 The final item of business today is the member's business debate on motion number 15422 in the name of Fiona McLeod on fair trade fortnight. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put and I'd be grateful if those members who wish to speak in the debate could please press the request to speak buttons now. I call on Fiona McLeod to open the debate. Seven minutes please. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and thank you to all the members who signed my motion to allow this to come before Parliament in what, of course, will be my last member's debate. I think that it's quite fitting that it's on fair trade. Fair trade fortnight, 23 February to 13 March, is something that I have worked on in Parliament and also in my constituency over my years in Parliament. This year's fair trade fortnight, the tagline is sit down for breakfast, stand up for farmers, which I think is a really important message to send out across the world. Sit down for breakfast, it chines with this Government's belief in having a healthy lifestyle, so we start this day right with a healthy breakfast, but I love the fact that it encompasses having a healthy breakfast with a healthy respect for farmers around the world. World of course has a great reputation in fair trade, one of the first fair trade nations in 2013. I think that a vast majority of our local authorities have now achieved fair trade status. My own Eastern Bartonshire achieved that status in 2007, and there are in numerous towns and villages around Scotland who have achieved fair trade status. I've been doing a lot of travelling around the country in the last couple of months, and it's just wonderful as you drive into a town or a village to see their name emblazoned, but with pride, the fair trade status symbol underneath the name of their town. Of course, in my constituency, that would include Lensie, Bearsden and Mogai. What is also amazing about the way that Scotland has approached fair trade is that we've done it as a community and we've done it across generations. Schools can achieve fair trade status. Churches were among the first to get involved in the fair trade regime. In my constituency, eight schools have achieved fair trade status. I think that I've said my constituency now about three times, Presiding Officer. I'm not going to stop saying it because I've only got three weeks left to do that. I think that we'll indulge you. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, because in three weeks' time at midnight, I ceased to be the MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden. Perhaps that is an opportunity if you will indulge me where I can say thank you to my constituents for supporting me over the last five years. There's something very special about representing the constituency that you've lived in all your days, because it's representing your neighbours, your family and your friends. It has been a great privilege for me to be able to do that since 2011. My constituency of Strathkelvin and Bearsden has a large number of events going on over fair trade fortnight. I'd like to mention a couple of them. Last weekend, on 28 February, Lensie held its big breakfast. This is the third or fourth year in a row that Lensie, as a fair trade town, has done that. Thankfully this year, she didn't ask me to judge the cakes, because if I can tell you, my friends will know that I'm not averse to a nice bit of cake, but when you're faced with 30 cakes before 10 o'clock in the morning, it starts off feeling great and it ends up… I always felt really sorry for the folk that I was judging at the end, because I'm sure I wasn't judging them to the same standard. This year, they had a colouring competition instead—much more sensible. Also in one of my local supermarkets, Bearsden and Mogai fair trade held a stall in the foyer of the supermarket. It's a supermarket that already stocks fair trade, sells it, but this was an opportunity as folk came through the door for Bearsden and Mogai fair trade group to highlight the work that the supermarket was doing, but most importantly the work that fair trade does to support farmers and producers all around the world. Of course, I can't possibly not mention Balmor coach house in my constituency set up over 25 years ago, long before I think most folk understood what fair trade was, but Balmor coach house set up all those years ago and has raised over £1 million through selling fair trade goods. That's £1 million raised in my constituency but invested, but more importantly £1 million invested back in to the farmers and the workers around the world to give them a decent wage for a decent day's work. There are other initiatives across my constituency where we've been quite trailblazers. Fair trade nurseries, I think in the last couple of years we've begun to take that for granted. We've seen the fair trade flags outside our primary schools and we're increasingly hearing about fair trade nurseries while those were piloted in Easton-Bartonshire and it was the success of them that went on to see them throughout Scotland. Another area that piloted in Easton-Bartonshire in 2010 was school uniforms. School uniforms from fairly traded cotton. The work that some of my constituents have done on that, and I have talked about it before in Parliament, has led to, I think, a really important and it's back to what I was talking about earlier about it being across generations. When you go to primary school and you write down to the very basics of your uniform comes with a fair trade label on it, that means that our youngest children are talking about what does fair trade mean. I think for them in