The following amendments have been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Rebecca Evans, and amendment 2 in the name of Darren Millar. If amendment 1 is agreed, amendment 2 will be deselected.

The next item is the Plaid Cymru debate on the food sector. I call on Llyr Gruffydd to move the motion. Llyr Gruffydd. 

Motion NDM7495 Siân Gwenllian

To propose that the Senedd:

1. Notes the importance of the food sector to a broad range of policy agendas in Wales, including the environment, health, economy and poverty.

2. Regrets the lack of alignment to provide a coherent national food policy within Welsh Government food strategies and action plans over the past decade.

3. Recognises that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerabilities of our current food system. 

4. Praises the role that Welsh farmers and producers play in keeping our shelves stocked.

5. Understands that the climate, nature and biodiversity crises increases the likelihood of extreme weather events which will heavily impact the global food system.

6. Notes that 14 per cent of UK families with children have experienced food insecurity between March and August 2020, and that the Trussell Trust gave out 70,393 emergency food parcels in Wales between April and September 2020.

7. Calls on the Welsh Government to:

a) move towards a more coherent approach to food policy in Wales by bringing together a cross-sector food system commission to be tasked with developing a roadmap to deliver a food system fit for future generations;

b) ensure food systems are more resilient to external factors in the long-term, such as the climate crisis;

c) develop local processing capacity across Wales; 

d) increase procurement of Welsh food and drink amongst public services.

Motion moved.

Thank you very much, Llywydd. It's a pleasure to introduce this motion in the name of Plaid Cymru this afternoon. As the motion recognises, the food sector is important and very significant for us here in Wales, but it is also fair to say that the pandemic has highlighted vulnerabilities in the current food system—vulnerabilities that may have been there for a while but have become more prominent over the past 12 months. And that in turn has highlighted to many of us how Welsh Government policies in food have tended to operate in silos. There's a great focus on the economic impact of the sector, and that's understandable, but not so much on the social, cultural and health impacts of the broader food sector. 

The motive behind this motion today is the need for us to think of the food system in a more holistic manner. We need a food system in Wales that better links production, manufacturing and processing, retail, the consumption of food and education. We need to bring all of those things together and have one single, integrated approach across the food system, from farm to fork and beyond. And what we mean, of course, by 'food system' is all of those stakeholders, all of the relationships related to growing, producing, supplying and using food. It includes fisheries, agriculture, food production, retail, food services, consumption and food waste, too, at the other end of the spectrum.

It includes social and economic factors that drive options in terms of food, and it cuts across all policy areas, including the economy, the environment, of course, business, education, well-being, health, transport, trade, planning and local government. It is pertinent to almost everybody. And this moment is an opportunity for us to build back better, as people tend to say. But with COVID-19 having highlighted and intensified many of the vulnerabilities within our system, then building a more resilient and sustainable system will be an important part of the work in preventing similar crises to the ones that we have seen recently, as we move forward. And it will be a key part of our route towards a green recovery and a just recovery. 

Plaid Cymru wants to see a Wales, of course, where everybody has access—dignified access—to enough food, to nutritious food, sustainably produced food, in a way, of course, that secures a fair income for farmers and all food sector workers. Our food system can contribute significantly to Wales's collective prosperity when it's shaped through the lens of well-being economics and the principles of the circular and foundational economies. And of course, well-being economics is all about taking account of quality of life, rather than just the growth rates of a country's GDP or GVA. We need a shared vision based on those principles across all Government departments, along with the broader food system stakeholders, so that we can ensure that all aspects of the food system are considered and integrated. I passionately believe that a well-functioning food system is crucial to our nation's future, it's central to our health and well-being, to our culture, to our society, the environment, of course, and the economy. And in order to deliver a food system fit for future generations with all the benefits this will bring, the Welsh Government needs to develop a food system strategy for Wales.

So, what's wrong with the Welsh Government's approach at the moment? Well, we can look at a selection of its strategies and policies around agriculture, food and drink, and there's a plethora of them: we have 'Food for Wales, Food from Wales: Food Strategy for Wales', the food and drink action plan, the strategic action plan for the Welsh red meat industry, the horticulture strategic action plan, the dairy sector strategy, the food tourism action plan for Wales, the Wales seafood strategy, et cetera. All well and good, of course, in their own right; they all set out important objectives and actions. But where, or at what point, do they all come together? Where is the alignment that ultimately and collectively provides a coherent national policy?

The former Minister for Natural Resources and former Deputy Minister for Farming and Food asked the Public Policy Institute for Wales to provide advice on whether the Welsh Government's food strategy was sufficiently comprehensive and up to date, and the review made a number of recommendations, which I'm afraid appear to have been largely ignored. In the report, they conclude that—and I quote—

'Weaknesses and blockages in the governance of food policy in Wales since 2010, coupled now with a greater understanding on the interconnected vulnerabilities which underpin sustainable food systems, mean that there is an urgent need to develop a fresh and clear vision and strategy for the food system in Wales.'

And of course, that doesn't just mean rewriting the food and drink strategy; it needs to go much wider and it needs to go much deeper than that.

