury's smoke house, the Galloway smoke house and the new diversification project at Potterland Smokery, with their innovative new smoked lamb or lamb ham. They are businesses that are regularly recognised for their excellent produce, ranging from smoked salmon, trout, seafood and game products. Most recently, Bladnock Distillery has witnessed that its whisky exports and production range increased dramatically under the leadership of Master Distillery Nick Savage. They are not alone in five kingdoms Brewery, Solworth Brewery, together with Dark Skies Gin and Hills and Harbour, have all tasted sweet success and growth post Brexit and mid Covid, I might add. Despite that, the SNP Government is still failing to give our food and drink industry the support that it rightly deserves. The Government is outstanding at making announcements and failing to deliver a bit like the good food nation bill, but then it forgets to deliver those things. The Scottish food and drink, I will. What about what the UK Government still has to deliver to Scotland about the £170 million shortfall for agriculture, as well as the paltry £14 million that we received as replacement for EMFF, when that should have been £62 million? What response would the member give to that? In the response, I would give the agricultural sector in this country far more concerned and worried about the future, given the lack of direction shown by her Government. The Scottish food and drink partnership has already come up with a strategy called Ambition 2030, which aims to promote farming fishery, as well as food and drink. Bringing together food producers and processors, which together make Scotland's most valuable industry employing 74,000 people in contributing £3.9 billion gross value to the economy from a turnover of around £11 billion. We all want to ensure that the sector continues to be recognised as world leaders and responsible, sustainable and profitable growth, but that can only really be achieved by this Government working in tandem with the Scottish food and drink industry, from farmers and growers to processors, wholesalers, distributors and retailers in the drive to promote the industry, by providing greater resources and incentives in order to create the workforce that the future growth demands have been creating high-quality jobs, rewarding employment that will be subsequently encouraging to more young people to consider it a worthwhile and rewarding career choice. We need to see far more apprenticeships and other schemes being offered than at present, especially now in the wake of the pandemic, where morale and mental health among the young generation remains critical. The Scottish Food and Drink Partnership wants to encourage more people into farming and fisheries and at the same time improve Scotland's diet and nutrition. We need to encourage a more healthy approach to eating, and it must be a top priority. Given our consumption of food and vegetables remains disturbingly low and there has been a lamentable lack of progress on health eating in Scotland, mean food and vegetable consumption stands at 3.2 portions a day short of the target of 5. The grams of per day intake of fruit and veg has not changed since 2001. In fact, it has dropped somewhat. Agriculture remains very much at the heart of my constituency, but yet again the SNP Government has failed at every term. We are still waiting for it to publish its plans on the future farming funding, promised by the end of 2020. While I absolutely endorse the high level of state colder engagement that we have seen, there comes a time when Government must make its future plans clear, and this Government has absolutely failed the sector in that. However, why does that surprise me, especially as it took them two years to even come to a simple consultation process? Little wonder then if you last described its failures as a disaster in the making for Scottish agriculture. Indeed, the same organisation previously slated them for having absolutely no vision on future farming policy, or even where it wants to be in the near future. Once again, I would urge the Scottish Government to stop dilly-dallying in dilly, and with urgency bring forward their vision and support policies for the future of rural and agricultural support. With farmers, crofters and growers faced with huge challenges, but nevertheless stepping up to the mark to do their bit to address climate change and biodiversity loss, they need this Government's support. Farmers must be given clarity now and given a clear direction on Scotland's future farm policy. Of that, there is no doubt. Earlier this month, Maree Gougeon launched a consultation on local food strategy, whereby more local produced products would be encouraged in order to reduce food distance and the distance food travels, but that is something that should be done long ago. Public sector procurement policies and procedures must be urgently reviewed. It is quite remarkable that a food processor in Wales sends truckloads of meals to some of our hospitals and schools in Scotland. It is absolutely unacceptable and one of the reasons why the Scottish Conservatives have been calling for a comprehensive, farm-to-fort review of Scotland's food policy that aims to boost demand for our own products, improve public procurement that utilises Scottish produce and, more importantly, reduces food waste and food miles. We stand with and fully support the sector and strive towards greater productivity while attempting to achieve net zero emissions by 2040. The Food and Drink Federation in Scotland plans to launch its road map at the COP26 in two months' time, and it will take a look at actions that businesses can take in a host of areas including packaging, manufacturing, distribution and storage. It will also point to the role that customers have in reducing the carbon footprint of food. Clearly, they have a vision, and it is just a pity that the Government ministers and its ministers appear not to follow that good example. I now call Alex Rowley. Mr Rowley, you have around six minutes. The Food and Drink Federation Scotland has pointed out for us today that Food and Drink in Scotland is Scotland's largest manufacturing sector, employing some 47,000 people, contributing £3.9 billion gross value added to the Scottish economy, and with a turnover of £11 billion. That is quite serious stuff, and perhaps it is a bit baffling why we then see so much point score in trying to be taking place in this chamber today when we are talking about such important issues. It is also baffling how on earth the Scottish Tories would bring forward an amendment today that simply writes off Brexit as if that has no contribution to the problems and challenges that the sector faces in Scotland right now. I am sure that people will be somewhat baffled by how they would do that. Rachel Hamilton suggests that the SNP Government should get stuck together, but in truth the Federation has come forward with clear proposals that they want both the UK and Scottish Governments to pick up on. It is worth stating what they are asking for, because you have the Food Federation Scotland, Scotland's Food and Drink sector, NFUS, Scottish Bakers, Opportunity North East, Scottish Association of Meat Whalesailers, Scottish Seafood Alliance and Scottish Wholesale Association. They ask, specific ask, but I will finish what I am saying first and then I will take your intervention. They specifically ask the Scottish Government to ensure that support for automation is embedded in the Scottish Government funding programmes where it supports productivity and the development of higher quality jobs. It is a straightforward ask. They ask that the Scottish Government work with Scotland's Food and Drink partnership to continue to promote the industry as a great career destination and to provide opportunities through apprenticeships and other schemes. The Scottish Government, and I hope that the minister will answer those two specific ask that those groupie people organisations have asked to make a difference. I will take you in a minute. I thank the member for raising those points as well. I would say that I have responded to the industry in relation to the rest of the Scottish Government, because we are absolutely committed to working with it. There are a few initiatives where we are already implementing some of those asks already, such as the Food Cooperation and Processing and Marketing grant, which was launched last month, which will help with that automation element. Just to reassure him that that work is on-going and I have responded. That is a more serious approach to what has been asked here, rather than scoring political points. I would ask the Scottish Tory benches to respond, even if it is not within your gift, are you supporting the calls that are being made? The sector asked for the UK Government to introduce a 12-month Covid recovery visa for the food and drink supply chain to deal with immediate pressures on the industry and allow employers in Scotland to expand recruitment to EU and other overseas workers. The UK Government commissioned an urgent review by the Migration Advisory Board of the need for food and drink sector. To commission immediately through the Migration Advisory Board a review of the needs of the food and drink sector, and thirdly to waive the fees to employment visas for food and drink supply chain until 2022. Three specific asks that those sectors will say will make a difference. I do not know if Rachel Hamilton would like to respond. I was going to respond specifically to the two asks that were in the open letter, which we have included in our motion. I am glad to see the Labour benches agreeing on both of those and being responded to by the cabinet secretary, although not fully enough. What I would say on those specific asks regarding the labour shortages, we have acknowledged today that it is a perfect storm and it involves a whole host of reasons of why there is a labour shortage and there are labour shortages in France, in Germany and in Italy. I think that what we need to be doing, and I would support calls to the UK Government, and I know that they are doing this, is a plan to invest in skills in our domestic workforce, and I fully support that. Presiding Officer, from that, hopefully this Parliament can come together and get behind what the Food and Drink Federation is calling for and make clear to the UK Government that those measures should be taken if we are going to actually start to do something to protect the jobs and the industry. In my final minute, Presiding Officer, I would also want to highlight that, in terms of food, food has to be affordable. For the rise in food banks since 2010, I always say that in 2010, I do not think that there were any food banks, there were certainly very few in Scotland. Now they are commonplace up and down every town and city in the country and villages. There are again things that this Parliament can do. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation points out that social security should be strong enough for all of us to rely on when we need a lifeline. But a cut of £20 a week to universal credit—a working tax credit—scheduled for the 60th October this year will mean the biggest overnight cut to the basic rate of social security since the modern welfare state began more than 70 years ago. I hope again that we can build a consensus and that the Scottish Tory benches will join—I am sure that we have rather benches here—in calling on the UK Government not to go ahead with a £20 cut that will drive food poverty even higher in Scotland. I thank you and finish, Presiding Officer. Thank you very much, Mr Rowley. I call Jim Fairlie, who will be followed by Brian Whittle, Mr Fairlie, around six minutes. I would like to welcome the motion by the cabinet secretary. The recent story of Scotland's food and drink sector is remarkable. It is an industry that I have been involved with for virtually my entire working life. It is one that I am incredibly proud of, but it shows an outstanding degree of progress and development over a relatively short period of time. It evokes a total shift in the global perception of our country. Not so very long ago, we Scots had the only slightly undeserved reputation for eating nothing that hadn't been deep fried, including Mars bars. Tourists came to Scotland for their scenery, the castles and their history. They certainly did not come because of our reputation as a nation of gourmet food lovers and yet, ironically, we have always grown, raised, caught, harvested and landed some of the finest produce in the world. The problem was, and to some degree still is, that we as a nation have never really appreciated what is here in our own doorstep, in our fields, in our rivers and in our seas, an abundance of some of the world's most sought-after natural ingredients. Scotland and fine food were far from synonymous, except to a very few that were in the know. The vast bulk of our best produce went straight to the kitchens of some of the best hotels and restaurants around the world, as we allowed the stack at high and sell at low principle to take hold of our own diet. We dined out on the rise of fast foods, highly sugared, highly salted instant and 24-hour available convenience. We stopped cooking. We lost generations of knowledge and skills and the ability to home-cook really good, nutritious, tasty, locally grown food. It is my belief that, by losing that, we lose a lot more than just these basic skills. We lose understanding, we lose an opportunity for communication and we lose a connection to the food that we eat and to that connection with each other, the only sitting round a full table of fabulous food with friends and family can give us. This debate is about far more than economics. Over the past 20 years or so, we have finally realised and regained our love and appreciation of what good food looks like, tastes like and smells like. Whether it is street food festivals doing street food theatre, seafood shacks on the beach cooking, what was caught that morning, or restaurants with two Michelin stars, Scottish Produce has now recognised, celebrated and above all, cooked, eaten and enjoyed throughout this country and across the globe. Incidentally, I was pleased to see the line in the Government motion about encouraging public kitchens to source more local food and I would like to see some public kitchens being simply more locally based. We have a situation in Perthink and Ross where school dinners are going to be centred, produced, out with the district and then delivered to school kitchens for reheating. That goes against everything that we are talking about here. The food and drink industry hit a moment in time where there was a coming together of ideas, imagination and a readiness in consumers to get involved. It was exciting, it was transformative and the industry grabbed that opportunity with everything it had and ran with it, creating the fastest growing sector in Scotland's economy. Part of that transformation was down to action taken by this Government and it is a fact that should be recognised. The establishment of a national food and drink policy under the leadership of Richard Lochhead was pivotal. Scotland had never had a national food and drink policy before but then neither did any other country in Europe. What that demonstrated to the industry was that the Government of the day got it. It understood that the industry had an opportunity, that people were ready for it and with real collaboration between industry and government, great things could happen and they did. Back in 2007 and 2008 the target for the industry was to be worth £13 billion by 2013. That target was smashed by years and it demonstrated that this collaboration was working, industry and government working hand in hand, communicating and delivering. I appreciate that opportunity to interview and I would also like to take the opportunity to refer members to my register of interest as a member of the national farmers union. Can I ask that the member does he recognise as someone who is so close to the farming industry the frustration within the farming sector at the continued lack of detail about how future support is going to look like in the future? Does he agree that farmers have been left and continued to be left in the dark over future plans for funding? I will accept that farming communities have been frustrated and I have made that point to the cabinet secretary but I said to Willie Rennie earlier on that the farming community would be much happier to see a policy that they were part of, that they helped shape and they helped to make sure that we deliver our requirements for the climate, but we also have a food industry that is still about producing food. I will continue to do what I was saying. I have lost my place finally. I was talking about the fact that the industry smashed its target by years but it demonstrated that the collaboration was working, industry and Government working hand in hand. When you are on a roll, why not go further? The Scottish Government did and we still are. The new target of £30 billion by 2030 is massively ambitious but we have done it before so that we can do it again. Yes, it is challenging but it is absolutely achievable. With the industry and the Government working together sharing an ambition, anything is possible and I know that we can hit that target again. However, there are plenty of challenges and two of the biggest ones are probably two that could not have been envisaged. The extent of the Brexit damage, first of all, and the consequences of the global pandemic. One example of that is that the east of Scotland growers have just destroyed two and a half million broccoli and a million and a half cauliflower in the past couple of weeks. There is a possibility that they are about to do the same again because they simply do not have storage and capacity to move the product. The Food and Drink Federation of Scotland tells us that the Brexit-related issues that their members are facing generally fall into three different groups, companies that cannot export to the EU due to the terms of the EU exit deal, such as food, seed, potato producers, those struggling with increased costs right across their businesses and those whose products have short shelf life and have found that increased delays in bureaucracy mean that they simply cannot get the products to market in time predominantly in the west coast with shellfish. No amount of trade deals with countries in the far side of the world are going to compensate these businesses that are being thwarted in their attempt to maintain access to the world's largest single market on the other side of the North Sea. We have all seen the gaps in their shelves and in their shops and heard the stories about the shortage of lorry drivers. Apparently, there are big pay increases being offered to drivers, so at least there is an ill wind as somebody blowing somebody some good, but what we are witnessing now is Brexit getting real. Paying lorry drivers a bit more is only the tip of the iceberg, as far as an increased freight cost is concerned, because I have heard that there are cases of the cost of shipping containers escalating from £2,000 to £20,000 in the last six months. Nobody is going to make any money in Australian trade deals with those kind of numbers. We have seen it with the treatment of our fisher folk, we have seen it with the treatment of our soft fruit farmers, we have seen it with the treatment of our seed potato merchants. Being part of the UK is harming our industry. The UK Government is acting as a roadblock, preventing us from getting to where we need to be, literally as well as figuratively. I know and trust the Scottish Government to do everything in their power to help our food and drink industry and to find ways around the roadblocks, but we all know that the best answer, the simplest answer, and it is why I simply could not support anything that the Tories have put forward in their amendment. The answer should be in our own hands, and it is to remove the roadblock entirely to become a normal independent country. I am delighted to rise to speak in a debate to support our food and drink industry. Returning members will know of my long-standing efforts to try to put more of Scotland's food and drink products on to Scottish dinner tables. I have always argued and will continue to argue that, in doing so, we can achieve real success in dealing with Scotland's poor health record. You will be glad to know that I am bringing all that passion into my new environmental brief and believe that this is an area that can bring benefits on sustainability and support Scotland's drive towards net zero. I want to use my time to discuss the whole chain of food and drink production from farming to processing to procurement. No one in the chamber would dispute that our farmers are among the best in the world. We charge them with producing high-quality food, maintaining the highest level of animal welfare, paying their living wage and leading the custodianship of the countryside. They do not just take those responsibilities willingly, they do so enthusiastically. Today, more than ever, we ask them to work in a way that protects our environment and can deliver a sustainable future. Farmers want to protect the environment. It is quite literally the foundation of their business. In all my conversations with farmers across the south of Scotland, there is a shared desire to innovate and become greener. In fact, they are so enthusiastic. We now see the NFU Scotland and WWF Scotland united in challenging the Scottish Government to move faster on the issue. Sadly, they are under sustained attack from a vocal minority who insist on misrepresenting our farming and food-producing communities, criticising the greenhouse gas emissions of the industry, particularly in livestock farming, while failing to acknowledge the Scottish farmer's success in reducing their carbon footprint. I am sorry to... Of course not. Michelle Thomson. I was wondering perhaps he would like to name one of the people in his south of Scotland area who celebrate the removal from a market to 500 million consumers for their produce. Can he name some? I wonder if Michelle Thomson, thank you to Michelle Thomson for intervention, but I wonder if he recognises now that the... A very recent visit that I did to a farm with the NFU and a number of farmers who suggested now that the price that they are getting for beef and sheep is one of the highest that has been for a long, long time. There you go. The reality is that Scottish farmers are leading the way in reducing emissions in our rearing grass-fed livestock and continuing to innovate towards net zero at every opportunity. Our farming sector should be held up as an example to the world, not done down in the pursuit of an easy headline. After all, the NFUS has set a net zero to farming target of 2035, way ahead of the Scottish Government's net zero target. That is something that every MSP should be supporting and celebrating yet. At the heart of this Government, we now have ministers whose track record is one of criticism, not commendation. Rather than working with our food producers, encouraging and supporting innovation in the green economy, we have ministers who would prefer to shut the whole industry down. We have a Scottish Government minister who quite openly wants to eliminate our world-renowned salmon farming industry. She did not even bother to engage with salmon farmers or to at least discuss the innovations that they are now deploying. She did not even bother to look at a map to find out where those farms are. No, she simply and simplistically decided without it appears any basic knowledge of the industry that she would like it gone. It is good to say that the Greens are already so well aligned with the SNP's approach of headlines now, details never. It is no wonder that the Scottish fishing industry is concerned, and I quote, that they have been increasingly hostile environment for their industry as a consequence of this new coalition. I sometimes suspect that the Greens will really only be happy when we are all living up a tree in the trossocks, foraging for nuts and berries and washing our clothes in the river, all the while importing more food. Of course I will, cabinet secretary. I thank the member for taking an intervention, because I think that I have to address some of the statements that he has come out with there. I do not know if he has actually read the co-operation agreement that is set out between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party, which lays what he said absolutely to rest. It is complete nonsense some of the accusations that he is making. Brian Whittle. There you go, right there. Your agreement does not even mention fishing. It does not even mention fishing. You are denying that one of your Scottish Government ministers says that they want to shut down the salmon industry. Is that what you are saying, cabinet secretary? As you well know, there is no intervention from a sedentary position, cabinet secretary. At a time when we should be looking forward to promoting new technologies and ideas to decarbonise our most successful industries such as food and drink, the Scottish Greens' focus is firmly on putting Scotland into a reverse gear, and they now set at the heart of the Scottish Government. They must be the least green party on this planet. The Scottish Government should be embracing and encouraging the innovation in our food and drink industry. Instead, we have joined forces with a party whose idea of innovation is to turn off the economy. So, Deputy Presiding Officer, beyond production, we need to look at where we process food. There is so little that is processed in Scotland. We send far too much of our produce out of the country to be processed. How can it be right? In the country that is hosting COP26, there are food producers who are forced to ship their products hundreds or even thousands of miles to be processed and packaged. Surely we can do more to support local food processing, building new local industries and cutting a carbon footprint at the same time. Finally, Deputy Presiding Officer, I want to go on to public food procurement. Quality for Scottish produce on the dinner tables of our schools and hospitals. He's not got time. Surely that has to be a no-brainer, but even here, despite it being raised constantly in this chamber by myself and others, the Scottish Government has failed to act. It is entirely within the Scottish Government's power to make the route from field to fork as short as possible and support our food producers. Yet the much heralded good food nation bill has continually been kicked down the road. It should have been the vehicle to address many of the issues that we are discussing, but so far the Scottish Government has failed to turn promises into action. As I said earlier, we charge our farmers and food producers with the highest standards, yet the Scottish Government, through the public procurement policy, does not do enough to recognise the cost of those standards and fail to support our farmers in the way that they could and should. We have a fantastic food and drink industry in Scotland, but we are being let down by the Scottish Government, who prefer to lay the blame at the feet of others rather than acknowledge their own failings. There is so much that they could do to support our food and drink industry. It is time. Warm words were finally backed up with actions. Others have said that food poverty is a pressing issue in Scotland. Like other human rights, the right to food is already protected under international law, but we only need to look at the unacceptable levels of food insecurity in Scotland to know that it is not happening on the ground. Of course, it is first and foremost a legacy of Tory austerity, but there are things that we can do in Scotland. Enshrining a right to food has been a long-standing priority of the Scottish Greens. That is why we used budget negotiations in the last session to secure the extension of free school meals, and why in this session a right to food is part of the co-operation agreement between us and the Scottish Government. That will form part of a human rights bill, but that is about more than just a right to food—we need to act. For one reason or another, as we have heard, the good food nation bill became way laid in the last session of Parliament, and we have been clear that it will be progressed. That will underpin on a statutory basis the work that is already being done across the Scottish Government to support the good food nation policy. As we head into food and drink fortnight, we must acknowledge the food insecurity that persists in Scotland and has been exacerbated by the pandemic. But tackling that is about more