terms of school uniforms and the fair trade footballs that we have, and I always remember the day that I made a minister and the Labour Party stood up and of course when you made a minister on your own you're the one that gets all the abuse. They don't single one person out. I got no abuse and the Labour Party actually commented on the fact that just the week before I'd been at a fair trade event for fair trade footballs, so I've kind of gone off a tangent there, but for our young people to go to school and find their uniform as a fair trade label on it to play football and find their football as a fair trade label on it, I think it's really important because one of the things that they learn at the earliest age is no matter how much we talk about injustice and inequalities in Scotland the fact that our young people know that when they're wearing their school uniform and they're playing their football these have not been made by child labour in other parts of the world, I think is a very important lesson for our young folk to learn and that's not in any way negating health inequalities that there are in Scotland but it puts it in perspective for a lot of our young folk about just how awful life can be for young people around the world. And perhaps the last thing I want to mention is taking part in the procurement bill debate in the Parliament and actually wondering this isn't really my subject, why am I talking about the procurement debate because it was important that in that discussion about the procurement bill and in our resultant act we talked about ethical procurement about fairly traded procurement and perhaps that's one of the best examples of how this Parliament and this Government understands that by fair trade and fairly trading we can actually make sure that everything we do is with respect not just here in Scotland but around the world. Thank you Presiding Officer. Thank you and I hope you feel that you were suitably indulged not just because part of your constituency used to be in mind before the boundary changes. We now turn to the open debate, speeches of around four minutes or so and a calm alchem trism to be followed by Liam McArthur. Presiding Officer, I welcome this debate on encouraging fair trade in Scotland and congratulate Fiona McLeod on introducing it and join her in congratulating all the individuals and businesses who have endeavored to support farmers and producers across the world and endorse the fair trade ethos. That involves, of course, ensuring that the process of producing goods protects workers' conditions and that the trade of those goods preserves their environment and supports them financially. In 2006 the then Scottish Executive, as it was called, and the Welsh Assembly Government collaboratively agreed criteria for fair trade nation status. The criteria required that we achieve a range of nationwide targets set by the then Scottish Executive. Those include encouraging the take-up of fair trade groups in local authorities and in higher education institutions, achieving fair trade status in our cities and promoting fair trade products as a natural choice for all consumers. They also required a commitment from this Parliament to make annual statements in support of fair trade as a principle, marking fair trade fortnight each year and encouraging faith groups, schools, trade unions and business networks to pledge their support. The conclusion of the 2012 report that measured progress in Scotland against those criteria states that, and I quote, the evidence submitted demonstrates in the opinion of the forum that Scotland has now met the criteria agreed between the Welsh Assembly Government and the Scottish Executive in 2006 and can therefore declare itself a fair trade nation. This is certainly something to celebrate and encourage members here to continue to raise awareness in our constituencies of the availability of fair trade options. In my local constituency, we have the excellent golden-acre fair trade, which runs a regular stall at St Serf's Church in Ferry Road, a stall that, in the tradecraft top-seller category, has been there for three years in a row. It also accepts food donations to be distributed to the tenants and residents in Muirhouse Group, who run a community shop and food bank in a neighbouring community. Their purpose in North Edinburgh is to provide high-quality and fresh products to the community, promote the fair trade ethos and give crucial support to low-income families in the area in the constituency. Their tireless work was recognised in 2015 with accolades at the Lord Provost Fair Trade Awards, an annual award in its 10th year, which recognises the difference that residents, businesses and schools make in promoting fair trade in Edinburgh. The award categories include fair trade achievement and fair trade faith community. That debate falls in a week of awareness campaigns that look to highlight the difficulties faced by farmers across the world in an increasingly competitive global market and seek to show how local solutions can provide an answer to global problems. The sit-down for breakfast stand-up for farmers initiative draws public attention to the many millions of farmers and workers in developing countries who strive to produce our food but live with uncertainty as to where their own next meal is coming. That is a week in which businesses can improve their fair trade credentials by highlighting through social media their own achievements in promoting products and their commitment to the fair trade ethos in the long term. Campaigners and businesses up and down the country will hold hundreds of breakfast events as part