The following amendments have been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Lesley Griffiths, and amendment 2 in the name of Siân Gwenllian. If amendment 1 is agreed, amendment 2 will be deselected.

Item 7 today is the Welsh Conservatives debate on food security. I call on Samuel Kurtz to move the motion. 

Motion NDM7963 Darren Millar

To propose that the Senedd:

1. Recognises the vital contribution that farmers and rural communities make to the health and prosperity of the nation;

2. Notes the negative impact on global food security stemming from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the direct effect it has on people in Wales;

3. Believes that there needs to be an environmental and food production revolution in Wales;

4. Calls on the Welsh Government to:

a) convene a food summit including farmers, processors and retailers, so Wales can play its part in growing its food production base and boosting food security;

b) use the proposed Agriculture (Wales) Bill to enshrine food security as a public good;

c) make food security a key cornerstone of future support for Welsh farmers, including incentives;

d) support the proposed Food (Wales) Bill.

Motion moved.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. It's a pleasure for me to open this afternoon's debate because it's so important and so very timely. In the last two weeks alone, we've spoken on a number of occasions about our food security and its significance in the shadow of the invasion of Ukraine. Well, now is the time to put actions into words—or words into actions, rather. We'll have a real opportunity here to turn a corner and ensure that Wales becomes a self-sufficient nation that doesn't have to rely as heavily upon imported goods.

Indeed, we've all seen first-hand how precarious the global supply chain can become, especially when it comes to farming. If it's not energy supplies, which play a critical role in UK food infrastructure, it's the price of fertilizer, a key input in relation to a farmer's production yield. When we see a severe tightening of supply, it leads to the reduction in output of commodities, but these aren't the only factors. Ukraine is known as the bread basket of Europe for a reason. Together, Ukraine and Russia account for 30 per cent of the world's wheat and 50 per cent of the world's sunflower oil, seeds and meal exports. The situation in eastern Europe has already seen skyrocketing prices, and this is set to have a direct impact on both consumer food prices and the cost of livestock production, a situation that this Government is entirely unprepared for. That is why I'm extremely disappointed to see both the Labour Government and Plaid Cymru table amendments against this motion, and it will be no surprise to this Chamber that we'll be voting against those amendments today.

I've spoken once already about opportunity, and this is an opportunity to develop our food production in a sustainable way, enshrining its capabilities within the statute book. Indeed, we can build upon our domestic food production rate of 60 per cent, and ensure that security becomes a key cornerstone of future support for Welsh farmers. Yet, the focus of this Government is sadly distorted. On the one hand they make political decisions to amend this motion, to criticise the UK Government, attacking trade deals, yet on the other hand they refuse to recognise food production as a public good and refuse to offer our hard-working farmers the support they need. And when Welsh Government policy will see an increase in pressure on our farmers, and maybe even a reduction in our own food production and security, we become more reliant on imports—the very ones that this Government wish to criticise. Hypocrisy, thy name is this Labour Government. [Interruption.] It may well be 'rubbish' from the Member from the back, for Alyn and Deeside, but it is only by increasing our own food production that we can make Wales less reliant on imports and more resilient to shocks in the global system, something that this motion seeks to explicitly address.

But let us not forget our Welsh farmers are renowned in their own right. They're the ones who are producing the most environmentally friendly, sustainable and highest quality food on the market, and the general public recognise this. We should be shouting from the rooftops in support of Welsh agricultural product. Throughout the pandemic, we saw the country's reaction to the closure of our service sector. The Welsh people didn't turn their back on locally grown produce—they queued outside their local butchers to make sure they could buy cuts of prime Welsh beef and succulent legs and shoulders of Welsh lamb. The British public have learnt and understood the value of locally sourced meat and veg. Take Pembrokeshire's Blas y Tir potatoes, for example—they aren't tagged with thousands of air miles and lumbered with the travel emissions of imported produce from other parts of Europe or the rest of the world. But, equally, they also aren't as reliant upon the geopolitical situation in eastern Europe, south-east Asia or Australia either. They're locally grown, picked by local farmers, and purchased by people across Wales. And let's be absolutely clear, we're not wanting to industrialise our farming sector; what we want to do is secure the development of high-quality, sustainable food production so that Welsh people have access to Welsh food, and that is why this motion is with us this afternoon, and this is what this motion sets out to do.

