I would like to thank my colleague Peter Fox for bringing forward such an important proposal, which I feel should be welcomed across the political divide. It's an excellent proposal for a Bill, and I commend my colleague Peter Fox for bringing forward this. As a Senedd, we have the opportunity to legislate in this important area and strengthen the security of the food supply, improve choice for Welsh consumers and support our rural communities and farmers and local businesses across Wales. 

Supporting agriculture is, obviously, at the heart of this Bill, and, as a farmer's daughter, that delights me. At an all-Wales level, we need the security of knowing that food production is sustainable and localised to reduce food miles and cut wastage. With a full national debate on climate change raging right now in the light of COP26, there is greater awareness of these issues amongst the public, and there's a responsibility on Government to ensure that consumers are well informed to enable them to make choices about what food they buy. We need stronger regulations on food labelling so that the public can make a clear choice about where they choose to spend their money. An increasing number of people want to proactively purchase food that has been grown, harvested and packaged locally, with as few miles as possible, so it is important we ensure they have access to this information to make an informed choice. Monmouthshire, my home county, Peter's county, is increasingly the food hotspot in Wales now, with so many quality local suppliers, and we need to capitalise on that, but we need to do more to strengthen local procurement and ensure that small and medium-sized producers have equal access to competitive markets.

Food is a key driver to our tourism economy, tourism being the bread and butter of our economy here in Wales, and we should be doing more to support that. There's a lot of excellent best practice at the grass roots as you said, Minister, but they should be helped from above, they should be helped from the Senedd, to really guide them and then to roll out that best practice across Wales. That is why it's so important that we use this Bill to place a duty on Ministers to produce a food strategy.

As shadow Minister for education, I am, of course, interested in school meals, and it's always so disappointing, what we're seeing on the school menus. It's important that we capitalise on the wonderful local produce that is around us to feed our children in schools, and I do believe that the quality of what we have around us and the lack of food miles is something that children want to see, but also it's important for their nutrition, to tackle obesity and just the wider role that food—good food, good local food—can play. 

I'm very proud to be Welsh and I want to see Wales's future secured as a sustainable country that celebrates and eats local produce. I think there's a real opportunity with this Bill to celebrate what we have here. We have much to be proud of and to enjoy in our country, and this Bill would benefit so many different sectors for so many different people. For me, it's an absolutely no-brainer to support this fantastic proposal that Peter's brought forward for us today. Da iawn, Peter.