of fair trade fortnight 2016, with the u8theat hashtag used to spread the word on social media. The Fair Trade Foundation knows that consumers value businesses that place the ethics of fair trade, social responsibility and the wellbeing of farmers and workers as a central feature of their activities. By doing so, they demonstrate that profit can and should work to the benefit of all, and there should be no room for exploitation. According to the Fair Trade Foundation report of 2013, half of the world's hungry people, nearly £400 million, are estimated to live on small farms. Without the protection of fair pay and conditions, those farmers struggle to eat. We can play a small part in changing their circumstances simply by making a different consumer choice. If we have the means to do it, we should buy fair trade and use the pound in our pockets to improve the wellbeing of millions throughout the world. I thank Fiona McLeod for bringing the debate, acknowledging her long-standing commitment to the issue of fair trade, and congratulating her on making the debate possible. On the subject of congratulations, if I could draw on another lifelong passion of Fiona McLeod to make her aware that Stuart Bain of Orkney Library was voted Librarian of the Year, I am sure that she will join me in offering our congratulations. I participated in a similar debate two years ago, and George Adam led it. At that stage, we were looking forward to Scotland achieving fair trade nation status. This year, as Fiona McLeod indicated, the theme is sit down for breakfast, stand up for farmers. I am tempted, given the mess that is being made with cap payments at the moment, to point out that perhaps some of the farmers and crofters locally are making much the same plea. I was sorry, however, that Fiona McLeod and I were unable to organise a fair trade breakfast. It is the most important meal of the day, and I think that it probably would have helped me to get through the corporate body meeting that I had this morning. As other speakers have indicated, this is a movement that is going from strength to strength right across Scotland. Like previous speakers, I will perhaps draw on some of the examples of that in my own Orkney constituency. In relation to Westray and Papua Westray, they have been in the vanguard. I think that I had the privilege of helping them to launch their bid for fair trade island status shortly after my election in 2007. On that occasion, the genuine enthusiasm right across the community for the endeavour at all ages was very evident. Epitomising that perhaps has been the progress made by Westray Chutney. Ann Rindall is now the first Orkney fair trade food producer. She has gained fair trade accreditation for most of the range of her products. I think that this is a real achievement that shows genuine commitment. It is no surprise perhaps that Westray junior high school reached fair achiever status in time with the last debate that I participated in. That was, at that stage, the highest award possible for schools, since when they have won the Margaret Demondecca award, which is the UK award for the best fair trade school initiative. Not to be outdone, pupils at Kirkwall Grammar School and other fair trade schools in my constituency have also been busy. Theo Oemmy remains the driving force at KGS. Last week, they were able to host a visit by Parnell Intelligent. Along with the local primary schools, Glateness and Pabdeol Primary, Parnell Intelligent was able to spend time with pupils. She is one of the many remarkable women involved in the fair trade movement. She started work at 13 in a sweatshop in Mauritius. She learned English by listening to BBC World Service and had never been out of Mauritius before coming to Scotland last year for fair trade fortnight. I am absolutely convinced that her engagement with the young people in Orkney will have had a real and lasting impact on them and their commitment to fair trade in the years ahead. The commitment goes far wider in Orkney. It is worth putting on record the efforts of the North Link ferries staff, who have been using fair trade in local goods as part of their hospitality, offering the staff to wear cool schools, fair trade cotton polo shirts, and they are hosting a ferry to a fair trade future on 10 March. All very commendable endeavours in spreading the word. I wish to pay tribute to Orkney Islands Council for the role that it has played in bringing together what is a genuinely community effort. Parnell Intelligent claims that fair trade changed her life. According to Theo Wemi, it is putting schools at the heart of the movement for change. It is great for young people because it is fun and there is part of something happening all over the world. It is great for farmers who are earning a fair price and feeling the support of people on the other side of the world. I thank Fiona McLeod again. I do not know whether that is her final speech but I certainly welcome her efforts on the issue as well as other issues in which we hear a common interest. I thank all those who are involved in events in Orkney and across Scotland and wish the movement and those who support continued success in the future. I thank Fiona McLeod for bringing the debate to the chamber. I was a cross-party group on the fair trade convener for a number of years and I led the debate. I was thinking just before when we had a full house at Fiona McLeod's speech, I was wondering where they all were for the four years that I led the debate, but I am taking it entirely personally and I will take it up with them at a later date. If I could talk for a moment about Fiona, it is an important