The agricultural Bill is set to be presented later this spring, so now is our chance to change tack and take a different approach. There are two options before us: we can either continue the same course of dodging the changing geopolitical situation, or we can turn to our agricultural community and give them the support they need. We can recognise the vital contribution that our farmers and rural communities have made to the health and prosperity of our nation, and ensure that they have the security to continue doing so. Farming needs a friend and, for once, lets make this place that friend. Let's get our farmers, processors and retailers sat around a table at a food summit, let's use the agricultural Bill to ensure food security is a public good, let's back Peter Fox's excellent food Bill, and let's not waste this opportunity before us. Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd.  

Joyce Watson took the Chair.

I've selected the two amendments to the motion. If amendment 1 is agreed, amendment 2 will be deselected. I call on the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, Lesley Griffiths, to formally move amendment 1, tabled in her name.

Amendment 1—Lesley Griffiths

Delete points 3 and 4 and replace with:

Regrets that the most immediate threat to food security for people living in Wales today is the cost-of-living crisis created by the Conservative UK Government.

Calls on the Welsh Government to:

a) develop a Wales Community Food Strategy to encourage the production and supply of locally-sourced food in Wales, supporting our communities to bring about positive change in our food system;

b) create a new system of farm support acknowledging ecologically sustainable local food production, reflecting the UN principles of Sustainable Land Management.

Amendment 1 moved.

Formally.

I call on Mabon ap Gwynfor to move amendment 2, tabled in the name of Siân Gwenllian.

Amendment 2—Siân Gwenllian

Delete point 4 and replace with:

Notes the importance of productive small family farms in sustaining the economy, language and culture in rural Wales.

Believes cuts to Wales’s agricultural funding from the UK Government, alongside new Free Trade Deals with countries like Australia and New Zealand, will have a further negative impact on Welsh food security and production.

Calls on the Welsh Government to:

a) convene a food summit including farmers, processors and retailers, so Wales can play its part in growing its food production base and boosting food security;

b) protect food security and production through providing stability payments as part of the next farming support scheme;

c) develop ways to reduce input costs for food producers and suppliers, to lower the cost of the food they produce for consumers.

Amendment 2 moved.

Thank you very much, acting Llywydd. I move the amendment, and thank you to Sam Kurtz from the Conservatives for putting forward this debate in such an eloquent way. This debate comes down to one core principle, namely the right to food. However, unfortunately, far too many people live with food uncertainty, without knowing where their next meal will come from. A quarter of the people of Wales live in poverty and have to prioritise food, or heating, or other essentials. We look forward to seeing the food Bill that we've heard about already from Sam progressing through the Senedd, to ensure positive developments and to reaffirm that commitment to the right to food.

But it stands to reason, therefore, that if there is a right to food, then that food must be produced here, and we can't depend on food imports from all corners of the globe forever. Recent crises, specifically the war in Ukraine and the climate change crisis, demonstrate more clearly than ever the need for us to develop our ability to grow and process our own food here in Wales. The need to strengthen the public procurement system is of course a key component of this, but at the heart of all of this is our farms and the people who work on them.

Now, in speaking about Welsh farms, let us not forget that the industry here is very different to the farming industry on the other side of Offa's Dyke. Indeed, it is unique to Wales. In the main, we have small family farms here, with rural jobs in nearby communities dependent on them, not to mention the cultural viability of those communities, too. The Welsh language's continued survival over the past century has, to a great extent, been dependent on these farms and rural communities.

However, these farms are also much more vulnerable to any damage caused by poor trade deals. Deals such as those struck between this state and Australia and Aotearoa mean that farmers in Wales are now at the whim of a market that doesn't care a jot about them and over which they have no control. If, for example, the market for lamb in China or the United States were to change, then very soon afterwards we would see lamb being shipped from Aotearoa to the European Union or this state, and, as there are no tariff levies on this lamb, it would undermine our industry in its entirety. Indeed, the Farmers Union of Wales forecasts that the deal with Australia will lead to a fall of £29 million in the Welsh red meat industry's GVA, and the two deals taken together could lead to a fall of £50 million, not to mention, of course, the hundreds of millions that the Conservative Government in Westminster has cut from farming budgets following Brexit. It's fair to say that the Conservatives have left our farmers in a very deep hole.

