 The final item of business is a member's business debate on motion 1737 in the name of Jim Fairlie on Lampol for Saint Andrew's day campaign. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I would invite members who wish to speak in the debate to press their request to speak newid gwybod bydd nesaf, ac rwy'n cael ei ddyneb yn gyfryd. A oes yr olau'r ddweud o'r ddweud, Srinion? Rwy'n cael eu ddweud o'r ddweud, srinion? Roedd hynny'n i, mae'r ddweud yn cyd-dweud o'r ddweudio sain drwyddon. Proses ac mae'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r llwydd gyda i llwydd ysgrifethau Liaethwyrd, MY Mod, Romania, Unedlaethau, ac Ofcór, Barbados, for whom the 30th of November is also their independence day and from today the date in which they officially become a republic. He is also the patron saint of among others, butchers and farm workers, which of course has relevance to today's debate. Here in Scotland the 30th of November, or at least the Monday sure, closest to it was designated as an official bank holiday by this Parliament in 2007 and for me it's absolutely the right and proper that we continue to pay due deference to the man who has been celebrated in Scotland aeth yn ydyn nhw i gael gyda'r honno, yn y cyffredinu 1000 aed oedau. St Andrew wedi helpu'r cychwyn am gyflawni Angus yn ymdifesu'r angen i ddeithas gynnyddio'r cyfnod, Angus yn ymddefnyddio'r angen i dda i gael gyda'r angen i gymryd yma, a dda i gael gyda'r angen i ddau i gael. Yr olygu i ddweud, Angus yn ysgoltyr i ddau ffraith o'r edrych i gael gynnyddio'r angen i gael gynnig i gael eu cyfrannu a ddysgu gynnyddio'r angen i gael. It was from that time on that Saint Andrew and the Salter Cross were adopted as national symbols of an emerging country. In 1320, with the declaration of our growth, when Scotland declared its independence from England an agreement with Pope John XI that Saint Andrew was indeed made our patron saint. With that kind of history, then surely feasting in his name is every bit as important today as it ever was. We all know that burns are celebrated around the world as being one of our most successful exports ever. It would be interesting to know what the economic impact of every burn supper across the globe is. I think it's safe to say that it would be substantial. But what it really does is celebrate our heritage and our culture. Although I have to say personally I've been far too lax in my appreciation of the bard, but you simply can't have a burns night without the haggis no matter where in the world folk know that burns night must have haggis, neeps and ties washed down with a good drum. That association of a particular food and a particular celebration is a recurring theme. Turkey for Christmas, steak pie on New Year's Day and now I would argue Scotch lamb for Saint Andrew's Day. It stands to reason that Saint Andrew's Day should have its own dish that families across the country can enjoy together and I have to say for me it's a bit personal attachment to this as well. In 2009 I was approached by George Purvis who I had come to know very well by selling my alams through him for many years at United Auctions when I was a farmer. He had been attending a Scottish Enterprise Rural Leadership programme where he and sheep farmer Willie Mitchell came up with the idea of developing a lamb dish to be served on Saint Andrew's Day as part of the new bank holiday. The idea was to get more people tasting lamb when it was at its seasonal best and to help it to become a more mainstream meat to be consumed here in Scotland. For me it added to our cultural heritage and a celebration of our saints day. But the personal link was that George needed something to launch the idea and what better way to do that than to have Andrew Fairlith, Scotland's number one chef, create a recipe for Saint Andrew's Day using lamb as the main ingredient. I had been supplying Andy's restaurant for many years with a lamb I farmed and Andy had cooked it at the Queen's Bank during the G8 summit in Gleneagles, a meal which had the French President Jacques Chirac quite literally eating his words when the food prepared for the Queen and world leaders was declared a culinary triumph, with Scotch lamb from a farm less than 60 miles from the Gleneagles as the centrepiece of the meal. Surely a meat that was good enough for the Queen and the most powerful leaders in the world was a meat worthy of the dinner plates of families across Scotland. Who better to devise a recipe using that meat than Scotland's top chef? The man who prepared that meal even shared the name of our patron saint. I asked Andy to get involved, he'd really obliged, and the lamb for Saint Andrew's Day project was launched. Incidentally Andy also is believed to have prepared the world's highest burned supper while on top of Kilimanjaro in 2007, so his connection to our food heritage will for me always be much more than