So, Plaid Cymru is calling for the Welsh Government to establish a cross-sector food system commission. We're adding our voice to those calling for this commission to be tasked with developing a road map towards a food system that's fit for future generations. That was, of course, as Members will be aware, I'm sure, a key demand of the significant work commissioned by the WWF on this, supported by the Food Policy Alliance Cymru and others, who want the proposed road map to specifically consider six priorities. Firstly, there's access to food, and that Wales becomes the first nation to eliminate the need for foodbanks, and that everyone in Wales has dignified access to the food they need to live a healthy life. And that leads to the second priority, of course, which is food for public health, building on the Welsh Government's strategy to promote healthy and balanced diets by ensuring its recommended vegetable consumption is actually produced sustainably in Wales, meaning of course a big increase in domestic horticulture and the growing of vegetables in Wales. Next is the need for a net-zero-carbon food system, which is self-explanatory, as is the need to adopt more agroecological principles across the whole food system, in order to halt and reverse the loss of nature, and of course to increase climate resilience. Achieving sustainable seafood is another of the priorities outlined, setting catch limits that enable fish stocks to be restored and maintained above biomass levels that deliver the maximum sustainable yield, and finally a priority around creating sustainable food sector jobs and livelihoods; everyone who earns their living within the food system should receive or be able to receive at least the living wage or a fair return for their work, and work, of course, that is also free from exploitative practices.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that just as we should never again take for granted our health and care workers, neither should we ever again take for granted those who produce and supply the food we eat. COVID-19 has really underscored the value of having an indigenous primary production base, particularly of course in a world where supply chains are so complex, operating on a just-in-time basis and quite easily disrupted, as they have been in recent times and even before the imminent end of the Brexit transition period. Insulating those supply chains from shocks presents a real challenge, and one way to achieve this is through shortening our supply chains, meaning increased local processing. And more local processing has a huge role to play in helping create a more sustainable food system in Wales.

The reality, though, is that recent AHDB statistics suggest that Wales has the capacity to process less than half of the milk that we produce. Most of the milk produced in Wales, one of the biggest milk fields in Europe, is taken out of Wales to be processed. Millions of gallons of liquid milk are shipped out every year, and hundreds of thousands of tonnes of dairy produce shipped back in. Well, how many food miles does that represent, I wonder? And a review of the beef sector in Wales in 2014 found that 72 per cent of Welsh cattle were slaughtered outside of Wales. Of British sheep, 31 per cent are bred in Wales, but only 24 per cent are slaughtered in Wales. So, all of this represents value lost, income lost and jobs lost to the Welsh economy, let alone, of course, the huge carbon emissions cost that comes with it. This really has to change.

Now, the obvious solution to this is to increase Welsh processing capacity across the board, meaning not only halting but reversing trends regarding the number of small abattoirs in Wales, which has halved over the past 25 years. I think only around 18 still exist, and for dairy processing, living as I do in north-east Wales, of course, we've seen just in the last couple of years how we've lost Arla in Llandyrnog, Tomlinsons in Wrexham—major milk processors here in north-east Wales. So, reversing the loss of this provision would be a positive move for the communities who live and work in rural areas, it would be good for animal welfare as well, of course, in that you're not moving as many animals around the country, it would be good for tackling climate change, and good for the rural economy. That, of course, is the well-being economics lens I mentioned earlier—the new world view that I thought the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 was supposed to embed in Welsh public policy.

Now, my colleagues will expand on other aspects that need to be addressed in this debate, such as the role of public procurement, the importance of buying local food, the role of food in the green recovery, food poverty and the health impacts of food, and I'll address the amendments tabled by the other parties in my closing remarks after listening to the contributions of others. In normal circumstances, of course, this week many of us would have attended the Royal Welsh winter fair, one of the finest prime stock shows in Europe, drawing crowds from far and wide to enjoy two days packed full of competitions, festivities, Christmas shopping and, of course, a wonderful showcase for the best that we have to offer in terms of Welsh food.

But there are, of course, systemic problems within the wider food system in Wales that urgently need addressing. Too many people in Wales can't afford access to a healthy diet. The food system has negative impacts on the environment, on public health, and on our economic well-being, and all of this is hindering our ability to prosper as a nation. The Welsh Government needs to urgently bring forward a more coherent approach to food policy in Wales. I look forward to hearing contributions from all sides of the Chamber. Diolch.

I have selected the two amendments to the motion. If amendment 1 is agreed, amendment 2 will be deselected. I call on the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs to formally move amendment 1, tabled in the name of Rebecca Evans. Minister.

Amendment 1—Rebecca Evans

Delete all and replace with:

To propose that the Senedd:

1. Notes that access to food and protection of the environment is achieved by raising skills, raising incomes and enabling collaborative action on the ground between communities, businesses and public bodies.

2. Welcomes the report by the Sustainable Places Research Institute at Cardiff University and agrees that new food infrastructure and delivery mechanisms should be guided by the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and the five ways of working.