Our amendment today specifically refers to the need to convene a food summit to ensure food security. This is of course particularly important in the current climate, with the price of fertilizer and fuel seeing such a sharp increase. Farmers are having to make very difficult choices. Some are having to sell their store calves early to generate income to pay for these raw materials. Others are having to ration their use of fertilizer, endangering their crops. The price of fertilizer has increased 200 per cent in less than a year, and the price of feed has gone up over 60 per cent over the same period.

Of course, this will affect our ability to produce food and ensure food security here and, in turn, affect farm incomes and the economy of rural Wales. Whilst some of the recent price rises can be attributed to the war in Ukraine, let us not forget that these rises were in the works for months before the atrocities perpetrated by Putin. The cost-of-living crisis will have a detrimental impact on our farms and our ability to produce food, and it's estimated that the cost of food sold in supermarkets will increase by around 20 per cent by the autumn.

This is why a summit of this kind must be convened, to ensure that everything possible is done to ensure that our farms can continue to produce food and contribute to their communities. To this end, farms need stability payments to ensure their viability, and we must examine every possible way of reducing production costs.

I note that Sam Kurtz, during his contribution, expressed his disappointment that we'd tabled an amendment. I note that, and I thank him and the Conservatives for the motion, but, of course, our amendment does exactly that: it strengthens and improves a motion that we, in the main, support. So, do support the amendment, too. Thank you very much.

I think this is undoubtedly a very important and timely debate given the food crisis that we're all aware of, and the fact that that's just going to increase in its severity over the months to come. We all know that it's also a medium and long-term challenge because of the impact of climate change, and we really need in Wales to play our part in getting these localised food chains developed so that local, quality food is consumed locally and we support our small farms and our local businesses. I'd just like to mention a couple of examples of that, and also the need to tackle food waste, because we know, I think, that the figure is that 9.5 million tonnes of food was wasted in the UK, 70 per cent of which is estimated to be edible and intended for consumption.

So, I think some local examples in dealing with some of these challenges, for me, are Castle Farm in Bishton in Newport, which is a local small farm that has ideas and energy, and is translating that into action, making a reality of Welsh Government policies and ambitions by delivering them on the ground. They produce local, quality food, they produce free range eggs, they have a small milking herd—too small to be viable if they were just selling the raw product, but, because they enhance that by having milkshake vending machines—one on their local farm shop, on farm, but they will increasingly have others out and about in the local community. And they, for example, have two local outlets, one in the Kingsway shopping centre in Newport, the Castle Farm Shop there, and also one in the recently refurbished Newport market, which reopened just last week, and they have a stall there as well. And as well as adding value to their milk production in terms of those milkshakes, they also produce ice cream on farm as well, and obviously sell that in their outlets. They do local markets, and they're always on the lookout for new possibilities, new sites, where they can sell their quality produce. And they also link with other local farms and sell the produce of those farms as well. So, I think it's a really good example of a local small farm having real ideas and energy and translating that into action.

And I'd like to highlight that refurbished Newport market as well, because it is top quality. It has a food court, it has local businesses there selling their produce, and much food and drink is among that. It has exhibition space, it's going to have high footfall coming through that market, which will be absolutely brilliant for those local purveyors of local food and drink. So, that's a real opportunity, and we need to get the message over to local businesses and farms that they can link with that Newport market to make a reality of those local supply chains.

I'd also like to emphasise the importance of food pantries, which are, for example, sited in Maindee library in Newport, and also in Caldicot, in the town centre, where they are dealing with the challenges of food waste by taking food from supermarkets, food that obviously is edible, and selling it—not selling it, but making it freely available to those in need locally. And those are really good examples, practical examples, of what can be done, and I think these food pantries will increasingly have a role to play right across Wales. So, they have the chilled food in the cabinet, but they also have a range of other food in shopping trolleys there too, made available to local communities. And of course they do much work around that, because when they have people coming to see them in need of those food supplies, they will often have other needs as well, and leads can be made to a variety of other services.