than providing the right to basic sustenance for our citizens. Food must mean more to us than a means of survival if we are truly to build a wellbeing economy. Food is at the heart of our daily life and our culture. It is the focal point of occasions for community gatherings, festivals and celebrations. Today, by celebrating the people who produce and procure our food and drink in Scotland who play a vital role in our lives, we must also acknowledge the challenges that they face. This has been a torrid time for our food producers in Scotland. The reckless Tory Brexit stripped away a vital EU workforce, threatened the standards of our food for deregulated trade deals and now we see serious disruptions in the supply chain. We saw in the first part of the pandemic people stocked up to make sure that they could feed themselves and families. Supermarkets benefited from this surge in demand, but this was not necessarily reflected down the supply chain and led to shortages. Now shortages have a different reason. As well as the loss of lorry drivers, many food producers do not have the labour to harvest what they have grown and raised. We have already heard from Jim Fairlie, the heartbreaking story of 2.5 million heads of broccoli having to be thrown away due to the lack of labour force for harvest, or shellfish, left to rot on the key side as producers faced export challenges. Brexit is not the only threat to our food supply. Farmers are dealing with the increased extreme weather events of the climate crisis and spending more to mitigate against floods and droughts. It will be increasingly important for food producers to have a direct relationship with their local communities. Over the summer, I met food producers and providers across my region, from beef farmers in Orkney to oyster farmers in Nahalenon-Agnar to highland market gardeners growing vegetables for hundreds of families to a community food growing and community kitchen project in Argyll feeding anyone who needs a meal. It is clear to me that food is a central part of our communities and that those communities must have access and involvement in that food. Eating well, being able to nourish ourselves and each other should be a right. Food in Scotland has returned to being a point of pride and pleasure and we are fortunate to have a multitude of producers who care about the food that they make. In the face of our climate and nature emergencies, the right to food—food that is adequate, available and accessible—is going to become even more pressing. In the face of cruel policies from the UK Government, that focus—sorry, I am going to keep going—you have made me lose my place too—is stigmatising those who cannot afford to eat well and enjoy their food. Scotland's place as a good food nation has never been more important and we can learn from our communities. During the pandemic, we saw local producers rise to the challenge of feeding their local community. People started to make local connections for procurement and we have the opportunity to take that further by redesigning our food systems so that people can access locally produced food. Food is at the heart of so much of our lives that we must eat to live. We have started to understand that access to good food will support us with good health and mental wellbeing. The co-operation agreement that we have struck with the Government recognises that producing high-quality food goes hand in hand with tackling both poverty and the climate emergency. Scotland can be a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture. Scotland can have a diverse pattern of land ownership and tenure that supports that. Scotland can be a good food nation in which no one needs to go hungry. Before I begin, I refer members to my register of interests, which show that I am still a Serban councillor in East Ayrshire. I rise today to speak in support of this motion and in support of Scotland's larder and our wonderful producers who have been absolutely tremendous throughout the pandemic but who have also struggled with the very real and present challenges posed by Covid-19 and Brexit. I am going to focus my contribution today on how we can support our food and drink sector by seeking to adopt a community wealth building approach right across Scotland, which will see anchor organisations such as local authorities, health boards, colleges and universities, and other public bodies to utilise their vast procurement spend within their locality. I am glad that the Scottish Government is currently consulting on the draft local food strategy, as that is hugely important for many policy areas. If we look at councils as this is the area that I am most familiar with, last year's council spend across Scotland was a collective £23.9 billion, or 14 per cent, of GDP. Although a lot of that has taken up on education and social work budgets, there is a significant amount of money that is spent on procurement of goods and services and, incidentally, on wages, which also circulate in local economies. In my local authority area of East Ayrshire, which is one of two councils in Carrot Cymde and Dyn Valley, the council has held the soil association's gold standard food for life award for over a decade, the only council to do so in the whole of the UK. Decisions taken at a local level all those years ago on the back of the Scottish Government's hungry for success initiative means that community wealth building principles have been at the heart of school food in East Ayrshire long before it came to the fore in the nation's collective consciousness. Mr Fairlie, mentioning the East Ayrshire school estate and how they have done it, I would like to pay tribute to Robin Gurley, who was the guy who initiated it and made the hungry for success work by making sure that they bought local food into local schools and was then seconded to the Scottish Government and Scotland food and drink to make much bigger strides right across the country and getting better quality local food into schools far better than it was prior to the SNP coming to government in 2007. I am fairly for that intervention and I would like to say that just recently I was on a conference call with Apsey and Robin Gurley came on to that call as he just recently retired and we did pay tribute to all the massive work that he did. East Ayrshire serves lunches that contain very little processed foods, a large proportion of which is locally sourced, sometimes up to 70 per cent, 15 per cent of which is organic, all with careful consideration of sustainability and environmental impact. Locally, the sustained suppliers grow their businesses to accommodate the increased demand for local food and school meals, employing more local people, reducing food miles in the council's carbon footprint. I will finish the sentence in a while and I will help to create wealth that is retained locally. With the creation of 15 community food larders over the pandemic, East Ayrshire is also reducing local food waste and supporting dignified food provision in communities. Thank you for taking an intervention. I absolutely agree with you that East Ayrshire should be held up as an exemplar of how we should procure food. Will you not agree with me then that, as I have said over the past five years, it is about time that the rest of Scotland follows it and the example of East Ayrshire? I thank Brian Whittle for that intervention in question and I would say that the thrust of my speeches roundabout is seeking a way to passport that learning and that experience across the country. I think that the local food strategy and moving towards a good food nation is going to do exactly that. Upon receiving the soil associations gold award for the 12th successive year, Andrew Kennedy, head of facilities and property management of East Ayrshire, said that, since 2008, East Ayrshire council has recognised the connections between what we eat and learning, how foods help with our health and how we can support our local producers. We invest in foods on the plate and the value that it has, with good quality sustainable meals now the norm in East Ayrshire. Our approach also plays an important role in community wealth building for which the councillors receive funding to help to develop Scotland's first regional approach to community wealth building through the Ayrshire growth deal. That means that we are committed to continuing to work with local businesses to support the local economy and reduce our carbon footprint by continuing to source fresh local produce. During the height of the pandemic, East Ayrshire council retained its school food contracts to ensure that local suppliers did not go under and delivered a staggering 30,000 fresh meals prepared to families in receipt of free school meals every single week. At Christmas, boxes also included a new Ayrshire gift card for each child that also gave a boost to local businesses, encouraging families to shop local. I will now turn my attention to a recent news story emerging from the area that saw local organic dairy farm Mosgail milk in Moclen in my constituency when the milk contract for East Ayrshire, which not only supports the farm to grow but has also had huge benefit in terms of carbon and single-use plastics reduction. By installing refillable milk vending machines in every school and delivering supplies via an on-going move to an electric fleet, it is estimated that there will be a whopping reduction of approximately 400,000 pieces of single-use plastics from East Ayrshire primary schools every single year. Farmer Bryce Cunningham of Mosgail now joins others—Carrick Cymdeic and Dune Valley producers, Wee