3. Calls on Welsh Government:

a) to bring together farmers, food businesses, public bodies and civil society to work towards a shared vision for a food system fit for future generations;

b) to replace the system of basic payment farm subsidy based on land-area farmed to a system where all public money supports the delivery of environmental outcomes alongside high quality food;

c) to promote fair work and innovation in the food sector in Wales to help create more well-paid jobs in the foundational economy;

d) to support community food growing and food re-use projects in every community in Wales.

Amendment 1 moved.

Formally.

'Formally'. I'm a good lip-reader. I could just about lip-read the 'formally' there by the Minister. I now call on Janet Finch-Saunders to move amendment 2. Janet Finch-Saunders.

Amendment 2—Darren Millar

Add as new sub-points at end of point 7: 

introduce a local food and drink charter to encourage shops, cafés, and restaurants to sell locally sourced Welsh food and drink and help promote the scheme to consumers;

develop a tourism strategy to promote food and drink trails and experiences across Wales;

work with the Her Majesty’s Government to promote Welsh food and drink overseas.

Amendment 2 moved.

Diolch, Llywydd. I stand to, obviously, move the amendment tabled by Darren Millar, and to thank Llyr Gruffydd for bringing this debate on behalf of Plaid Cymru forward. Now, with this week seeing us mark the Royal Welsh winter fair, I'm delighted that we're able to hold this debate, but I agree with Llyr on how sad it is that we cannot come together in person to be at this wonderful event.

Now, it is quite right that we praise the role that our Welsh farmers and producers play in keeping our shelves stocked. The magnitude of panic buying in spring saw UK consumers transfer £1.5 billion of food into the home in less than one month. The pandemic has also exposed the vulnerabilities of our current food system, and that farmers are open to a disproportionate share of risk. We saw devastation in our dairy industry. The Farmers Union of Wales has highlighted that almost 50 per cent of dairy businesses in Wales have been highly impacted as a result of the pandemic, yet only 10 per cent were eligible for the dairy support scheme.

The pandemic has also triggered a shift in national food policy. Russia, Ukraine and India have taken steps to limit the export of strategically important foodstuffs such as wheat. Now, if export controls become more frequent, there could be a real impact on global food supplies. So, more than ever, we need to be supporting our Welsh farmers to maintain productivity. This should, however, be kept in mind by the Minister in bringing forward her White Paper, and also to carefully consider when discussing the calls in the Cardiff University WWF report for agro-ecological principles to become central to food policy. The report provides an example of a mixed organic farm. There is a risk to Wales becoming 100 per cent organic, because the study has actually found that this would yield up to 40 per cent less food, leading to increasing imports and a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions. So, we do need to strike the right balance that does not undermine local high-quality food production nor, indeed, the climate. 

Now, the WWF report recommends that aiming for 2 per cent of land area to be dedicated to horticultural production could form a policy tool. This is what is required in order for Wales to produce the amount of greens needed to meet five servings a day, but I believe that the increase in horticulture should come as a result of local purchasing practices. There are plans and actions that we can plough ahead with: fostering more sites for food markets; developing a network of food hubs; creating community herb and vegetable gardens; making orchards of disused publicly-owned green spaces; supporting the development of food processors in Wales; introducing a local food and drink charter to encourage shops, cafes and restaurants to sell locally-sourced Welsh food and drink and to help promote such a scheme to consumers; and develop food and drink trails and experiences for all our constituencies here in Wales. This championing of localism is also reflected in the WWF report.

Another brilliant way to achieve this is via public procurement. The Welsh Government is failing to track product origin in their Welsh public sector procurement recording tool. Just imagine the difference the annual procurement spend of around £78 million on food and drink would make if the items purchased originated here in Wales. In fact, my policy and passion that puts Welsh food and localism first sits beautifully within the future generations Act. For example, by re-localising our food production and consumption, and promoting shorter supply chains, we can become globally responsible. We can help the Welsh culture and language to thrive, and we can create a healthier Wales. 

During the NFU Cymru winter fair seminar, it was clear that there is huge potential to also boost business by selling our sustainable produce to the world. Examples, of course, include exporting to China, which, as a consequence of the shortage of protein in their diet, is now well placed to import Welsh lamb. Exporting potential is one reason why it is essential for us to work with Her Majesty's Government to promote Welsh food and drink overseas. The Welsh Government could help greatly by introducing a statutory target for improving the shelf life of Welsh lamb, so that it can better compete with New Zealand. 

Finally, I cautiously welcome the calls for a commission, but would like Plaid Cymru to clarify why we should not turn to the food and drink industry board as a means of leading on a food system strategy. Importantly, either approach could enable the vision to be co-produced between Government, farmers, food businesses and other stakeholders. However, this is yet another example of a major problem in this Parliament and Government: deliberating and not delivering. 'Food from Wales, Food for Wales 2010-2020' has never been fully implemented. In 2018—

You're going to have to bring your contribution to a close. 

In 2018, the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee concluded that there is a need for a strategic vision for the Welsh food sector. We will be supporting Plaid Cymru's motion today, and we hope that you will back our amendments. Thank you. Diolch. 