his restaurant and his scholarship. However, fast forward to do just now and that early idea has developed and grown very much through the tenacity and hard work of George Purvis, who was determined to make sure that Saint Andrew's Day and lamb would be synonymous. To that end he's teamed up with Quality Meat Scotland, the National Farmers Union of Scotland, the National Sheep Association of Scotland and the Institute of Agriculture and Actors of Scotland. They set out to get lamb on the menus and into classrooms for thousands of school children right across the country. I mentioned the project to the general manager of the Gleneagles hotel, Connery Leary, and they too have used today to put a lamb dish on for in their restaurants. The restaurant that still bears Andy's name continues to have lamb as its number one best-selling dish, despite the fact that I no longer sell the lamb to them. And the Garden Lobby restaurant right here in the Parliament have also put Scotch lamb on today, so huge congratulations to everyone involved for pulling it together. As far as the school's project is concerned, there are fantastic statistics on the participation and a load of great recipes for what me is the most flavoursome meat of all that we produce, but I'll leave that to other colleagues to talk about. What the project does in spades is demonstrate that co-operation in the industry, literally from field to fork, is absolutely essential. When it happens properly, the success can be brilliant. I'd like to congratulate George Poveris and Willie Mitchell for the idea and for all the organisations who have pulled it together, and let's all do what we can to make Scotch lamb synonymous with St Andrew's Day. Thanks to those colleagues who signed the motion and attended today's debate, and I wish all of you a very happy St Andrew's Day and urge you to have a good plate of Scotch lamb for your dinner. I'm delighted to join Jim Fairlie and colleagues today in marking not only St Andrew's Day, but also the lamb for St Andrew's Day campaign. Without upsetting other livestock farmers, I just want to say that a leg of Scotch lamb is one of my go-tos for a Sunday roast simply cooked with rosemary and garlic. In my constituency in the borders, the landscape houses around a million sheep, and that's 17 per cent of the national total, especially in Teaviet Head and in the Ettrick and Yarrow Valleys. I want to mention at this point a recent visit that I made to Sam McClimans at Tennis with Alex Telfer, and both find champions of black fleece breeding and an opportunity for me to appreciate the excellent work that they do to conserve upland biodiversity. Of course, as the Kelso ram sales held at Springwood for the first time in two years, that is, 20 breeds in 15 rings and a record-breaking turnover of 3.4 million, and a new Kelso record of 65,000 for a Kelso tub. Scotland's beef lamb and pork producers make an important contribution to Scotland's rural economy, contributing £2.1 billion to the annual GDP of Scotland and supporting around 50,000 jobs in farming agricultural supply and processing sectors. In the short time that I have this evening, I want to highlight the importance of promoting Scotch lamb, educating young people about food and the steps that we need to take in the industry to grow in the future—a topic that Jim Fairlie and I stand toe-to-toe on. That debate is so important, and I am so grateful to him for bringing it forward tonight. It is a simple fact that we do not eat enough lamb in Scotland. If we are to meet climate targets, reduce food miles and support our farmers, more consumers should be buying local sustainable lamb as part of our weekly shop. QMS highlighted that Scottish households spent £35.4 million buying lamb from retail outlets like supermarkets and butchers in 2020. Prices are high at the moment and providing a much-needed boost to the industry. However, Scottish households eat less lamb per person than on average across the UK as a whole, and it is estimated that it is around about half of that average. It is no surprise when public procurement in Scotland does not support Scottish lamb in the best way possible. I am not saying that they do not, but not in the best way possible. Right across public authorities, we need to see more local lamb used in dishes to make us a truly good food nation. I have great hope for the good food nation bill, which is due to come before this Parliament, and I am hopeful that lamb for St Andrew's Day campaign will really kick-start a revival in Scotland. It is very encouraging to see the next generation getting involved in the campaign, with more than 11,600 home economics pupils cooking lamb today. It is thanks to the work that Jim Fairly mentioned of my constituent George Purvis of the United Auctions, who started the campaign following a Scottish Enterprise rural leadership project. He is absolutely