Hay, Meet and Garvin, A&A's Spittle of Ock and Leck and Corry Mains of Moclen in capturing the hearts and bellies of wanes across East Ayrshire. I am sure that others will agree with me that this is fantastic news and a model for replication where possible to aid our journey to grow as a good food nation. Whether it is local sustainable eggs, poultry pork, beef fish, cheese, milk and dry goods, Scotland's food and drink sector has much to offer our anchor organisations. We have Scottish Government-supported community wealth building initiatives in many areas just now, including, as I said, the Scottish First as part of our Ayrshire regional growth deal. In order to support the sector, our communities and our communities to recover from Covid and the uncertainties of Brexit, it is vital that we ensure that their learning and examples from those pilots are shared across the country. There is no doubt—as has been said before—procurement is tricky and often mired in seemingly unchangeable bureaucracy. However, strong leadership and a compelling and urgent case for change can focus hearts and minds. From farm and sea to plate, let's make it local. Before calling Martin Whitfield, it would have been great to see so many interventions taken by speakers. From now on, however, those interventions will have to be accommodated in the speech allowance for each individual. With that, I call Martin Whitfield, who will be followed by Michelle Thomson, the last speaker in the open debate. Everybody who has been participating in the debate needs to be in for the closing speeches. Thank you for your indication with regard to interventions, but it is a pleasure to follow Eleanor Whitham and particularly, I draw reference in her speech to the connection between good food and learning. It is an essential connection. Living as I do in East Lothian, Scotland's food and drink county, I need to start by mentioning and congratulating some of the best food and drink producers, not only in Scotland but the world, our bakers, smokers, brewery, distilleries, honey producers, preservers and of course the fine independent coffee houses, restaurants and public houses, our farmers markets, our farm shops. Food lies at the heart of East Lothian, but also to our fisheries and farmers, the families and companies that draw from nature the products that are used in the food and drink industry, this love and care of food so that pie producers, restaurateurs can not only name the farm that their produce comes from but can tell you who the farmer is because they have a relationship with them. They know the boat and the family that landed the lobster that sits on your plate and this talks to the strength and the love of food, not just in East Lothian but across the south of Scotland and beyond. It talks about how food is an essential piece in the jigsaw of our society and we did see in the pandemic the huge support from the Scottish public for their local producers and the outstanding products being reared, grown and manufactured on our doorstep. So it should be. Food is part of the foundation of life. Maslow's hierarchy of needs puts food as one of the foundation stones just to be human. It is woven into every fabric of our lives but there is another course. There is another plate. There is another reality for so many people who live in Scotland and that is that food is a rare resource. Food poverty is a reality for the people who are our neighbours, the people who live in our communities. We all know that food banks exist. We all rightly rail against them. The Trussell Trust charity runs more than 420 food banks in Scotland. There are over 70 independent food banks across 20 local authorities here in Scotland. Between April last year and March this year, in Dumfries and Galloway, 607 food parcels delivered for children. The Scottish borders, 383 parcels for children. In Eastlothian, 2,602 parcels for children. In July, less just over a month ago, in my local food bank in Trinent, they handed out 254 three day emergency food parcels that feeds 606 people. 220 of those were children. We live in a society where 220 children can't be fed by their families without charity and community support. I'm very grateful for the member to take an intervention. I make the point again in reference to what he just said there. Isn't it about time that we tackled the amount of food wastage that we have in a society? When we're wasting that amount of food and people are going hungry, there's something that has to be wrong there. I'm very grateful to Brian Whittle for that. Along with challenging food waste, which he rightly raised, we need to challenge the poverty that these families are in, families who are in work. That goes and talks to the universal credit cut that's coming. That goes and talks to the children's fund that needs to be paid. We need to do so much. This is a complex problem. We all agree that, but we have solved complex problems. We have come up with a Covid vaccine. We did it in just over a year. We can solve these problems if genuinely we want to work towards them. It took 6,000 kilograms of food handed and donated by people in my community to feed those children. In 2009, the Trussell Trust operated just one food bank in Scotland. In April 2017, 52 and now 420. This Government and the Westminster Government must do better. We've heard about, and it is right to talk about the £11 billion of year that the Government and other public bodies spend on our infrastructure. It is right that we look at the supply trains. Covid has proved that we can deliver local. We should work with that. Not allow that system to fall apart as we waste months and months going down the line. If we do that, when we turn round to the local communities and local authorities and say, please supply the schools from local producers, those networks will have broken down, we've heard of brilliant examples of local authorities that can do it. Yes, pushed into it by great advocates and it often needs that, but this Government needs to be a great advocate about that. We need to turn the spending that we are sending all over the world to support our local communities. We need to cut that mileage to reduce the carbon footprint. It is credit to the Government that, after years of Scottish Labour campaigning and others for the UN right to food to be enshrined in Scottish law, after initially being rejected as, quote, not being necessary, it will arrive. We need it sooner rather than later. Covid has shown the reality of food insecurity. Food bank usage is already surging before lockdown. Mal nutrition is 2021. Mal nutrition and hunger should not exist in a 21st century Scotland. Enshrining that statutory right to food in Scottish law is a start of one aspect of eradicating food poverty. I have to say, with regard to the two amendments—it will be very quick here—that I accept some of what Rachel Hamilton has in her amendment. I particularly accept the fact that Scottish independence would irrevocably damage the food and drink industry, but you have got to accept in equal terms, you have got to accept and recognise the damage that Brexit has done to the food and drink sector, to the labour shortages, to the damage to the access to markets and not to do so, not to encompass it, is naive. I support, obviously, the Labour amendment, because who in this chamber can't condemn the unacceptable level of food poverty? Who cannot see the moral wrong in an ever-rising use of food banks here in Scotland? We have a country that produces fresh quality food and it's plentiful. Enshrining the right to food in Scottish law should be a priority. Thank you very much, Mr Workfield. I now call Michelle Thomson, who will be the last of the speakers in the open debate. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and you'll be pleased to note that I'm going to speak for considerably less than six minutes. Two years ago, I led a piece of research where we engaged with over 1,000 business leaders in 74 countries. They saw Scotland as a country producing quality products and a place where ethics ranks high amongst our key attributes as a trading nation. No sector better meets those perceptions than the food and drink sector. Fewer sectors contribute as much to Scotland's global brand. Access to good affordable food is critical for the health of our nation. We know that poor diet leads to poor health outcomes and has been commented poor learning for our children. That is a sector with strategic significance. We are all indebted to our farmers and producers for the work that they do to secure supplies, but they face unprecedented challenges. Over the past 24 hours, just in my constituency, I have heard of local consumers facing nearly empty shells once stacked with food. My constituency staff have been discussing problems with entrepreneurs hoping to open both a restaurant and a food shop. They face huge rising costs of basic materials needed to refurbish the premises due to issues with supply chains. One existing business in the drink sectors told me of problems of supplies from Spain, until recently they received urgent supplies within 48 hours to 72 hours, but now face an eight to 10 weeks wait. Others have faced problems with increased bureaucracy and, all on top of the biggest difficulty of all, recruitment of staff. Of course, those types of challenges are not unique to Falkirk East. UK-wide, there may be as many as 500,000 jobs needing to be filled throughout the whole food supply chain. James Withers, the chief executive of Scotland Food and Drink recently stated that the current evidence cannot be dismissed. Staff shortages