I think we must remember the huge importance of the food and drink industry now here in Wales. And just to give a couple of examples, the industry as it stands—and we could, of course, do so much more—has a £22.1 billion turnover and employs 229,000 workers directly, and there is a bit of a tendency, sometimes, to think that all of those are not good-quality jobs and that that's not a sector to aspire to, but that simply isn't true, although there is much we can do to improve the quality of some of that work. The food and drink industry can be a great place for young people to build a career, and I think we need to send that message clearly, and that's right across the industry, from the very beginning, where the produce originates on the farm, right the way through to where we sell it. As Llyr has said, it's a vital part of our economy, but it's also so much more than that.

The COVID crisis has shown us all, I think, how important local food supply can be, and how the current industrial food system is failing. It's failing producers, it's failing processors and it's failing those of us who eat and drink the food.

There have been many stories, Llywydd, around the time of COVID, that have been heartbreaking for all of us, but one that really upset me was taking a phone call from a farmer in Hendy in Carmarthenshire at the beginning of the COVID crisis, who was having to pour his milk down the drain, because his customers were a business that mainly sold to the hospitality business—coffee shops and so on—outside Wales, and they simply told him that they didn't need his milk. And the nature of their contract was that it was actually quite difficult for him to sell it to anybody else. And worse for him and his family, a couple of miles up the road in Llanelli, were families who were losing work, with more and more families depending on foodbanks, and yet, he couldn't even give that milk away, because there was no capacity to sell it on.

Well, the Beynon-Thomas family took a long look at that and they decided that they couldn't tolerate that, and in a very short space of time, they converted one of their outbuildings into a small-scale pasteurising centre and they're selling milk through a milk vending machine, which, I have to say, was something that I'd never heard of before. And there are so many advantages to that. People locally can buy a really fresh, local product, and all the profit goes back into the farm and is then spent locally. Ifan Beynon-Thomas, the young farmer who set this initiative going, his father said to me that he thought he was crazy when he started to talk about a milk vending machine, but now, his father, of course, can see the profit going straight into the farm. They've done so well that they've almost paid off their debt in a matter of months and they are on the point of creating a new job because the demand has been so great that Ifan can't keep up with that and all his other farming responsibilities. And this, to me, is a great example of what we could do, on a small scale, but the demand has been huge and now he's selling into local businesses as well, and can expand his pasteurising capacity. And, he can give milk away; it doesn't have to go to waste. That's just one very small local example of what we can do and what we need to invest in.

The other issue that was highlighted through the COVID crisis in the region that I represent is the importance of public procurement and local public procurement. We all remember—I've mentioned it in the Chamber before—the food boxes for our shielding fellow citizens that were being bought from a big, UK-wide company. Some of the food was unsuitable and some of it was turning up actually off. When the second round—and I'm not blaming the Government in the crisis for going for one big supplier—but when the second round of those food boxes was able to go out, Carmarthenshire County Council was able to use Castell Howell, a local food supplier in Cross Hands; the quality of the produce was much better and it was much more appropriate for people in those communities and, of course, all that money is then recycled into local jobs and into the local community. We have to—and others have touched on this—stop the bleeding out of the public sector spend on food. Forty-five per cent of what our public sector spends on food in Wales—and as others have said, that's over £70 million a year—goes outside Wales. We have to be able to decrease that.

Llywydd, the industrial food system doesn't work as it stands. It leaves people in food poverty. I'm full of praise for what the volunteers in local foodbanks do, but I am full of shame that, in one of the richest countries in the world, people have to depend on foodbanks, and Llyr Gruffydd has touched on food poverty. Our food producers are often fragile as businesses; they often can't sell at the rate—they can't even make a profit. And we face profiteering by some of the really big companies, and when I look at what some of the supermarkets and some of the other big wholesalers pay to our farmers, I don't apologise for use of the word 'profiteering'. 

We need, as Llyr said, to align all the food initiatives. Each of them is positive in itself, but it needs to be consistent. We need that cross-sector commission to develop a road map to a comprehensive food policy that delivers for us all.

So far, everybody's talked quite a lot about COVID and what it's told us, but nobody's mentioned the elephant in the room, which is the end of the European Union transition period, happening in less than a month. In that small amount of time, we potentially face the most momentous upheaval in our food supply chains, which will make queues at supermarkets in March look like a tea party by comparison.

So, I'm clear that the Welsh Government's end of transition action plan admits that fruit and vegetables are likely to be disrupted—we like to think of Britain as a green and pleasant land, but these are mainly imported from the EU, particularly in the winter. We won't starve, but choice is going to be limited, prices are almost certainly going to rise, and it is hospitals, care homes and schools, as well as the most vulnerable in our community, who've also been worst affected by the pandemic, who are likely to suffer most from the shortage of fresh food.

The Welsh Government is doing its best to work with food businesses to avert a crisis, we are told, and I'm sure we'd like to know a great deal more about that. I have endeavoured to get information from the top four supermarkets in this country, but they say that commercial confidentiality—or at least Tesco does—is preventing them telling us exactly what their plans are, given that their model for 'just in time' is absolutely not going to work in this scenario. 

