Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 15 June 2022
It will be hard to follow that.
We have come a long way since the Government challenged the very idea that we need legislation to underpin our ambition to be a good food nation; today, the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill will be voted into law—unanimously, I am sure. We have also come a long way since stage 1, when the bill was more of an empty frame than a framework bill. The final bill has improved during the parliamentary process.
Positive changes to the bill have been made that will strengthen parliamentary scrutiny and consultation. The inclusion of plans—long supported by Labour—for an independent food commission, thanks to the tenacious campaign by members of the Scottish Food Coalition forcing the U-turn from the Scottish National Party and the Greens, is a positive step forward. However, the failure to set out proposals for the commission until last week—on the very last day on which stage 3 amendments could be lodged, and four years after the Government began consulting on the bill—meant that there was little opportunity to properly scrutinise the detail, including the limit on the number of commissioners being as few as three.
The final bill has many omissions. For example, it fails to include any meaningful measurable objectives. Yesterday, Ariane Burgess said that the bill should not have targets because it is a framework bill. So, too, was the Climate Change Act 2008. It is a good job that the Greens were not in Government when it was passed, or we would never have had the target of net zero emissions by 2045 in that act.
To quote a phrase, “That’s what happens” when the Greens are in Government. That is the reason why small but nonetheless important amendments, such as the inclusion of integration joint boards as relevant authorities, were voted down, when the Greens would not have thought twice about voting for them in Opposition.
That is why an amendment from the Opposition to consult people with lived experience of food-related issues—including trade unions that represent food workers and charities that tackle obesity—when preparing good food nation plans was voted down, because it apparently singled out groups. However, the Government passed an amendment that gives big private food firms preferential treatment during consultations on implementation of the plans.
That is why we have had to settle for the weak commitment to merely “have regard to” the principle of the right to food. The bill could, and should, have unequivocally enshrined in Scots law the right to food. Delivery of that right should drive everything about Government food policy. That common purpose and clear vision would have set the direction of travel for building the fairer, healthier and more sustainable food system that Scotland desperately needs.
It remains to the shame of all of us that, in a country that has so much fine food and drink, so many children will still go to bed hungry tonight and so many families will continue to rely on food banks. I do not just want to “have regard to” food poverty; I want it to be eliminated.
In a country that leads the world in fine food and drink products and businesses, it is a disgrace that so many people in the sector are still employed in jobs that are insecure and poorly paid. I do not just want to “have regard to” fair work standards—I want to end the scandal of many of the people who make and serve our food having to choose between heating and eating.
In a country that has plenty of land and sea and so many talented producers, too many of our farmers and fishers cannot make a decent living. I do not just want to “have regard to” the climate and nature emergency and animal welfare—I want those issues to be at the very heart of our food policy and of a new agriculture support system that delivers sustainable fishing and farming.
Our current food policies are not working for Scotland. The bill takes a step, but not the giant leap that we need to deliver a better and fairer way to feed ourselves that does not damage our people and our environment.
The progress that we have made in delivering the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill is a step forward that is due in no small part to the members of the Scottish Food Coalition who have led the debate about how we can transform Scotland’s food system in order to end food insecurity and ensure that everyone has access to healthy and sustainably produced food.
For far too long, far too many people in Scotland have lacked adequate access to food; that situation has exposed the gross inequalities that we face today. I genuinely hope that the bill kick-starts a debate and the development of good food nation plans that will ensure that Scotland’s food policy delivers environmental sustainability, healthy eating, better animal welfare and fair work standards for our food and drink workers.
Ultimately, I hope that the legislation begins a process of rethinking how we approach access to food in this country, and of recognising that access to food is a fundamental right that every single Scot should enjoy.
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