Hansard

I welcome the opportunity to speak in support of the motion and, in particular, in support of Scottish Labour’s amendment, which stresses the importance of an inclusive food policy—a food policy that puts accessibility, affordability and sustainability at its heart; acknowledges that every step of the food supply chain impacts on our environment; considers how we produce, grow and catch our food; and assesses how that impacts on our wildlife, soil, oceans, air, resources and climate.

In Dunfermline and across Fife, we certainly have a lot to be proud of in terms of local food and drink production and the promotion of good-quality local produce. Last year, I had the pleasure of attending the opening weekend of Abbot Brew House, which is located in the heart of Dunfermline’s historic centre. Beers are brewed on site to historical recipes, so people literally have the chance to enjoy a taste of history in Scotland’s ancient capital. I am not normally a beer fan, but I can confirm that I was impressed by what I sampled. I strongly encourage anyone visiting Dunfermline to take some time to sample the local beers from this 17th-century-style brew house.

Dunfermline has the privilege of hosting at the glen gates on the second Saturday of every month Fife farmers market, which offers a wide range of fresh produce from Fife’s finest producers. Just last week, Dunfermline hosted the world Scotch pie championships, a competition that highlights bakers and butchers from across Scotland who create top-quality pastry products—maybe Angus MacDonald should have come along to sample the produce.

Last week, Dunfermline’s exciting venture street initiative was launched, and I was pleased to discover that one of the units—Soup a Men, which trades from Bruce Street—will sell quality soup that is made from fresh, local products that are sourced from local farmers. To return to beer, Dunfermline’s annual beer festival is another huge success, with record attendance again this year, allowing visitors the opportunity to sample more than 60 of the country’s best ales and ciders. Those are just a few examples of how the food and drink market is flourishing in Fife, although they are not all the most nutritionally sound examples.

There is no doubt that the food and drink sector makes a huge contribution to our economy. All the briefings that have been provided for the debate show that the sector is exceeding expectations for targets and turnover. It supports 360,000 jobs across Scotland and—hopefully—even more in the future. I am pleased that the Scottish Government has decided to make 2015 the year of food and drink in order to celebrate and promote Scotland’s produce, because we certainly have the best natural produce in the world and have a lot to offer.

It is pleasing to see an explosion in the local food movement. There are 150 new local food initiatives and many more food education projects in our schools.

A really welcome development is the fruitful schools initiative, which supports schools in growing, maintaining and enjoying orchards. In its aim of ensuring that every child gets the chance to pick and eat fruit straight from the tree, it is a great way of not only teaching children where food comes from but encouraging healthy eating.

However, it is not enough just to celebrate our excellent local and Scottish produce or take comfort in the sector’s strength. As the cabinet secretary has acknowledged, everyone in Scotland needs access to high-quality, affordable and healthy food but, despite all the positive developments, Scotland still has some of the highest levels of diet-related poor health in the world.

A report on this morning’s news estimated that obesity costs the UK £47 billion a year; that its global costs are the same as those for smoking, and that it probably has a greater impact on the world than climate change. Closer to home, an NHS Fife report revealed that one in five primary 1 children in Dunfermline is overweight or obese; that one in three adults in west Fife is obese; and that two thirds are overweight.

Although we are rightly proud of Scotland’s food and drink, the reality for many Scots is that the products that we are proud of and which Mike MacKenzie described so vividly are out of reach. Too many families rely on ready meals and takeaways because of a lack of time, a lack of money or a lack of confidence in cooking. In its briefing, the NFUS pointed out that, because of the cost-of-living crisis, many of Scotland’s agricultural products are out of the reach of too many Scots. Austerity is still the reality for too many consumers, who have no choice but to focus on the cheapest deal and not the most ethical or most sustainable one.

While families in communities across Scotland are struggling to make ends meet and to juggle the demands of work and family, too many of us are relying on diets that contain too much sugar and too much fat and which are accompanied by too little exercise. Health professionals have warned that children are being condemned to a lifetime of ill health and to being a generation destroyed by junk food and lack of exercise.

This is a ticking time bomb that we cannot ignore. We need concerted action to ensure that every family in every community across Scotland has access to high-quality, affordable and healthy food, and we need more action from the UK and Scottish Governments as well as local government on tackling food poverty and ending the scandal of children going to school hungry and mums going without their tea so that they can afford to heat their homes.

I note that, according to Home-Start’s recent report, one in four adults in Scotland skipped meals in the past year so that someone else in their household could eat, and 30,000 children in Scotland live in families who cannot afford to eat properly at all. We all know constituents who have had no choice but to turn in desperation to food banks. However, as Alex Rowley pointed out, while families are going hungry across Scotland, millions of tonnes of food are being wasted and thrown away every year.

It is easy to blame the UK coalition Government for its welfare reforms, but we in Scotland can still do a lot to tackle poverty and give families a better and healthier life. I encourage the cabinet secretary and other members to have a look at Home-Start’s excellent manifesto for families in Scotland, which outlines a number of actions that the Scottish Government could take now to make life better for our children and protect them from hunger and poor nutrition.

The RSPB has provided a helpful guide for today’s debate, and I endorse its view that we need a food system that provides

“environmentally sustainable, healthy and affordable food for all”

rather than the “expensive exception”. In fact, we need a food system that is not only environmentally sustainable but socially just. Only when we meet that aspiration can Scotland truly proclaim itself a good food nation. I know that we all share that objective across the chamber and I hope that, in the new spirit of co-operation and unity, we can achieve that goal.