So, I do think that it's really important that all these examples—and we know there are many of them right across Wales, up and down the length and breadth of Wales—are brought to the attention of Senedd Members and Government Ministers and officials, because we can obviously learn from the good practice that's taking place all across Wales and spread that good practice, and make these ambitions and these policies that I think many of us share, to have these virtuous local food supply circles made a reality on the ground and also to tackle food waste. And I'm sure we'll hear many other good local examples here today in this important debate. 

With a rich and diverse food and produce sector, Wales has a unique role to play in demonstrating how it can be self-sufficient during national and international crises. We now face an unprecedented chapter in food security, and our ability to quickly protect Welsh industry, the people it employs and those it delivers to. I have to say, being as Brynle Williams, the late Brynle Williams, has been mentioned here today, that I concur with my colleagues Paul Davies and Andrew Davies, because this—. Food security was something else that Brynle Williams championed in the many years that he was here in this Chamber.

This Welsh Labour Government has not only been slow to react to the mounting challenges that we face, but has been complacent on some of the problems caused, and, as a result, has fundamentally failed to put the people of Wales first. Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. Now, while all of us sat here today have no difficulty in accessing these, the Food Standards Agency report that 9 per cent of people in Wales experience low food security, and a fifth of people now worry about running out of food. Shockingly, a quarter of 16 to 34-year-olds run out of access to food at some point every year.

Now, as we address the state of food security in Wales, it is vital that colleagues on the opposite bench recognise the alarming position of the Welsh Government and its refusal to regard food as a public good. A nation of huge resources, and regarded as the bread-basket of Europe, has led to the concept of food security being challenged, following the awful Russian invasion of Ukraine. With its decline in exports being felt around the world, now is the time for Wales to review and adapt while it does still have some chance.

Countries in north Africa and the middle east serve as a prime example of how quickly things can deteriorate. Egypt imports 85 per cent of its wheat from Russia, and Lebanon receives 66 per cent of its wheat from Ukraine—the regions now face a heightened level of food insecurity. And closer to home, even before the crisis in Ukraine, Wales has its own issues.

As highlighted by the RSPB in their food security during a nature and climate crisis report in 2018, the Food and Agriculture Organization reported that an estimated 2.2 million people in the UK were severely food insecure, making the UK the country with the highest reported food insecurity in Europe. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated food insecurity, with loss of income and limited access to usual food sources.

With this, the Welsh Government must acknowledge that our farmers are now at the forefront of protecting and enhancing our food security, and they can also be at the heart of an environmental and food-producing revolution. In fact, a study from Bangor University found that Welsh sheep and beef farms using non-intensive methods have among the lowest greenhouse gas emissions of comparable systems globally.

In looking at food dependency, the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs has reported that the United Kingdom is 64 per cent self-sufficient in all foods, and 77 per cent self-sufficient in indigenous-type food, compared to Finland and the Republic of Ireland, which are the top two nations for food security in the world. They score 85.3 and 83.8 on the index scale respectively, with the United Kingdom on 78.5.

It is vital that the Welsh Government conduct an immediate review of food security in Wales. I ask the Minister: while reforestation in Wales is vital, why are you putting livelihoods and food security further at risk by setting a tree-planting target that could require the complete afforestation of 3,750 Welsh family farms?

Food production in rural Wales is under serious threat like never before. Some of this is because of this Welsh Government's policies on agriculture and climate change. This must stop and a just transition commission established to ensure that the burden of decarbonisation does not fall unequally on our rural communities, and that it doesn't have a negative impact on the historically thriving Welsh language and food production in rural Wales.

We need to increase production, and we need to make our delicious produce even more competitive on the global stage. I've said many times here before that it is unacceptable that the shelf life for Welsh lamb is around 36.5 days, whilst New Zealand has achieved up to 110 days for carbon dioxide gas-flushed lamb.

Bring your comments to a close now, please.

Okay. I applaud the aim in the proposed food (Wales) Bill to eliminate food waste. The Welsh Government must not only recognise that this is a grave concern, but as a point of contention to its approach to conquering climate change and food security here in Wales. Diolch.

I call on Jenny Rathbone.

Thank you. Sorry—just chasing the lectern. Thank you very much. I agree that this is an extremely important debate, and I thank the Conservative Party for having tabled it. I can't say I disagree with any of the motion or the amendments, and I have to say that there's a huge amount of agreement in what we need to be doing.