passionate about it. His fantastic work ensured that young people in the borders, including school pupils from Selkirk, Hoik and Galashill, tried lamb for the first time in their lives, and some of them are from very deprived communities. I firmly believe that countryside education, particularly food and farming, should be at the heart of the curriculum. I have long called for these fantastic initiatives, along with a field to fork initiative to be included in the national syllabus. It is a disgrace that there are just 12 female butchers working here in Scotland. It is a true reflection of the lack of a rural workforce planning that I believe that this Government should be taking on, and the emphasis that we desperately need for practical skills in agriculture. In close, I am grateful for the hard work of all those involved in today's campaign, QMS. Fantastic initiatives such as those really promote our wonderful Scottish produce and encourage the consumer to buy locally and sustainably. What we need now is action. We need clarity over future farm policy, which is for the sake of the lamb industry. I urge the Government to take the positive message of today forward. I want to finish by wishing everyone a very, very happy St Andrew's day, especially Martin Kennedy, Manette Bass, Victor Chestnut and John Davies, who are right now flying the flag for Scotland and for the United Kingdom, and for livestock farmers and lamb producers right across the country at Downing Street tonight to celebrate British food and drink. I welcome the opportunity to speak in this lamb for St Andrew's debate, and congratulate Jim Fairlie on securing it. Jim has highlighted perfectly why we should be eating lamb on St Andrew's day, and I too want to put on record my support for the campaign to promote Scottish lamb on St Andrew's day. Indeed, it is a campaign that I have been aware of and back since my election in 2016. As the motion states, I also congratulate George Purvis on launching this campaign back in 2009, and I welcome how it has grown year on year since then. Presiding Officer, supporting lamb for St Andrew's day are Quality Meets Scotland, NFU Scotland, the Institute of Auctionaries and Appraisers Scotland and the National Sheep Association in Scotland as well. Pre-Covid, I attended the Scottish NSA's annual dinner held at Earthcastle and Stirlinshire when I was a member of the rural committee in the previous session, and I was pleased to carve the lamb in 2019 to help promote Scottish lamb. All those organisations have supported United Auctions campaign to make Scottish lamb PGI the go-to dish for St Andrew's day, just as Turkey is synonymous with Christmas day. Hashtag lamb for St Andrew's day has been a positive action since its introduction, and last year alone there was a 9 per cent uplift in the value of lamb and 6.9 per cent uplift in the volume of lamb being sold in Scotland. In a bold move to supply free lamb to as many Scottish schools as possible during St Andrew's week, the Institute of Auctionaries and Appraisers, IAAS Scotland, launched a lamb bank back in August this year. The scheme allows farmers to sell lamb via IAAS march to donate lamb for the initiative that aims to get as many Scottish school children as possible, cooking and eating lamb on and around St Andrew's day. Because of the lamb bank, the support and promotion of Caught in Meets Scotland and partners this year, 30,000 portions of lamb will be served at 180 participating schools across Scotland. Across Dumfries and Galloway, in my South Scotland region, that includes Lockerby academy and Castle Douglas high school. At both local schools, health and technology pupils have had the option of making either a Scotch lamb burger or Scotch lamb wrap with a crushed garlic peas, and those have also been on the menu in the canteen. Those steps are welcome, as well as promoting our Scotch lamb. It also helped to educate young people, and Rachel Hamilton is absolutely right about that. We are helping to educate young people about Scottish agriculture and about the importance of supporting and promoting the industry and local supply chains. That is also important in tackling the climate emergency. In a response to a question that I asked Jamie Hepburn in chamber, he has agreed to meet with me and NFU representative George Jimison to talk specifically about how we develop rural skills so that there is a wee bit of progress as we move forward. Of course I will. Would I be so bold as to ask the member if I may be able to join the meeting to discuss rural skills in the South of Scotland? Emma Harper I think that that is a great idea, and I will keep you in the loop. It transcends more than politics for us. We need to be working together to promote rural skills development for the future. I too will be checking out the recipes in this tasty little guide to Scotch lamb. I know that we do not really have props in chamber, but this is about lamb and Scotch beef recipes, and it was created by Quality Meat Scotland. The lamb for St Andrew's Day is a good news story for us, and it needs to be promoted, shared and celebrated. In conclusion, I again welcome this debate and encourage all to consider eating Scotch lamb on this St Andrew's Day, and thank the Scottish Government for supporting our lamb and sheep sector. Thank you, Ms Harper. That will be the one and only use of props in this debate. I will call Colin Smyth to be followed by Jenny Minto. Again, four minutes, Mr Smyth. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I wish everyone a happy St Andrew's Day, and thank Jim Fairlie for his motion, which gives us the opportunity to discuss and celebrate Scotland's hugely important sheep sector. It is a sector that accounts for nearly a third of Scotland's agricultural holdings with the Scottish Government estimating that in 2020 output from sheep farming alone totalled nearly £300 million. As someone who represents the rural south of Scotland, including Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders, the home to over 30 per cent of all the breeding sheep in Scotland, I know just how important that sector is. However, although it is a sector that accounts for 8.6 per cent of Scottish agricultural output, as quality meat Scotland found, Scottish households eat on average half the lamb per person than across the UK as a whole. I welcome initiatives such as the Make It Lamb for St Andrew's Day campaign and the role that it plays in promoting Scotch lamb to us Scots. Established, as we have heard by George Purvis of United Auctions and sheep farmer, Willie Mitchell, in 2010, the project really has gone from strength to strength over the past decade. The response to this year's focus on engaging school children through cooking has been excellent. Signing up over 190 schools reaching 30,000 pupils across Scotland. There are also many other community and youth groups getting involved in the lamb for St Andrew's Day initiative this year. I am pleased that many are in the south of Scotland with not only a large number of schools signing up to the lamb banks such as Lockerbycarryming, Castle Douglas High School and local groups such as Dumfries Saints Rugby Club, who are hosting a lamb dinner for the players and supporters. That is a great opportunity to recognise the combined effort of the Institute of Auctioneers in the Fraser Scotland and QMS to make the campaign accessible to young people. By donating Scotch lamb and providing recipes and educational material to Scottish schools, they are enhancing learning around choosing locally produced food as a sustainable choice and encouraging important discussions on climate change and Scottish agriculture. It is important to teach our children and young people where their food comes from and to integrate local supply chains into home economics lessons is an excellent way to do that. We need to build on that and do more to provide better information about what eating seasonally and locally means, embedding in our curriculum farming and food production at every level of education. Having Scottish produce on the menu in our schools also reminds us of the need to do more to ensure a renewed focus on local procurement. Cutting food miles and food waste has never been more important. We know that one of the best ways to do that is by valuing Scottish produce, including with a local first public procurement policy. We need a step change and I will procure our food with ingredient origin accounted for in local buying and stronger support for local businesses to navigate the procurement process itself. The sheep sector is performing strongly at the moment, but when I had the pleasure of recently visiting QMS chair Kate Rowles-Farmett, I was hoping near people's. We talked about the fact that lamb prices were on the way up and it still costs more to shear the sheep than the bags of wool that we were standing beside would sell for, although happily wool prices are beginning to recover. However, it remains a hugely challenging time for many across agriculture as they continue to deal with both the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the uncertainty surrounding Brexit. The consequential trade deals such as those with Australia and New Zealand, which many fear rightly could lead to unfettered access to large volumes of imported goods that could be produced in farming systems, not currently permitted here. There is a real need for the Scottish Government also to give more clarity on the agricultural support scheme that will replace the common agricultural policies to help our farmers to reach net zero. Our agriculture sector really did step up to the mark throughout the pandemic, and I want to place on record my thanks to our farmers and crofters for working so tirelessly to