The National Audit Office has warned that, whilst there has been progress in UK Government departments, it is still likely that widespread disruption will occur from 1 January. The House of Lords has similarly warned this; the chair of the UK Parliament's Public Accounts Committee has warned it. It is the UK Government that decided not to seek an extension to the transition period, because the Maoists within the UK Government seem determined to go ahead with the biggest change in our trading relationship in the most inauspicious of circumstances, in the middle of winter and in the middle of a pandemic. That enthusiasm for what they call a 'clean break' is what could yet see them take us over a cliff into crashing out of the EU without a deal.

With four weeks to go before the end of the transition period, traders and logistics providers are still waiting for much of the information and clarity from Government, and they are just shocked by the lack of consistency in Government policy. Duncan Buchanan, the policy director of the Road Haulage Association, has said that, from January, he is expecting something 'between shocking and a catastrophe.' It could take up to eight weeks for goods to come in by truck once we take back control of our borders, and all the evidence is that the UK Government will simply try to blame everybody but themselves for this situation.

A leaked letter from the Cabinet Office Minister, Michael Gove, to logistics organisations, pins the blame on them and says that queues of up to 7,000 lorries are all the fault of the companies for not being prepared. He assumes that, once heavy goods vehicles realise that they're going to have to comply with the new regulations, they will simply disappear over time. Presumably, that is why they're building a 27-acre lorry park in Kent.

These warnings have come from the National Farmers Union, the Farmers Union of Wales, the Federation of Small Businesses. One food expert described to me, 'Nothing is ready, nothing will work. It is expected that the whole system of importing and exporting will collapse, and, on top of bad weather and COVID, it will be a tragedy of our own making.'

So, this has to concentrate our minds now. There are some excellent suggestions in the report that was commissioned by the WWF, but we have to do something now. We have to ensure that we massively ramp up our horticulture. The Welsh Government has provided small grants of between £3,000 and £12,000 to do that, and the economy Minister has provided over £400,000 for a foundational economy grant for controlled-environment growing, otherwise known as hydroponics. It seems to me that that's exactly the sort of thing we need to be ramping up now.

We need to stop local authorities from selling off county farms, which is one of the ways in which we find new entrants into agriculture, because I'm afraid I disagree with Janet Finch-Saunders that we can simply go on with the same old system we've got at the moment, and ensuring that people can't be in any way—. They need to—. Farmers need to maintain productivity; we can't undermine that. We've got to change the way we do things, because of our nature crisis, apart from anything else, and we've got to ensure that we have local food for local people, to ensure that we have the public health gains we absolutely need to make in the next period.

So, these matters are going to be discussed further at the cross-party group on food tomorrow, and, obviously, I'd be very keen to see any of you who are able to come along and ensure that we have a better food policy for dealing with these matters in the sixth Parliament.

This debate is about the food sector, but what I'd like to talk about first is the effect that the absence of food has on too many people in our society. Because, although the UK is the seventh richest economy in the world, too many households struggle to afford the food that they need to stay healthy, and that has an effect on not just people's physical health, their alertness and strength, but also their mental health, their anxiety, stress levels and mood.

Between 2017 and 2018, 20 per cent of people in Wales were worried about running out of food, and 14 per cent had to run out of food in the first place before they could afford to buy more. These figures, I'm afraid to say, are likely to have increased in recent months because of the effect of the virus on employment levels. We've heard already in this debate about the need to keep supply chains working so that the sector is fit for purpose. We also have to consider the chain effect of supplies not going far enough. One in three children in Wales are living in poverty, and the Trussell Trust gave out 70,393 emergency food parcels in Wales between April and September of this year. Now, I thank the Trussell Trust and their volunteers for what they're doing, but, as my colleague Helen Mary Jones has said, there's something deeply worrying within a society where either foodbanks are being relied on or emergency food parcels are needed. That's why we in Plaid Cymru would provide targeted payments to families living in poverty, introducing a Welsh child payment of £35 a week for the 65,000 children in Wales who are eligible for free school meals.

Llywydd, I've talked here about the most extreme examples, albeit a situation that is devastatingly common—that is, people struggling to afford to eat enough. But, for other households, the issue is more about being able to afford good quality, nutritious food. The Food Foundation has found that 160,000 children in Wales are living in households where a healthy diet is unaffordable. I know that I'm quoting statistics from the report here that's been cited a number of times already in this debate, but 28 per cent of children are obese and 94 per cent don't have access to five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. The problems have been well rehearsed before—cheap and highly processed foods are promoted widely, and I do see—. The Welsh Government's 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales' strategy has started to try to address this, but it does address it in a slioed way—the point that Llyr Gruffydd was warning about at the beginning of this debate. It doesn't look at the impact of food marketing and advertising, production or the cost of living. We have to tackle this scourge for the sake of families across Wales. But it goes far wider than this. As this WWF-commissioned report that we've all been quoting says, problems in the food system impact negatively on the environment, on public health and economic well-being, and, crucially, and I quote, they hinder

'our ability to prosper as a nation both now and in the future.'