So, in 2020, Tyfu Cymru conducted a survey of the 200 horticulture businesses we then had in Wales, and it revealed that Wales was growing no more than a quarter of a piece of fruit or veg a day for our population—one quarter of the I think it's seven a day we now are recommended to eat by public health. And a strong case was made at that time, nearly two years ago, for a small capital grant scheme that would have enabled those small-scale producers to double their horticultural production. Unfortunately, the Minister decided not to take up that recommendation.

So, here we are in 2022, and we don't seem to have made any significant progress, while our food security has deteriorated significantly. It isn't just Brexit, which means that we no longer have the people who pick the produce; we also have the war in Ukraine disrupting international food markets. So, a very small pilot did go ahead in 2020, at the end of 2020—£20,000 enabled five fruit and veg businesses to pay for two polytunnels, two packing sheds, a borehole to enable a site to have water, and a windrow compost turner to create food for the soil. Amber Wheeler's evaluation shows that sales of veg on this very small scale increased by 75 per cent. And if you bulk that up to all 200 of these horticultural businesses—and there may be one or two more in the last two years—we really could start to improve our food security for one of the three main ingredients of what is a healthy diet.

So, it is not impressive, after 11 years of raising these issues in this Senedd, that we are still talking about developing a food strategy. We have no farm-to-fork strategy and, in the context of universal free school meals for all primary schools, we have to be candid that our procurement processes are still a work in progress. And it remains quite unclear how the Welsh Government is working in line with the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 to have a coherent, long-term inclusive strategy to bring together the foundational economy, our net zero carbon objectives, our need to address the nature crisis and our public health objectives to create a healthier population.

We talk about developing a stronger, fairer, greener food strategy, but we don't seem to have a plan. So, I agree with Sam Kurtz that food is a public good, and we need to reassure our farmers that there is a really important role for Welsh farming to improve our food security.

How is the economy Minister increasing the number of caterers with cooking skills? How are the 1 million trees we are going to be planting increasing the number of orchards we have, when we have the Woodland Trust saying that only elder, sloe and crab apples are going to be considered as Welsh trees, even though there is a massive body of evidence that people have been cultivating fruit trees for hundreds of years in Wales?

In light of what John Griffiths had to say, perhaps Newport could—. The refurbished market in Newport could be the hub of a Newport local food partnership, because that is what we need, and we need to do this locally.

We have a much bigger threat to our food security than even Brexit or Ukraine, and that is our climate. If we do not address the climate emergency and do what we say we want to do, we will simply not be able to produce the food we need, and the future will become very grim for future generations. So, just as the war in Ukraine requires us to accelerate our transition to green energy, the war in Ukraine requires us to cut our dependency on fertiliser and start adjusting our food production to protect and enhance our soil quality and address our nature emergency. What on earth are we doing having all these chicken sheds that require corn to be imported from across the world, including tearing down the Amazon?

So, in this month of all months, in March, how are we encouraging growers to plant so that we do indeed have the ability to feed the very poorest in our population, who really are having to choose between eating and heating? We have seen terrifying rises in food prices for people on low incomes, and I can tell you that in the wholesale market in Cardiff, the prices are so high this week that the retailers are scared to even buy it, because they don't think they're going to be able to sell it, and if they don't sell it, they're obviously going to make a massive loss.

Can you bring it to a close, please?

We have all the ingredients for food security in Wales; we have water, land and sun, and we really, really do need to get on and ensure that we have that nature-secure, coherent food strategy to improve our food security and the well-being of our people.

The progress that humankind has made to date is thanks to the agricultural revolution. Without farming being able to feed the population, we would not have had our industrial revolution, which forms the world we live in today. Being able to support an increasing population with reliable good-quality food is key to a stable and prosperous society, which we all would hope to live in. I would argue that food security is as important now as it has ever been. Good-quality and plentiful food supplies have allowed our society to evolve and gain greater skills. But this is wholly dependent on our farmers to produce the food that we need. Those who produce our food are the backbone of our very existence. Myself and other Senedd Members in my party, such as Sam Kurtz, Peter Fox and our illustrious leader Andrew R.T. Davies, have worked and still work in the farming industry, and know full well the complexities of the situations that we face.