keep us all fed. However, it is now time for the Government and this Parliament to step up to the mark to give our farmers and crofters a direction and back in their need to ensure that they can meet the challenges that they face and continue to produce the high-quality Scottish produce such as Scotch lamb that we rightly celebrate this St Andrew's day and beyond. Thank you, Mr Smith, and I call on Jenny Minto to be followed by Mardo Fraser. Again, four minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and a very happy St Andrew's day to everyone. Thank you to Jim Fairlie for bringing this debate to the chamber. I know how personal this campaign is to him, and his well-cultivated speech, not to mention his lamb, pays testament to that. Today we celebrate Scotland's patron saint and what a better way to celebrate him than with one of Scotland's tastiest red meats, lamb. I agree with Rachel Hamilton that there is nothing better than roast lamb with garlic and rosemary. I want to congratulate Quality Meat Scotland for their decade-long project Scotland's Lamb for St Andrew's Day. Last year, chef Tony Singh supported the campaign by creating a Scottish lamb curry infused with tomato and cask strength malt whisky. The dish, which is a combination of two of Scotland's finest ingredients, with an Indian-inspired twist. Though living on Islay, I would suggest a Calhomyn malt whisky from Islay's farm distillery. As Colin Smith and Emma Harper have said, there is a lot of creativity happening in a lot of our schools, with pupils serving Scotch lamb street cafe style to others using its part of their home economics class, and Perthshire Scouts are using their campfire skills serving up Scotch lamb. What fantastic ways to introduce culinary skills and understanding of where our food comes from and a bit of history to our kids. Now, I grew up in St Andrew's and grew up being told how St Andrew's came to be. According to legends, St Rul was instructed by an angel to take as many of St Andrew's bones from Greece as he could to the far western ends of the earth in order to protect them from the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Rul and his followers set sail for the west, eventually finding themselves off Scotland, where they were shipwrecked in 347. The story goes that Rul was welcomed by the Pictish king and established a church in what is now St Andrew's, dedicated to St Andrew and housing his relics. As Jim Fairlie has said, St Andrew is not only the patron saint of Scotland, but of several countries including Barbados, Romania and Ukraine, and cities in Italy, Portugal, Malta, the Philippines and in Greece. I propose that, on St Andrew's day, we celebrate our patron saint with our home-produced lamb and Scotland's spirit of internationalism, with dishes from around the world connected to St Andrew. Here are a few to tempt your taste buds. I am starving, so my stomach will probably start rumbling here. Traditional Romanian lamb stew fat, marinated in Fethysga wine, hearty lamb douchanina, an age-old national Ukrainian dish, lamb clefko, a rustic traditional Greek recipe, or the Portuguese lamb skew, chanfanda borego, with peri peri giving it a slight spicy kick. Today's guardian podcast, Barbados becomes a republic, and Britain faces a reckoning, is a powerful listen. It traces Barbados' journey through colonialism, slavery, liberation, emancipation to independence 55 years ago on 30 November, and today, as Jim has said, becomes a republic. No doubt, Barbadian bhajan lamb stew will be part of the celebrations in many Barbados' homes. Jenny Minto has just described loads of recipes that I have got lamb in them. I am just wondering if she would agree that the nutritional benefits of lamb are also evident, that it is high in protein and a three-ounce serving has 25 grams of protein, so it is really beneficial for your health as well. Jenny Minto. I thank Emma Harper for that intervention, and yes, I do agree. As I said earlier, lamb is actually one of my favourite dishes, and we do not have turkey on Christmas day at home, we have lamb, so there you go. Presiding Officer, let's make Scotch lamb, one of the celebratory dishes of the Scottish calendar. Let's support our farmers, crofters and butchers and cook lamb for St Andrew's day, and then celebrate the tradition of Scottish thriftiness with heartwarming stovies made from the leftovers on December 1. Thank you, Ms Minto. Congratulations on your perseverance. I now call Murdo Fraser for again four minutes, Mr Fraser. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I thank Jim Fairlie for bringing the motion to the chamber. I congratulate him on securing the debate. Both he and Jenny Minto talked about St Andrew, who courses the patron saint of Scotland. Today, as a Fife MSP and therefore someone who represents St Andrew's, I was very pleased to be involved a number of years ago in the cross-party campaign that was led by Dennis Canaman and others to get St Andrew's Day recognised as a national holiday. We were eventually successful in that, and the cross-party group in this Parliament on St Andrew's Day carries on with that particular tradition. It is very important, too. Jim Fairlie and other members who have spoken are absolutely right to praise Scottish lamb for its nutritional benefit and for its excellent taste. I am sure that Jim Fairlie would agree with me that the king among Scottish lamb is, of course, Perthshire lamb, which Mr Fairlie himself used to produce. I can remember eating Mr Fairlie's lamb before he sadly abandoned farming for the much less reputable trade of being a politician, but farming has lost its hollywood's gain. A number of members have talked about the excellent initiative lamb for St Andrew's Day. I will need to be doing more to promote Scottish produce, and in particular getting lamb on to the menus in schools and elsewhere throughout the country. That is very welcome. Emma Harper mentioned the issue of the climate emergency. It is worth reflecting on that just for a moment. One of the most serious threats to livestock farming today is a misunderstanding of the role that is played by agriculture in relation to carbon emissions, and in particular livestock farming. We see councils talking about bringing forward meat-free days in schools. We saw that in COP26 recently, when there were calls for vegan-only menus to be served at COP26. People thought that producing meat was somewhere contributing to carbon emissions. We need to be very clear about the science here, because the pasture grass that grows on Scottish hills on which sheep graze is a carbon sink and does not contribute to carbon emissions and to climate change. We need to be very clear in putting forward the science on that, so there is no misunderstanding. Fortunately, the organisers of COP26 were very clear about that. They did not give in to those calls. In fact, they made sure that Scottish beef was on the menu at COP26, and quite rightly so. That is a battle that we must continue to fight and make sure that our farmers who are producing top-quality produce are contributing to the fight against climate change and not making matters worse. I will bring my remarks to a close by wishing everybody a happy St Andrew's Day, and I look forward to all those excellent lamb recipes that we will be experimenting on later. Excellent contribution, but very light on the rest of these, if I may say so. I invite the minister to respond to the debate for around seven minutes. I am afraid that I do not have a single recipe to offer you, but I will begin by wishing you and all members a very happy St Andrew's Day and by giving my thanks to Jim Fairlie for lodging this motion and for paying tribute to the folks who were involved in the founding of it. I would also like to thank all the members for taking part this afternoon. What better way to celebrate one of our national days than by enjoying one of our national dishes? The St Lamb for St Andrew's Day initiative is an excellent way to bring together Scotland's cultural and culinary heritage. I hope that it will not only increase the popularity of Scottish lamb, but draw attention to the value of Scottish agriculture and food production. As has been rehearsed, the campaign started just over 10 years ago and has gone from strength to strength. It is fantastic, for example, to see that more than 190 schools are signed up to the campaign, which we reckon is reaching 30,000 pupils all over Scotland and is 75 more schools than last year alone. As my colleague Jenny Minto mentioned, youth groups are also involved. I hope that the Perthshire Scout group, who have 35 young explorers camping at Greenhill and Dunning, will enjoy their challenge of dishing up two lamb recipes using their campfire cooking skills. Perhaps they can draw on some of the international recipes that Jenny Minto shared with us. It is fantastic that young people in Scotland are learning how to prepare lamb and how delicious it is and that they are doing so as part of celebrating our culture and history. Of course, congratulations have to go principally, I think, as we would all agree, to our Scotch lamb producers. During this year, there were over 15,000 sheep holdings in Scotland. That is almost a third of all Scotland's agricultural holdings and highlights the centrality of lamb to Scottish agriculture. While we celebrate them, we cannot fail to recognise the challenges that our lamb producers and livestock farmers more generally are facing. I want to recognise that and give them an assurance that the Scottish Government is fully behind them. The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted us all. It has taken something from everyone and so much from some, but amid the crisis, our food producers, processors and