issue to her as well, but I have known Fiona McLeod for a very long time. She has been like a mother figure to me in this Parliament. I mean that in the best ways, not in any negative. We have known each other, she scolded me when I have needed scolded, she has made me feel better when I have needed a shoulder to cry on. If I should be lucky enough to represent the good people of Paisley after me, then she will be someone I will dearly miss in this chamber when that time comes. Mr Adam, have you heard the adage about stopping digging? If I could possibly start talking about fair trade again, it is an extremely important couple of weeks when we have fair trade fortnight. It is the time when we get absolutely everything, the focus for everybody that is involved in the movement in Scotland to get it together. When we became a fair trade nation, it was actually during that fortnight that we managed to announce everything. It was interesting because when you look at how it has all worked, fair trade in Scotland has effectively moved on from the churches and various religious organisations doing things out the back of cars, selling goods out of various feats and things like that. We now have a situation where there are shops that specialise in it and there are also the mainstream shops dealing with the goods. That is incredible in my lifetime when you have seen that change. However, one of the things that focuses on this week, which has already been mentioned a couple of weeks, is the sit-down for breakfast stand-up for farmers. I was listening to Fiona McLeod when she said about good, healthy breakfast. I watched my wife, Stacey, eat that fair trade banana fritter thing this morning, and I do not think that that is precisely healthy. It may be very good for the people who are trading in the goods that are there, but I do not think that it is a healthy breakfast. She is going to do her bit for fair trade fortnight and probably eat it as often as she possibly can. However, one of the things that the fair trade foundation has said on her website is that they have used a Martin Luther King quote when they talk about this, which is, before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you have depended on more than half the world. I think that, as always, Martin Luther King has managed to summarise everything in a very easy line for us all to all these decades later to re-quote, because it tells us that there are people all over the world who are in a situation where it is absolutely terrible the way that large businesses have been working with them and the conditions have had to deal with, and the fact that fair trade, the premium, offers those people and individuals the chance to rebuild their communities, to bring education. In some of the people that we talked in my time as CPG convener, we were talking to women's organisations where the women weren't encouraged to be educated, but they had, through the fair trade premium, managed to set up schools and make sure not only were they educated but they also had the opportunity of having a trade and actually been able to trade their goods in a fair manner. I think that that is what, at a very basic level, that is what fair trade is all about. It is about us as a nation. Yes, it is great being Scotland being a fair trade nation, but it is what we actually do with that. It is what we do as a fair trade nation, and how we deal with that. We are telling the world that we won't stand back and actually allow big business to dictate what they want to do. A perfect example is when you talk about footballs and sporting goods. A classic example, Presiding Officer, because of the sponsorship of major sporting organisations, it automatically makes these products look cool, look better. I am probably talking about 1980s prices here, but an £80 of trainers is actually only made for about £20 or £10 or something like that. Those are the kind of things that are wrong and morally wrong, and we have to make sure that we get to a stage that we encourage everyone else to look at this closely when there are these major sporting events. I know that the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow was a fairly traded event, and I think that we have to look at that as well. I think that sporting endeavours and sports organisations are the way forward to taking that to the next stage. I thank Fiona McLeod for bringing it, and everything that she has helped me with over the years in support and guidance. I know that I have not been easy to work with and deal with, but you have been an absolute saint, but Liam McArthur says here and here. One of the things that I would like to say is that this is about our place in the world and Scotland actually showing to the world that we want to be part and we want to make a difference in people's life, and it is part of who we are. Thank you very much. I would like to start by congratulating Fiona McLeod on a very good parliamentary career and also on securing time in the Parliament for this debate. Governments around the world are looking to trade as a driver of economic growth and poverty reduction. Trade is central to the sustainable development goals, which is the new global poverty reduction sustainability framework that has been adopted. We are all aware of the fact that trade can be somewhat of a blunt tool that can harm as well as help poverty reduction. We must ensure that the policies of our Governments be that local, Scottish or UK level join up with those girls in order not to undermine the needs of the poorest in our world. Otherwise, it can be a case of giving with one hand and taking away with the