The first thing that many of us do when we wake up is think of what we are going to have for breakfast, lunch or dinner—or if you're me, you tend to think about that as soon as the last meal's gone. But even in times of crisis and chaos, it is our basic human need to take on food and water to enable us to survive, and everybody should have access to that. Food is now seen as a commodity, trading across the world; the globalisation of food now means that we have become vulnerable to shocks in countries right across the world. We are living in uncertain times, where our usual reliance on previously stable markets will be tested. As has been said, the situation in Ukraine and Russia poses a significant concern for us all, threatening the world supplies of flour, grain and fertiliser and chemicals for the UK market, which we need.

Food shortages and increasing prices can threaten world order. The increasing bread price in Africa and the middle east could prove to destabilise many governments and democracies. We saw for ourselves here, in our country, during COVID that empty shelves in our supermarkets caused widespread panic, and I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping our nation fed. We must ensure that, here in Wales, we are resilient to political, physical and financial shocks from around the world. Only two days ago, The New York Times ran an article titled 'Ukraine War Threatens to Cause a Global Food Crisis'. The piece outlined the worrying fact that a crucial proportion of the world's wheat, corn and barley is trapped in Russia and Ukraine because of the war, while even larger proportions of the world's fertiliser are stuck in Russia and Belarus with no sign of them getting anywhere.

There have been concerns raised about the imports of food or feedstuffs, not just from a food security point of view, but from the environmental damage this is causing in those countries and the transportation footprints. For many years, I've championed farm-to-fork for local produce and the education of our young people and the nation to know more about where their food comes from. And we must be proud of our agricultural sector here in Wales: they produce top-quality produce in a sustainable manner and do an amazing job day in, day out. We should be supporting this sector and recognise how essential they are in order for food security, and I do hope that the Minister, in the White Paper, will make food security a key part of that.

I applaud my colleague Peter Fox's food Bill to address the food waste issue. I believe we should be moving away from convenience-based food, and instead be championing home-cooked, local produce that's seasonal, and all the associated health benefits this would bring. I believe that, since COVID, the Welsh population have a greater understanding of the supply chain issues of where their food comes from, and there has been a move back, as my colleague Sam Kurtz has said, to buying local and supporting our local businesses. But I believe we need to make it clearer on the packaging of food, to identify local products and where our food comes from. We need better labelling on foodstuffs so that we can make a choice to eat Welsh or British produce. At the moment, many foodstuffs are marketed as British when they're only packaged in this country, and I think that is a disgrace.

We face many challenges in the coming years and decades ahead, from wars to climate change, all of which strengthen our argument for greater food security within our borders. And I implore Members right across the Chamber to support the Welsh Conservative motion today.

Firstly, can I just make the point that rising food prices was already an issue prior to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and was, in part, due to the pandemic and also because of Brexit? It concerns me that, in recent debates, the Conservatives have tried to ignore the facts about the cost-of-living crisis we now face, and decisions made by the Tory UK Government have caused this crisis and the food insecurity that comes with it, not just the war and the pandemic, which is the latest rhetoric I am hearing.

Years of austerity have caused job insecurity for the 22 per cent of people in Wales who are employed in public services. Cuts to the £20 universal credit uplift, increasing national insurance by 1.25 per cent in April and lifting the energy cap by 54 per cent are just some of the huge barriers that have been put on families—[Interruption.]—in Wales who will struggle to afford to eat or heat their homes as a direct result of these policies.

On top of this, the Farmers Union of Wales has repeated its concerns about the current Australia trade deal. The full liberalisation of the trading of agricultural goods does risk the displacement of Welsh and UK food production, and could impose further barriers on UK exports to the EU. But aside from this point, I do welcome Lesley Griffiths's amendment on developing a Welsh community food strategy to encourage the production and supply of locally sourced food in Wales. I also agree that food should be a public good, as was mentioned earlier, and seek better labelling of the product. 

I recently inquired about schools and public services in north Wales, but was told that, in north Wales, much of the land is used for meat and dairy production, following the global average of 77 per cent of land being used for it, and there is only, really, Sealand in north Wales that is used for crops on a large scale, so we'd really have to look at that. But possibly the biggest long-term threat to our food security is the effects of climate change, which have already had huge impacts on crop yields in recent years, with unseasonably dry spells and also terrible flooding. So, we have to also take that into consideration.