are everywhere in the food supply chain, from farm to manufacturer to haulier. If you think gaps on supermarket shelves are worrying, remember care homes and hospitals need food too. A recent survey by the Federation has pointed out that 93 per cent of food and drink companies have vacancies that they are struggling to fill. Good-skilled people lie at the heart of our food and drink sector, but part of the current problem with employers being blocked from recruiting staff from elsewhere in Europe is because of ideological dogma. I agree that we need to do more ourselves to increase the attraction of employment in food and drink and to provide skills for the future, but at least in the short and medium term we need to open the gates to recruitment from our European neighbours. I am very grateful to Michelle Thompson for taking an intervention on that point. I wonder if she recognised that the pandemic in itself was so many people were put into furlough and went home and then the restriction on travel during the pandemic has exacerbated a problem that was here long before Brexit. Michelle Thompson I would certainly agree that the pandemic has had an influence on skills leaving, but in terms of skills coming back in the so-called hostile environment, which does not just apply to areas out with the EU, it is really strictly being enforced to those friends and neighbours that we used to have coming from the EU and it has had a real impact on them feeling welcome to return, and it is that that I bemoan. Much of this labour market problem is due to the insanity of a Tory Brexit, compounding problems on top of the pandemic. The deniers, I think that we have just heard one, easily found amongst the Tory group should listen to the views, no I am not doing it again, of James Withers. I quote, Brexit has created a world where too often problems are denied, warnings ignored and evidence is dismissed. It has been an enormous shock to the labour market, a Brexit implemented in the middle of a pandemic where supply chains were already straining. So then, what are we to do? What kind of future, apart from, of course, an independent Scotland, are we looking for? I am inclined to support the view of Wendy Barry of the Scottish Food Guide, who recently wrote to me saying, what we need in Scotland is to focus on quality, honest, good food, which is substantially produced in smaller units, smaller scale, multiplied up, is more resilient for Scotland's future and better for the environment. I am not saying this to imply that we should turn away from importing and exporting, eloquently outlined by my colleague Jim Fairlie, but rather to ensure a healthier home market where our commitment to quality and resilience serves our needs better. There is much to consider, but working together with the sector will allow us to set down strong routes for our future growth once more. We need to develop strategies that better prepare us for future shocks and global challenges. I welcome the work that is going on—this is my last point—such as Scotland Food and Drink Recovery Plan, the work that has been undertaken by the Food and Drink Federation and, of course, our own Scottish Government. Thank you, Ms Thomson, for getting us back on track. We move to the closing speeches and I call Rhoda Grant for six minutes. Food and Drink is incredibly important to Scotland, as we have heard today. We in the Scottish Labour Party have been calling for the Scottish Government to bring forward a good food nation bill worthy of its importance for years. Sadly, it has continued to delay seven years of past since the publication of the national food and drink policy, and we still wait for a good food nation bill. It pleads the pandemic, but if anything, Covid-19 has underlined the urgent necessity of the legislation rather than pointed to a delay. Can I echo Colin Smyth's thanks to Food and Drink workers? Many of those working in the industry were on the front line during the pandemic, working in shops, delivering food, providing assistance and indeed growing food. Many of those workers actually themselves depended on food banks for their nourishment. Those in the hospitality industry found themselves sidelined, they were furloughed and many others did not even get that because of the seasonal nature of their jobs. Others sought and found alternative employment, and that left a huge staff shortage throughout the industry. Through all of that, the pandemic has caused a huge increase in the dependence on food banks. The Trussell Trust provided 221,554 emergency food parcels. That is horrendous. Martin Whitfield reminded us of a time not that long ago when food banks were not required. We should all aspire to that core principle in our food and drink strategies. That is the end to the need for food banks, that everyone should be able to access good nutritional food. The Scottish Government has dithered over legislating on a right to food bill. It should be at the centre of its good food nation bill, but we hear today that that is not going to be the case. I will bring forward a bill that will enshrine the right to food in Scottish law and to create a commission to drive that right of food into our reality. Work that was started by my colleague Elaine Smith and I have pledged to continue until that is a right under Scottish law. We in Scotland are privileged to have the best food and drink in the world from Scottish whisky to Scottish salmon, tunnock's teacakes to Stornoway black pudding. The list goes on, and every member took the opportunity to name-check their constituencies' good food today. I cannot, because there are far too many of them in my area, but Jenny Minto managed to get most of those in Ergyll and Butyn and led the charge on that closely followed by Finlay Carson for his constituency. It was all lovely to hear, but what it highlights is the obscenity of people going hungry and malnourished in a country with such bounty. Some members took time to pay tribute to those who worked in food banks and provided free food, and rightly so, but they should not have to do that. Martin Whitfield passionately addressed the issue and pointed out how dehumanising, depending on charity for such a basic human right, can be. Colin Smyth talked about enshrining the right to food in the Scottish law and how it is vital to all our people. It is also an independent authority to make it happen. It is important that that is part of any bill to make sure that it is driven forward as a policy. We know that lack of food and poor nutrition has a huge physical and psychological effect on wellbeing, so it is important that we make sure that that is available to everybody, not through charity but in their own right. I turn quickly to the Conservative motion. I am Alec Riley, and Martin Whitfield made the point. It is not what was in their motion, it is what they were taking out of the Government motion that we would disagree with. I think that their points would have been made more strongly if they had recognised some of the UK Conservative Government's shortcomings in the aspect of our food and drink policy. Colin Smyth talked about local procurement. I think that that is a fundamental part of any food and drink strategy. It should not just be for the Government to hand down the strategy but to work locally to enable small producers to become involved in procurement for our hospitals and schools. Elena Whitten made the same points in her speech. Finlay Carson talked about Welsh-produced meals being served up in Scottish schools and hospitals. That is surely not right for the environment and not for our local businesses. One of the main concerns in the debate was the lack of policy, the lack of putting policy in place. Willie Rennie, Finlay Carson and others made that point. We are asking farmers and crofters to reach net zero, but we have not a clue of how to help them to achieve that. That is simply not right. If they do not achieve it, it will not be the fault of the farming and crofting community, but it will be the fault of the Government. The lack of an overall food policy causes many issues. It causes the lack of skills, it causes climate change goals to be missed, but it fundamentally affects people's access to food. This omission will cost us dear with the health impacts of our poor diet. Those in our poorer areas lose 20 years of their lives and are more likely to die of Covid. Creating a right to food must be seen as a national emergency. I will leave that as my final comment. Jamie Hawker Johnson to wind up for the Conservative Party. I am not going to name and shame, but there were at least a couple of members who participated in the debate and we were late back into the closing speeches. When I say to be back into the chamber for closing speeches, it means that the start of the closing speeches is not sometime during the closing speeches. With that, I can ask Jamie Hawker Johnson to conclude that you have around seven minutes. I hope that they are suitably chased, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I draw members' attention to my register of interests as a partner in the farming business and also as a member of the National Farmers Union Scotland? At the beginning of another parliamentary year, the pandemic that we have laboured under for so long still casts the long shadow on our economy. Our most recent economic statistics still show output below what it was pre-pandemic and there are problems still to face. There have undoubtedly been positives as we have opened up. Some parts of our domestic tourist trade and some parts of Scotland have seen visitors returning in