A well-functioning food system, with a focus on local produce and tight, ethical supply chains, is vital for future generations to safeguard their health, to safeguard their livelihoods, not to mention protecting our planet. But, at present, the global food system is littered with hindrances and as, again, the report says, and I quote,

'dysfunctional production, distribution and consumption practices...endanger health, contribute to the nature and climate emergencies and food insecurity.'

Now, Llywydd, I know I've already mentioned the importance of not looking at tackling food insecurity in siloed ways; the same principle is true for how we should at look at food production. Our food system is integrated across the UK and, through trade, we have links internationally. Now, Jenny Rathbone has set out how this on the one hand presents many challenges because of the prospect of Brexit, and indeed particularly a 'no deal' Brexit, and, indeed, I think that's something that we have to keep in mind in this debate. But, as Llyr had also pointed out, this integrated nature of the system also provides us with an opportunity. Through the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, we can actually use this to lead the world with food policies that are sustainable and globally responsible.

It's come up, of course, inevitably, in the debate, as with so many issues—the COVID-19 pandemic has made the need for making these changes to our food system even more vital. We've got a chance now to create that system in Wales that addresses the climate and nature crises, that is ethical and builds on our status as a Fairtrade Nation. We can invest in the skills of our communities to support local production of food; we can create a more equal Wales to make sure that every citizen is able to eat healthily. We have this opportunity, Llywydd, to build that system of food production and distribution that meets the needs of everyone without stealing from the tables of future generations—let's use that opportunity now.

Can I say what a pleasure it is to take part in this debate? I think the contributions preceding mine have been excellent; I hope I can add something to it. But there's something that I've agreed with in everybody's contribution so far. There are some areas of disagreement, and I'll pick up on the point that's just been made. There are some good parts of my Conservative colleague's contribution, but I'd just highlight that issue of the focus on productivity alone is not where we should be. Productivity is important in terms of farmland, but it's not the be-all and end-all. I want to turn this upside down a little bit, and focus on what we're trying to achieve out of food and the food system. I have to say, there have been some really, really strong ideas and strategies and plans over many, many years. Welsh Government has had some of the best, most innovative, coherent, integrated plans—the previous Welsh Government, by the way—but they haven't been totally followed through, and some things are pulled in different directions. So, let me just say that we should turn this upside down a little bit.

Let's start from what we're trying to do with the whole of the food system, and other speakers have said about this as well. What does a holistic vision of food look like? Now, I would say that there are certain things that can underpin this, and there's been plenty of good stuff written and talked about on this, not least here in Wales, I have to say, as well. It should be to do with an absolute right to good food. And do you know, by actually saying that—and by the way, UN committees have criticised the UK for not enshrining this right within UK legislation—maybe we can do something here in Wales. But if you actually put a right to good food for everybody—good, affordable, environmentally-friendly, sustainable food—it actually drives change within the food system. All of a sudden you have those things that people have been talking about, which is local food networks where the reward goes to workers in the fields and to local farmers and to community farms and local distributors, and then you drive local procurement around it.

If you have a right to good food, what you have is children coming out of school who haven't just done one or two lessons on how to make pizzas and so on, but they genuinely understand where the food comes from and how to use it, and then they grow up being able to use the food and the produce that comes from around them, and, importantly, you develop a food culture here in Wales very different from parts of the food culture we currently have. Currently, we're slightly schizophrenic. We have some of the best food in the world here in Wales, some of the best brands, some of the best local produce, and then we have the big, if you like, industrial mechanised approach as well. Now, really, if we had that right to food, what it drives is a pride in that local food, where it comes from, and the fact it appears on your table. If you look at what they do in places like Italy and France, places like Italy—northern Italy, where part of my family are from—it is absolutely guaranteed that the food that is delivered on the school tables and in the hospitals and in the public bodies has to be fresh, local food, unless it can't be provided, then they can go elsewhere. It's written into the legislation and so on.

So, what I would suggest is that part of this—it is picked up in some of the Plaid Cymru main motion, it is picked up in the Government's main motion as well—is looking at what this shared vision is. One thing I would say very strongly is that I like the idea that picks up bringing together farmers, businesses, public bodies, civil society, community farms, community growers, so we stop having unaffordable, non-nutritious food that is shipped across the world, that has all sorts of additives in it, and we actually develop a very different vision of it and then we work outwards from there.

All of this—and my final point is this—if we wanted to do this, and we could in Wales, because we've started doing bits of it already, my worry is that some of the proposals around the UK internal market proposals and some of the lack of clarity on funding that is coming to us after the EU might well hamper our ability to do this, because you need a bit of a bank balance to do this sort of change in terms of the way we use our land, we reward public goods within the land, and you also need the ability to do things differently from other nations within the UK to lead the way. So, I worry a little that we're on the cusp of having the rug pulled from under us in our ability to carve a different pattern, but we can do it here in Wales.