retailers worked so hard in ensuring that we had food on our plates. Amid the anxiety and distress of that period, I think that there was a glimmer of hope in a renewed appreciation for what our food and other key workers do. To help our food producers to recover from Covid-19, the Scottish Government has allocated £10 million to support the Scottish Food and Drink Recovery Plan. That will also help to address the impacts of the UK's decision to pursue a hard Brexit amid a global health crisis. That was a move that Scotland roundly rejected, which has led to expense and other barriers for the third of our lamb exports that would otherwise be traded with the EU and Northern Ireland. I would say that today, St Andrew's Day and the importance of lamb, it is not the day to bring about constitutional grievance, particularly when QMS cites that 64 per cent of all exports of lamb go to the rest of the UK. I am afraid that, although that might be inconvenient to Rachel Hamilton for the food producers and farmers in this country, there is not a day that goes past when they are not concerned about what her party and Government have done. The UK Government has rushed to sign major trade deals with major lamb-producing countries such as New Zealand and Australia. No, I really must make progress, thank you, you've had your time. Those trade deals, economic modelling suggests that, in the case of Australia, could produce a 0.02 per cent increase in GDP and, with New Zealand waiting for it, 0.0 per cent. That is all against a contraction of GDP of 4.9 per cent caused by Brexit. I raise that because it is a real concern to the Scottish Government and to NFU leaders who have variously stated that the deals will open the UK to significantly extra volumes of imported food while securing almost nothing for them in return. That latest deal offers virtually nothing to Scottish farmers and crofters in return, but it risks undermining our valuable sectors by granting access to large volumes of imported goods that could not be produced in systems like ours, and I'll give way on that point. I'm grateful to the minister for giving away. It's rather sad that we've had such a discordant note from the Scottish Government on what has been a very consensual debate. On the subject of Brexit, I wonder if she would reflect on the comments from the SNP's economic adviser, Professor Mark Blyth, that independence would be Brexit x 10. It might be inconvenient for members on the Tory benches to hear exactly what their party's policies mean for farmers right now, but this is an important day to mention that, as we're all hoping to enjoy what they're producing for us. Of course, we've got another challenge. It's been mentioned, including by Murdo Fraser, the need to get to net zero by 2045. We must do it fairly, and that requires action at every level, including in livestock production. Scotland's farmers and food producers will be and are already at the forefront of that work. Those on the agricultural reform implementation oversight board, which my colleague Mary Gougeon co-chairs with Martin Kennedy of NFUS, are already working on how we can transform and support farming and food production in Scotland to become a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture. Our work covers all aspects of agriculture, including the meat and dairy sectors, and is geared towards meeting the challenges of our climate targets, of supporting biodiversity and of crucially continuing to produce sustainable food. On the topic of challenges, a major challenge is ensuring that more people in Scotland have reliable and affordable access to nutritious, locally sourced and produced good-quality food such as Scotchlam. The Good Food Nation Bill, which we introduced in early October, seeks to do just that. It will make sure that there are links between national food policies and those of local authorities, and we're already making strides with moves to ensure that more local produce is served in our public sector. I'm just going to close, but thank you very much. In closing, I thank everyone who is taking part in the lamb for St Andrew's Day campaign. I thank Quality Meat Scotland for their on-going support. I thank those who Jim Fairlie mentioned, who founded this excellent campaign. Most of all, I thank all those working year round in all weathers to produce Scotchlam, which is among the best in the world. It is by buying, cooking and eating quality Scotchlam on St Andrew's Day, and, indeed, throughout the year that we can support the sector and achieve our local food ambitions. I hope that, if you didn't already enjoy the quality Scotchlam that was available in the Parliament canteen this afternoon, you will go home and enjoy some this evening. Thank you very much, minister. That is an invitation. I'm sure we will all take up that. That concludes the debate, and I close this meeting of Parliament.