encouraging numbers, and many customers facing businesses are benefiting from consumer demand again. But many of the businesses concerned have suffered considerably in the worst parts of the last year and a half. Our food and drink sector is no different. So, as we welcome food and drink fortnight this year, it is once again against a negative backdrop. The Government's motion before us today praises the resilience of producers, but we should also recognise just how challenging this period has been and also the continuing impact on our economy. One thing that the pandemic has brought is an unpredictability in demand and supply. Hospitality has suffered some of the greatest challenges, restaurants, pubs and everything from distillery tours to school lunch halls have been forced into a position of stopping, starting and stopping again at short notice. This disruption has caused real challenges for the supply chain, for producers and distributors. That should not be underestimated. As members will know, the food and drink sector has a disproportionately lard footprint in my own Highlands and Islands region. Orkney beef and cheese, space-side whisky, shet and shellfish, brewing on the black aisle. It is not only impressive produce but represents hundreds of employers, often making use of local ingredients and sustaining local jobs. It all contributes to over £11 billion of turnover in the sector. So we must be responsive to the future outlook for these businesses. Not just the enterprise agencies and councils, but Government more widely should be there to monitor progress of our recovery at all local levels. As the Food and Drink Partnership Recovery Plan produced under Fergus Ewing noted, growth has often come from new entrant businesses that have become established in their local markets before expanding outwards. But there have been many issues in the sector that predate the Covid pandemic too. It was raised by my colleague Rachel Hamilton and others, but the continued lack of strategic direction on future Government agricultural policy is something that cannot be raised often enough in this chamber. I will. Would the member agree with me that the former chair of the Trade and Agricultural Commission, Tim Smith, has just said that he is beyond frustrated that the Government has not yet set up a new statutory trade and agricultural commission to scrutinise new trade deals and that that lack of scrutiny by the Trade and Agricultural Commission, which has not been set up and this Scottish Parliament, will hugely detrimental to Scottish industry? I will tell what I will tell the member, which is something that Andrew McCawnick, the former NFU S president, said. He said this to Fergus Ewing, the Cabinet Secretary's predecessor. He said this, Where is the policy? Where is the road map? All the information you need is waiting on Scottish Government desks to be pulled together, stop dithering and start delivering. I would suggest that the member stops distracting and focuses on the issues that his colleagues in this place can deal with and haven't yet. It's represented a real unwillingness for ministers to give the sector the clarity and vision it desperately needs. The Cabinet Secretary has spoken of sustainable low-carbon food, but to create that requires a sustainable low-carbon approach to our rural economy. Agricultural businesses have been crying out for direction. They know that change must come and, in many cases, are very optimistic about that change, as Brian Whittle highlighted. Progress from the Scottish Government has been at a snail's pace. We'll probably see the ferry's finish before we actually get it before we actually get a direction for Scotland's farmers, but on that point, and I can't, this can't go unmentioned, it was an issue raised with the Cabinet Secretary, the growing ferry's crisis, an issue which we called on the transport minister to come to this chamber and make a statement on, has impacted on rural and island communities across the length of the west coast. Of course, over the course of the summer, some of our islands and most remote communities have found themselves all but cut off with significant impact, not only on residents and potential visitors, but also on a swath of businesses, including in the food and drink sector, on islands that rely on their sea connections to export their produce. Those problems may seem distant to SNP ministers here in Edinburgh, but they are a real issue to so many businesses across my region. Across the chamber today, we've seen a number of very good contributions and probably more agreement than we might expect. My colleague Rachel Hamilton raised concerns from the sector that is being ignored and with the relationship between farmers and government damaged in the process. Both Eleanor Wittam and Colin Smyth highlighted the importance of local food source and procurement. Colin Smyth also highlighted the failure of the Government to reduce the good food nation bill. Finn Carson spoke of just some of the produce of his own constituency in Galloway and West Dumfries and the need for a locally focused approach, reducing food miles and building on the strength of local suppliers and as well as talking about the good food nation bill and the missed opportunity. The Government hasn't focused more on it. Willie Rennie, for someone who has such a dubious history of livestock-based PR stunts, probably sensibly played it safe and focused on his remarks on his passion for broccoli. Brian Whittle was absolutely right to say that farmers amongst the best in the world are maybe a little bit biased on that and that Scottish farming is enthusiastic about the opportunities to change, but also that farmers need our support and that is also the case for the fishing sector and particularly the fish farming sector, particularly from cheap, if not often inaccurate, headline-grabbing from certain other people. Jenny Minthe gave us a very good in-depth run around Argyll and Buton, some of the fantastic produce available there and also rightly highlighted the importance of reliable transport links for our food producers. I leave off to some Scottish businesses long established have gained a global reputation for quality, for sustainability and for innovation and in recent years the sector has worked to tackle its impact on climate. In areas like mine, but across Scotland too, the sector has been dependent on many for employment directly or indirectly and it brings visitors to Scotland and also provides a sense of place and a flavour for our local identities. We are rightly proud of that and I have no doubt that support for the sector is shared around this chamber. But in common with businesses across Scotland there needs to be the support in place for recovery and the conditions in place for businesses to thrive. And it needs a Scottish Government focused on working to support this vital sector in the present and in the future, not obsessed with making every issue or difficulty the sector faces yet in other constitutional grievance, no matter how untrue that may be. You need to be winding up now please. I am. This is the beginning of a five-year term, a term that will be vital to the sector's future. It is a chance to improve, to innovate and to develop opportunities. It is a chance to ensure that we get the right support in place for the years ahead and it is a chance for the Scottish Government to stop talking about what it cannot do and start talking about what it can. Thank you Mr Harkell Johnston. I now call on the cabinet secretary to wind up this debate and be grateful if he could take us to decision time. Thank you Presiding Officer. I just want to start off by thanking members for all their contributions today to this really important debate. And I know that there is a broad consensus that the food and farming industry is key to our economy. It quite literally has kept the food on our table during the pandemic. And I know that Colin Smyth outlined his thanks to the industry and I really just want to reiterate that for the work that they have done throughout the pandemic and beyond that in making sure that we had food on our table. But the industry is now facing the stark reality of Brexit and the rules, regulations and extra costs that is brought on the sector. And for a policy that was set to free business from red tape, it has had the entirely opposite effect. And just on that point I need to address some of the points that have been made during the course of the debate in addressing some of the amendments. Now it's a bit rich for the Tories to make claims about the impact of independence on the food and drink industry when we're seeing the fallout from the decisions taken by the UK Government that in Scotland we just can't affect. And Jamie Halcro Johnston there talking about constitutional grievance. Who were the party that introduced independence into their motion today? And I think it's really important that we actually take a look back at what the UK Government has done to the food and drink industry in Scotland. Now this is a UK Government that took the convergence uplift intended for Scottish farmers and crofters that we had to fight for years to get back to the tune of £160 million. And it was only down to the industry and the relentless pursuit of this by my predecessor Fergus Ewing that we saw this money eventually return to Scotland. This is also a UK Government that despite claiming it would fully replace EU funding did nothing of the kind cutting our funding for agriculture to the tune of £170 million. And I'm glad that Finlay Carson thinks that's an amount to be sniffed