I'll say at the outset that I'll be supporting the Bill this afternoon, and I'm doing so because I think it does have the potential to act as a real catalyst for change. Food is at the heart of who we are—it's at the heart of our family life, it's at the heart of our health and well-being and it's at the heart of our society. It is emblematic of our national identity in many ways, as has been pointed out already this afternoon. When we think about what it is to be Welsh, we automatically go towards Welsh lamb or Welsh beef, cockles or laverbread or one of the other foodstuffs—the cheeses that I enjoy perhaps too much. It is an important part of any community and any society, and I believe that we do in Wales need to work hard in order to ensure that it is not only at the heart of our society, but at the heart of who we are. We need to recognise the scale of the ambition, which I believe this Bill has the potential to achieve.

When I launched a food strategy—it's nearly a decade ago, I think, now—we were recognising where we were at that time, and the need for fundamental change in the approaches that we had inherited at that time. But when we take decisions in Government, those decisions need to be challenged as well, and the strategy that I launched at that time isn't a strategy that I would launch today. What I like about the vision at the heart of this Bill is the opportunity to create something such as Origin Green, which I think has revolutionised food production in Ireland, where sustainability is at the heart of what the Irish Government seek to achieve, and where it acts to bring together the supply chain with those of us who are consumers. It brings together food production, it brings together food processing, it brings together food marketing, it brings together food retailing, and it brings together those of us who enjoy those products and that produce. It is something that we need to be able to do.

One of the great pleasures I've had in my time here has been to join campaigns led by colleagues of mine. The work that Jenny Rathbone has done on food justice over the years I think has been leading the debate on food in this country and its place in our society. I agreed with every word that Jenny spoke this afternoon. The work that Huw Irranca-Davies has done in leading those of us who are members of the Co-operative Party again has been groundbreaking in demonstrating the importance of food as a part of our policy approach. I heard earlier Members saying that we should put aside our party politics on these matters, but we can achieve our party political objectives through this, all of us in this Chamber, as it happens. I was impressed by the contribution from Cefin Campbell, when he spoke about the different aspects of Plaid Cymru policy that are included in this proposal. Well, I can say, as a member of the Labour Party and as a member of the Co-operative Party, that I feel very similar things. The work that we've done on sustainability, the work that the Minister for Climate Change spoke about from COP over the last few weeks, can be achieved partly through some of this legislation, and the catalyst for change that it can be. I believe that we should be doing that. I believe that we should be seeking to challenge established ways of working, we should be learning lessons from other parts of the world, we should be learning from our nearest neighbours across the water about what they've been able to do, and apply that to our own context.

I'll say this to the Government: it is important that Members are able to bring forward legislation in this place, and that the Government doesn't seek to smother that legislation when that legislation is first proposed. Since primary law-making powers were transferred to this place a decade ago, only one piece of private Member legislation has made it to the statute book, and that was Kirsty Williams's work on the Nurse Staffing Levels (Wales) Act 2016. I was on the committee at the time, ably chaired, of course, by the Deputy Presiding Officer, and we saw how the Minister at the time, Mark Drakeford, worked with Kirsty Williams in order to deliver amendments to the legislation in order to enable the Government to support it and take it onto the statute book. What I would say to the Government today is that that is a lesson that needs to be applied.

If there are criticisms to be made of the proposed legislation—and there may well be—the commitment that I give to Peter this afternoon is that I will vote for it today to enable the scrutiny to take place. I don't make a commitment more than that because we haven't had that scrutiny, and we haven't had the opportunity to debate it. We need the opportunity to debate it, and what we cannot do is defeat the legislation without having had the opportunity to have that conversation, to have that debate, to have that discussion, and then to take a view on whether the legislation should be taken forward. So, I hope that Ministers will work with Peter Fox to look at the legislation to ensure that it is fit for purpose.