The WWF proposals are very good. I'd also recommend the food manifesto for Wales, which is a citizens' approach to developing food, and it talks about the environment, the role we play on the global stage in Wales, the fact that farmers and growers respond to local demand, the fact that Government recognises the value of social, economic and environmental importance of food, all of those. We've got the ideas, if we can bring them together in a co-produced vision, it will drive those strategies, and if we don't do it now because we don't think we have time, let's do it in the next Government.

The Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs to respond, Lesley Griffiths.

Diolch, Llywydd, and I'm very pleased to be responding to the debate on behalf of the Government today and welcome the many contributions to the report that have been highlighted in the debate today. Last month, we held several lively sessions on the subject of food during the first Wales Climate Week, and we've seen a wide range of food-related proposals coming forward in the work of NRW in catalysing action to support a green recovery. Broad coalitions to create solutions for fair and sustainable food in Wales will be needed to inform a new Welsh Government food system strategy and build on last year's consultation. We are committed to close engagement with any grouping in Wales that comes together in pursuit of that aim.

Several Members have referred to food poverty and the use that we've seen of foodbanks, particularly during the pandemic, and political choices made by the UK Government have undermined the resilience of the food system here in Wales, and their policy of reform has driven up use of foodbanks. Welsh Government officials were directly involved, alongside communities and businesses across Wales, in supporting those foodbanks, particularly the ones that were so overwhelmed during the pandemic, and their ability to meet demand was in question.

Last week, the UK Government decided to deprive Wales of more than £200 million in rural development funding, sacrificing the incomes and prospects of our rural communities. I agree with Janet Finch-Saunders, we should support our farmers and our rural economies and community, and I hope that she and her colleagues in the Welsh Conservatives will find the courage to join with us in calling for that decision to be overturned.

Despite this challenging context, the Welsh Government can do more to achieve more sustainable food production in Wales and a fairer distribution of the benefits of healthy and high-quality food that Wales can and does produce. Our most powerful national asset in maximising the benefits of food production and consumption in Wales is our farmers, who manage the majority of land here in Wales, and as Members have referred to, I'll be publishing a White Paper on the future of farming later this month.

Some do argue that we should continue the basic payments policy in farm support, despite the fact it's not been successful in fostering a resilient agriculture industry or environment, and we learned this week of the UK Government's plans in which nothing more than the bare minimum standards of land management will be required at the entry level. So it's a basic payment scheme, really, in all but name.

So we argue that these proposals—and I know they are advocated by some in the Senedd—are nowhere near enough. They lack the urgency needed to meet the challenges of the climate and nature emergencies, and they lack the ambition we need for our food producers to strengthen their outstanding international reputation in challenging and uncertain trading environments. So that's why, unlike some, we do propose not a continuation of the basic payment scheme, but a radical break, as referred to by Huw Irranca-Davies, so that all public moneys invested in the sector support them to deliver more for the natural environment and make their farm businesses more productive and resilient.

We do see examples of innovation everywhere, and like Helen Mary Jones, I saw this year for the first time a milk vending machine out in west Wales. I think it was a different one to the one that she referred to, but it is great to see that sort of innovation, particularly from our young farmers right across Wales. It was really humbling to see the efforts of food businesses during the pandemic, not only to find imaginative ways to continue to trade in COVID-secure ways, but also to contribute directly to the effort to fight the virus, providing food for our key workers and even repurposing their operations to contribute other vital supplies.

Welsh Government has invested more than £32 million to support food businesses since March. We launched the Caru Cymru Caru Blas campaign, which involved hundreds of businesses in celebrating the sector's extraordinary progress in recent years, achieving a 38 per cent increase in turnover between 2014 and 2020. One of the ways we have supported the sector's growth is through the establishment of the food cluster network, the largest network of its kind in the UK, which connects businesses along every part of the value chain. We've created sustainable brand values initiatives, again strengthening the sector's commitment to environmental issues and to employee well-being and fair work. There are many food businesses in Wales who exemplify the kind of food system we need in Wales: local supply chains, increasingly skilled and diverse workforces, contributing so much more to our society than the high-quality food for which Wales is increasingly developing its international reputation.

As well as change in the food and farming sectors, we also want to draw more people into growing and sharing food in their local community, and Jenny Rathbone referred to the support Welsh Government has given to horticulture. We do have the twin challenges of the EU transition period coming to an end and COVID-19, but we have continued to support people, because we have seen an increase during the pandemic in people taking an interest in nature on their doorstep. And we've supported over 100 community food-growing initiatives, large and small, to expand the provision of community food growing in every part of Wales.

Llyr Huws Gruffydd referred to food waste in his opening remarks, and last month I announced £13 million in additional investment through a further expansion of the circular economy fund, and that funding will support the development of town centre facilities, which is part of a wider drive towards greater reuse and repair. We'll continue to work to divert food from waste and encourage the development of local food and skill-sharing networks. These projects, of which there are already many examples in Wales, are making healthy food more accessible and affordable, promoting social cohesion, enabling collaborative action between local authorities and the voluntary sector, revitalising town centres, building on our world-leading recycling record and reducing the environmental impact of our food. So it's really important that we bring together the many different perspectives and components of the Welsh food system, and the measure of success should be how these then translate into real change on the ground.