at. Now this is also a UK Government that rather than provide the £62 million that would replace the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund allocation to Scotland provided only £14 million to our coastal communities. And this is a UK Government that also can't be less interested in the disastrous impacts its policies are having on food producers here. On trade deals, I wrote three letters with three requests for urgent calls with the Secretary of State for Trade, Liz Truss. No, not right now. I need to make progress to discuss our industry's fears. To this day, I haven't had a response to that. The Trade and Agriculture Commission mentioned by Rachel Hamilton still not established. So we've had trade deals that have been rushed through without that body being established to do what it was created to do. Now on migration, an absolutely critical issue has been highlighted by the FDF in their briefing to members today which has been conveniently cherry-picked by the Tories and completely glossed over in their motion. Every single plea by me previously and my role as Minister for Rural Affairs from Ben Macpherson and his role as migration minister and then in rural affairs from Jenny Gilruth. No, I need to make progress and I think it's really important that you listen to these points. In her role, Jenny Gilruth and her role as Minister for Europe and Migration 19 requests for meetings to discuss migration matters every single one of them ignored. So I think it's quite clear which government is doing the irrevocable damage to our food and drink industry here. Because what we're asking for here is what Michelle Thompson really aptly summarised. Now we do need to plan for the future when it comes to these issues. We've set up the commission to look at land-based learning that will be looking at the skills we need in the longer term and for the future. No, I won't at this moment in time. Now we need we need the immediate interventions requested by the industry because as they've stated we're heading into a crisis and these points need immediately addressed. Now in relation to the Labour amendment I couldn't agree more with a lot of the arguments that were made by Colin Smyth and by Martin Whitfield too in some really passionate speeches because it's completely morally unjustifiable that we're seeing an ever-increasing use of food banks in Scotland. No one should be going hungry or be having to rely on food banks in our country. Now we continue to use all the powers at our disposal in Scotland to challenge the root causes of poverty but what doesn't help is when that's completely undermined by the UK Government through actions such as the removal of the £20 universal credit uplift. And when it comes to food banks we'll be publishing an action plan to outline the steps we'll be taking to end the need for them. Now Colin Smyth mentioned the importance of local food strategies and procurement as a number of other members did. We want to harness the power of public sector procurement which is why we committed to tackling that and outlined that in our manifesto. We've got the Food for Life programme in our local authorities. Can we embed that approach across the public sector given the clear benefits it has for health and our local economies and producers? And this was a really well made point that was emphasised by Eleanor Whitham and Martin Whitfield too where Elena outlined the work that was being done by East Ayrshire Council. And I will also come on to address the local food strategy that was mentioned. Now as we have heard there are lots of positive stories in the food and drink industry in Scotland about how communities have pooled together to get food to those most in need. How businesses have innovated to keep going about the green shoots of recovery that we're now starting to see that restrictions are easing in Scotland and in our overseas markets. And just to highlight some of those points from the debate today I mean Willie Rennie mentioned some of the fantastic produce in his own constituency. And I also have to mention when we follow that supply chain through Jamie Scott at the Newport restaurant who with his team always masterfully managed to put that together and always showcasing the very best of Scottish produce. Now Jenny Minto I was absolutely delighted to visit Islay and Collins during the summer recess with Jenny Minto to and was able to sample some of the things that she mentioned for myself able to visit Bruchlady distillery there and see some of the incredible hospitality where we see the best of Scotland being showcased such as by Emma Clark at Glenigdale House. Now Finlay Carson talked a bit about the food in his region. I'm just sorry that the Strannar Oyster Festival hasn't been able to take place. I've visited that on a number of occasions with my colleague Emma Harper. And Elena Whitham talking about Bryce Cunningham who I first met a few years ago and was one of the Scottish Government's climate change champions and it's been fantastic to see how that business has developed and how he's now integrated in that local supply chain. But I couldn't let today pass without also mentioning some of those in my own constituency. Now we've talked about those people who went above and beyond during the crisis last year when people rediscovered the importance of buying local and supporting our small businesses and one such vital business in my own hometown is my local butcher. I think also apt to mention since it's Love Lamb week this week Gavin Brimer and his team went above and beyond to keep people fed during the pandemic in our community reconstructing their business pretty much overnight to ensure that they could keep people fed with a home delivery service. There's been those that have been working to provide local food to local people. What's for tea tonight near Lawrence Kirk and Farm to Table in the Rock and Blay providing their own fresh produce from the farm as well as partnering with other local producers like the Phoenix Bakery and Inverbervie. There's the lobster shop in John's Haven who supply the freshest and best shellfish. Not to mention the food for life in Breakin who've been doing truly amazing work with young people. They received lottery funding to deliver a project that brings together young people in the community to learn about building sustainable local food systems while equipping them with food production skills, looking at the growing processing and distribution of food. We have so much to shout about and truly applaud not just over the course of this food and drink fortnight but well beyond that. Now, in coming to a close, Presiding Officer, the sector is of course built on people over 122,000 across over 17,000 businesses micro enterprises through to some of the biggest players on the global stage. There's the entrepreneurs the farm shops the people diversifying what they farm to create and supply the growing market for sustainably produced food. As I've said, the key ingredient of food and drink is undoubtedly the people. We need to thank all of those who work in our food and drink industries from the primary producers right through the supply chain and really celebrate them all in this food and drink fortnight because they are essentially at the heart of what will make us and what is helping us to be a good food nation. And it's for that reason we have to continue to support them and the people working with the industry. And personally, I look forward to being part of the recovery process and will certainly do everything I can to continue the recovery in order that our food and drink sector flourishes as it rightly deserves to do. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes the debate on supporting success in food and drink in Scotland and it's now time to move on to the next item of business which is consideration of business motion 9999 in the name of George Adam on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau setting out a business programme. And I call on George Adam to move the motion. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I move motion 9999? No member has asked to speak on the motion. The question is that motion 9999 be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed. The next item of business is consideration of business motion 10000 in the name of George Adam on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau on a stage 1 timetable for a bill. Any member who wishes to speak against the motion should press their request to speak button now. I call on George Adam to move the motion. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I'm once again formally moved. Thank you. No member has asked to speak against the motion. Therefore, the question is that motion 10000 be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed. The next item of business is consideration of two parliamentary bureau motions. I ask George Adam on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau to move motions 1001 and 1002 on designation of lead committees for legislative consent memorandum. Once again, thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and formally moved. Thank you. The question on these motions will be put at decision time. There are four questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first is the amendment 990.2 in the name of Rachel Hamilton, which seeks to amend motion 990 in the name of Mary Gougeau on supporting success in food and drink in Scotland be agreed. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed. Therefore, we will move to a vote. There will be a short technical suspension.