other. Trade brings something potentially even more important than poverty reduction. It empowers people and encourages entrepreneurs to start a small holding and take control over their own lives. By ensuring that those farmers, many of the least developed countries in our world, can produce and sell their goods to fair and decent standards, we also give them a better chance in life. Those farmers are used in members of co-operatives with their own elected representatives, which facilitates decision making when it comes to how profits are spent. That system has had tangible benefits for small-scale farmers, and profits raised have often contributed to building schools, roads and other structural improvements that have been identified as prioritised by the community, including, of course, new water wells and irrigation. I might say that fair trade products often taste better. I refer particularly to the bunches of small yellow bananas that get in cellophane bags, which always seem to be better than the other ones, I do not know why. Effects of fair trade practices are clear for all to see. There are now 1,210 fair trade certified producer organisations in 74 countries worldwide, and more than 1.5 million farmers and workers in fair trade certified producer organisations. Scotland's contribution to that effort is very notable. However, in order to be recognised as a fair trade nation, Scotland had to meet a number of criteria to demonstrate that people had sufficient knowledge and interest in fair trade. As part of the process, more than 100 per cent of counties and local authority areas have active fair trade groups working towards fair trade status, with at least 55 per cent of local authority and all cities achieving fair trade status. My region of hands and lines is a fair trade zone. My local town of Oban became a fair trade town in 2006. As a fair trade nation, Scotland has been a key contributor, which has helped to maintain momentum to the cause. The Scottish Fair Trade Forum has been a crucial factor in engaging businesses and suppliers across Scotland in embracing the principles of fair trade. I am pleased to see that the west coast deli in Alipw is among four page lists of trade suppliers in fair trade, which goes on to Marks and Spencer in Inverness, for example. That issue is not a situation that should be taken for granted, however. Too often, many of the farmers who supply necessities such as food and clothing for consumers, the basic needs that we have come to take for granted are left without them themselves. They are very same items. The producers are sometimes forced to work for genuinely exploitive employers without the essential employment or human rights that we have been accustomed to in the western world. Fair trade fundamentally provides vital protection and support for these producers, and producers have even gone so far as to say that farming would be impossible without it. Fair trade is exactly what the name suggests. It is about making trade fair and ensuring decent working conditions and wages. That, in turn, leads to individuals having more control over their lives and giving them dignity and respect. Every member of this Parliament, every member of the public and every consumer worldwide has the opportunity to contribute to the effort by adapting their everyday choices, and I hope that they will continue to do so. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. My thanks to Fiona McLeod for bringing this debate and this motion forward. I know that she is not one that likes praise, nonetheless. I hope that she will indulge us because it is her last member's debate, not her last speech. I am sure that she will make some contributions in the next few weeks, but it is certainly her last member's debate, and I would just like to concur with what George Adam said in terms of what a great example he has been. It is particularly for first timers in this Parliament, such as myself, and particularly for those who seek to represent a constituency that, if we were half as good at doing that and mentioning our constituency and looking after our constituency's interests, we would be doing not a bad job in the slightest. I am so well done for being at the forefront of the issue to Fiona McLeod, but I also thank you for setting a very good example for some of the first timers, such as myself, as well. On the actual issue that Fiona McLeod has brought forward, just to put it into some context, we still suffer and people still suffer a huge amount of poverty that sometimes we can forget about. Of course, we have poverty in Scotland, and many of us will see that in and around our constituencies, but the type of poverty that I am talking about here, the absolute abject poverty that is still faced by one third of the world. Two billion people still live under two dollars a day, on the less than two dollars a day. I mean, I do not believe what a third of the entire human race under two dollars a day is, and it is almost unimaginable how people make a living or make a life out of such small amounts. Of course, as we know, and as we have seen from many reports, particularly from Oxfam, there is plenty of wealth around the world to compensate for that. On fair trade, it also fits very much into our ambitions, as the First Minister highlighted in summer of last year, in terms of the implementation of the sustainable development goals or the global goals. They are not just applicable to the developing world but applicable here in Scotland, too. The First Minister was resolutent in saying that we have to make sure that we follow through and we implement them here in Scotland. Fair