The action the Welsh Government is taking is guided by the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and its way of working, and the Act and well-being goals are embedded within a consultation we had last year. And the vision and mission document addresses many of the issues that have been raised during this debate. Janet Finch-Saunders referred also to the food and drink Wales industry board, and they've been a key partner as we've delivered support to the food and drink sector.

So the food system this Welsh Government seeks to support is one in which our communities play more of a role in shaping it for themselves. Change is needed to preserve the natural and cultural heritage of Wales and to distribute the benefits of the rich natural environment in Wales in a way that's fairer now, today, as well as for our future generations. Diolch.

I call on Llyr Gruffydd to reply to the debate.

Thank you very much, Llywydd. May I thank everyone who's contributed to this debate? I think we have had a constructive debate in a good spirit, but one that's clearly highlighted many issues that need to be resolved, and I'm very pleased to hear the contributions made by everyone.

I'll just deal with the amendments first of all. I'm afraid the Government amendment lost me after the first two words, 'delete all', which is a pity, because there are clauses within the amendment that I could agree with, but of course I don't agree with them at the expense of Plaid Cymru's original motion, so we won't be supporting that. That'll be no surprise to Government. There is an irony that the Government is tabling an amendment calling on the Government to do certain things, but that's the nature of these amendments, I suppose.

We would be happy to support the Conservative amendment. I think that they're right that we do need to emphasise supporting local food and drink and recognise the role of tourism and also promoting Welsh foods abroad, which is crucially important, but there is an irony there that the Conservatives on the one hand are calling for the promotion of food and drink abroad, whilst on the other hand are pulling us out of our biggest market. There we are; a few other Members have referred to Brexit during the course of the debate.

Janet Finch-Saunders is right; farmers are exposed to a disproportionate share of risk within the food system, but, again, what share of the Brexit risk will Welsh farmers have to shoulder? But she did highlight calls for 2 per cent of land to be dedicated to horticulture; I think it's 0.1 per cent of the total farm area at the moment. But then again, we saw UK food box schemes oversubscribed by 82 per cent during the recent pandemic, with average waiting lists of 160 people, so we have the climate, we have the fertile soil, we have close proximity to heavily populated areas. I think there is huge potential in that respect, and we need to do more.

Helen Mary Jones referred to the Hendy example of selling milk directly. I suppose it's the dairy equivalent of the veg box, isn't it, really? And it's about retaining that local pound, which brought us on to public procurement, and I made the analogy before that our local economy is too often like a leaking bucket, with a number of holes in it, where all the local value flows out of the local community, and we need to be plugging those holes as best we can, and food certainly has a big role in that respect.

Jenny again reminded us about Brexit as well, and 96 per cent of red meat exports go to the EU. And Kevin Roberts, the chair of Hybu Cig Cymru, reminded us in that seminar that Janet mentioned earlier that a 'no deal' outcome would mean a 30 per cent collapse in farm-gate prices. So, the stakes are high and time is scarce; 28, 29 days from now, and we still don't know what's ahead.

Thank you to Delyth as well. It's a stark, stark statistic, isn't it, that a third of children are living in poverty? Let's just pause and think about that. A third of children living in poverty. Making sure they have food is one thing, but making sure they have healthy food is a whole other challenge as well. And as she was speaking, I was reminded, there was an article in the British Medical Journal a couple of years ago warning that the next public health crisis—obviously not knowing that coronavirus was on its way—but the next public health crisis could well be child nutrition. In the UK. Now that tells us something about the kind of society that we're living in at the moment, doesn't it, and the kind of challenge ahead, when it comes to food?

I think, Huw, you hit the nail on its head, really: what are we trying to achieve out of the food system? Maybe it shouldn't have taken us 20 years of devolution to be asking ourselves that question, but we are asking it, and you're right, there have been initiatives, but maybe not as comprehensive and not as keenly pursued as maybe they should have been. Well, let today's debate be that moment when we make that decision, when we make that pledge to the people of Wales, to the one third of children who live in poverty, that we will get to grips with that. And if it does mean a right to good food for everybody, then so be it: let's do it. Let's do it. And I share his concerns about the impact of the internal market Bill and post-EU funding as well, which could well hamper us, but I think we need to stiffen our resolve and make sure that we turn every stone to get this done.

Wales needs a food system that better connects the dots around all the different aspects that Members have referred to today. It's a complex task; nobody is denying that. Not only does it need a joined-up approach from Government—a more joined-up approach from Government—but also from all of the parts of the food system. I think a food commission could help draw that up or articulate how best we could make that happen, but, of course, the sooner the Welsh Government gets on with it, the sooner it can be that we can bring greater social, economic, cultural, health and environmental benefits to the people of Wales. Diolch.

The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does any Member object? [Objection.] Yes, therefore I defer voting under this item until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

We will now take a five-minute break in order to prepare for voting time. So, we'll have a brief interlude.

Plenary was suspended at 18:00.

The Senedd reconvened at 18:05, with the Llywydd in the Chair.