Committee
Rural Affairs and Islands Committee 03 September 2025
03 Sep 2025 · S6 · Rural Affairs and Islands Committee
Item of business
National Good Food Nation Plan
I will pick up on something that was said when Dennis Overton and Vicki Swales were speaking. I see an opportunity in the good food nation plan for local authorities to become anchor organisations for community wealth building in our rural communities and to work with peri-urban or urban food producers.
My question is for Dennis first. Is there enough in the mix for that to happen? Our rural communities are struggling and are losing population, but local authorities have money to spend and I heard yesterday, at the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee that some local authorities are already doing that. Is there an opportunity there? Vicki piqued my interest by saying that there are really big issues to address, so it would be great if those could be brought to the fore in our conversation.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Con
Our third item is consideration of the proposed national good food nation plan. Members will note that we had thought that we would not have time to consider...
Lisa Hislop-Smith (National Farmers Union Scotland)
The outcomes are broad and ambitious. They cover a huge range of ambition for the plan, which is to be welcomed, as is the new way of working. Cutting across...
Vicki Swales (Scottish Food Coalition)
The Scottish Food Coalition campaigned long and hard for the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 and a national plan, so we are really pleased to see that p...
The Convener
Con
Could the expectation be that most of the heavy lifting will be done by the public bodies—the national health service and local authorities, in the first ins...
Vicki Swales
Delivery will certainly have to be done by local authorities and health boards, but the plan is for all of us, so all of parts of society and all businesses ...
The Convener
Con
That is a good moment to bring in Dennis Overton
Dennis Overton (Scottish Food Commission)
We have arrived at a really important stage. The question about the availability of resources to move things forward is an important and interesting one, as ...
The Convener
Con
You touched on the issue of budget. There is no dedicated budget to support the plan, the cost of which instead falls on other sectors. For example, we will ...
Dennis Overton
My understanding is that we have had some commitment from the Government about support for the relevant authorities to undertake their responsibilities under...
The Convener
Con
Is there a feeling that it is right that there is no budget line for the good food nation as long as there is an expectation that budget would be allocated f...
Dennis Overton
I would say yes to that. Again, we are seeing evidence of that at the moment. If you think about the rural and environment science and analytical services—RE...
Vicki Swales
Within the remit of the committee specifics, you mentioned the rural support plan, for example. If we look in that space, it will be incumbent on the £650 mi...
The Convener
Con
I am conscious that we have jumped on to a question that Alasdair Allan was going to ask about future climate change plans and agricultural policy. Before I ...
Jason Rose (OneKind)
On your question about the timescale for this work, from an animal welfare point of view, sub-outcome 2C talks about animal health and welfare standards bein...
Emma Roddick (Highlands and Islands) (SNP)
SNP
I want to pick up on some of the comments and tease out whether people believe that there is an inherent conflict between food production and looking after n...
Lisa Hislop-Smith
You used the word “nuance”, which is incredibly accurate. There is no contradiction between food production, climate adaptation mitigation and nature restora...
The Convener
Con
Some members want to ask questions, but I will allow the witnesses who have not spoken yet to come in.
Adam Forrest (Nature Friendly Farming Network)
I would like to respond to Emma Roddick’s helpful comments. Thriving nature and healthy soils are foundational to our food security and to the idea of a good...
David Thomson (Food and Drink Federation Scotland)
We welcome the good food nation plan and outcomes, especially outcome 4, which talks about businesses and their role in communities across Scotland. It will...
Dr Gillian Purdon (Food Standards Scotland)
I will pick up on a few things. I echo some of the points that have been made, particularly by David Thomson, about the good food nation plan being the umbre...
Vicki Swales
I want to go back to Emma Roddick’s point about whether there is a contradiction between food production and delivering for nature and the climate. I do not ...
The Convener
Con
Three members—Ariane Burgess, Emma Roddick and Alasdair Allan—want to ask supplementary questions.
Ariane Burgess
Green
I will pick up on something that was said when Dennis Overton and Vicki Swales were speaking. I see an opportunity in the good food nation plan for local aut...
Dennis Overton
Your question points to a really interesting topic. Local authorities form a heterogeneous group because they range from very urban to very rural, so we will...
The Convener
Con
It is appropriate to bring in Lisa Hislop-Smith, following that answer.
Lisa Hislop-Smith
Dennis Overton introduced me well. NFUS has been engaging with the good food nation concept since it began, and we are now getting to the point where we have...
The Convener
Con
Vicki Swales, I know that you could probably take two hours to respond to Ariane Burgess’s question, but could you respond briefly?
Vicki Swales
I will respond briefly. I have talked about some of the challenges in relation to the environment, nature and climate, but there are many other issues, certa...
Dr Purdon
The point about the indicators around the food environment is good. It is important that we look at the food environment in the broadest sense. You have high...
The Convener
Con
With apologies to Emma Harper, I will bring in Alasdair Allan, because we are at an appropriate point where the discussion is about indicators and so on, so ...