trade is very much a part and parcel of that. We are, as many members have mentioned, one of only two fair trade nations in the world. As again, many members, including Lately Jamie McGregor, mentioned that that was not done through a simple tick-box exercise but very robust. Quite challenging criteria had to be met in order to fulfil that and achieve that status. Many members have also mentioned the theme of this year's fair trade fortnight, sitting down for breakfast and standing up for farmers. I had the great pleasure of being at the launch of the school's event for fair trade fortnight in Govan's Pierce Institute, joined by many schools from up and down the country that were there to celebrate and launch fair trade fortnight. Schools and young people are definitely the key to the fair trade movement and to ensure that the flame of the fair trade movement continues to burn very brightly indeed. There are 1,000 schools in Scotland that are a part of the fair trade school scheme. 400 schools already have fair trade status. That is amazing when I spoke to the primary school children and the high school children who were there. The amount of schools that now have a fair trade society, a fair trade club, fair trade stalls and a fair trade tuck shop is incredible. The understanding of fair trade and why it is important is much greater than when I was in school and I was in school not even that long ago necessarily. I did not know much about fair trade. It was hardly mentioned at all when I was growing up in school but now every single or so many schools and a lot of our children seem to know about the value of fair trade and why it is such an important thing to be involved in. Why is it important? It is important for a number of reasons. It is important that our children know about it because they are often the ones that are challenging the attitudes of adults. I spoke to a father who was there with his daughter. She was picking up an award for the work that she had done on fair trade. He said to me that, when they go shopping, it is the daughter who says, pick that bag of rice or pick up that teabag or those teabags or pick up that chocolate, as often is the case, because they are fair trade products as opposed to some of the other ones. So the children are very much shaping the attitudes of adults. That is why getting young people into a fair trade movement is important. Secondly, this really is about fairness for children. Although we are standing up for farmers, the reason that I have spoken to many farmers who are part of fair trade schemes is that they do not want fair trade simply because they want their degree day or they want more money at all or actually just because inherently it is fair, although that is a very respectable reason to back fair trade, they want it because of their children. Every single farmer that I spoke to always mentioned their children's education. When I was in Malawi, they said that we want it because we want to send our children to school, we have to pay school fees, have to pay for jotters, have to pay for uniforms, have to pay for x, y, z, and it is always about the children. We should support fair trade because it is a fair thing to do, but the connection between children understanding fair trade here means that children get an education in some of the most underdeveloped parts of the world. It is an important connection that sometimes we can lose sight of. In terms of the Scottish Government, we are very pleased to support a number of fair trade products. Not just the usual, we hear about chocolate often, we hear about coffee often, we hear about bananas often as well. I am delighted that through the international development fund we have supported just trading Scotland in an organisation that I know many members here, particularly George Adam, has been quite involved in, but many members here have promoted. They have rice, killing barrel rice from Northern Malawi. They have had this rice challenge, 90 kg, which asks schools, colleges and others to ask groups to sell 90 kg of rice. That is the amount that a Malawian rice farmer would need to sell to allow him or her to send a child to secondary school for one year. Just trading Scotland has recently rebranded its product. It looks great, and it is in some retail shops up and down the country, which is great. Not only do you have new food products, but you also have non-food products, Balafootballs, the fair trade football company. It has now started to make inroads, either footballs more readily available. Jamie Hepburn, Minister for Sport and Mental Health, launched the walking football network, and we used Balafootballs just the other week. To end, there are many reasons to support fair trade, the inherent fairness most definitely, but to create a better and fairer society, not just for those farmers that are there today, but clearly for the next generation of farmers, the next generation of adults in the developing world. It is one of the easiest things for us to do to change our habits, our shopping habits, and the consequences of that are certainly far-reaching. We are delighted from the Scottish Government to support Fiona McLeod's motion. I am delighted that she has brought it forward. I encourage everybody, listening to everybody watching and members here in the debating chamber to continue to buy fair trade products for the betterment of our society and the betterment of a fairer world. I thank all members who stayed and participated in this evening's debate. That concludes Fiona McLeod's last debate, which was on the subject of fair trade fortnight. I now close this meeting of Parliament.