Urgent action is required to protect our biodiversity and restore our natural resources. Over the years, in some areas, to increase productivity, ponds and ditches have been drained and hedgerows ripped up, and we have lost 97 per cent of our hay meadows across the UK. To combat this, we need to shift agricultural subsidies towards rewarding farmers appropriately for producing environmental and social outcomes, including improved soil health, clean air and water, and protecting biodiversity. But we also need to encourage more localised food production.

After the war, council houses were built with large gardens so that people could grow vegetables in them. There were community allotments and farms grew a variety of rotating crops, creating ecosystems and areas of biodiversity. I met with a group in Flintshire called FlintShare, where they do community farming at three locations and produce seasonal vegetables and fruit. Going forward, I'd like to see more of the projects rooted in the community supported in counties across Wales. Diolch.

And finally, Peter Fox.

Diolch, acting Llywydd. And for the record, I would like to declare that I am a practicing farmer—in fact, I'm looking at cattle outside the window as I sit here. Can I thank my colleague Sam Kurtz for bringing forward this important and very timely debate? Quite frankly, food security is something that many of us have taken for granted. As a society, we've generally become accustomed to going into a supermarket, doing our weekly shop and then going back home without much thought as to where our food has come from and how it's been produced. But recent events have created a perfect storm and brought food security into sharp focus. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused havoc for supply chains across the world and this has had an impact on the availability of products here in Wales. We're also starting to see the impacts of the horrific and unnecessary Russian invasion of Ukraine, increasing the price and limiting the availability of imports of raw ingredients.

I do regret that the Labour amendment has sought to blatantly politicise the current issue, and the language used is unhelpful at a time in which people are looking for answers from all Governments. I also think that the Government amendment takes a more long-term view of the issue and fails to mention immediate steps that need to be taken to address issues facing many people at the moment. And so, it is in this regard that I support calls, as stated in the motion before us, for greater co-operation across Governments and the food and agricultural sectors through a food summit. This will help us to assess the levels of Wales's food security as well as looking for opportunities to mitigate some of the issues that we're currently facing.

As I've previously argued in this Chamber, there are still concerns amongst farmers that the future farming support scheme pivots too much towards paying for public goods, with a lack of recognition of the importance of supporting those producers in Wales who are trying to produce high-quality, affordable and sustainable food for our communities. We also need to relax some of the barriers facing farmers to enable them to use more of their land for food production. Arable farmers are expected to leave a proportion of their land fallow, but with inputs and overheads increasing at an alarming rate, many farmers are not going to be able to maintain current production levels. And so, releasing land will help to make up for that shortfall in some way and allow farmers to diversify a little more.

Finally, Llywydd, I would like to reiterate the need for a stronger legislative basis for the food system in Wales. During the development of my food Bill proposal, I have repeatedly heard that different parts of the food system don't always speak to each other, and that food governance and the wider strategy need to improve if we are to meet the needs of current and future generations. And I think that recent events have shown how we need structures in place that can bring together local, regional and national producers, as well as public bodies, to drive forward strategic planning and to encourage more localised sustainable and resilient supply chains. I look forward to discussing these issues with Members and stakeholders as my Bill progresses through the Senedd in the future.

To finish, Llywydd—acting Llywydd, sorry—we are living in a fraught period with a series of unprecedented events coalescing to create challenges that we haven't faced in decades. There is no one solution; instead, we need a package of measures to help alleviate the food security issues that we are currently experiencing. We clearly have to boost the resilience of local supply chains and take steps to reduce our resilience on imports from other countries, particularly those in politically unstable areas of the globe. And this is where we need the legislative framework in place to create a coherent direction of travel for the food sector in Wales, removing barriers facing Welsh producers to help them meet the needs of Wales. I hope that all Members will back the original motion today. I know that we all feel that this is a very important area, and I just wish that politics wouldn't get in the way of something so important and we could come together and agree something as important as this motion. Diolch, acting Llywydd.

The Deputy Presiding Officer took the Chair.

I call on the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd, Lesley Griffiths.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Like all Members contributing to this debate today, I want to begin by paying tribute to our farmers and our rural communities for the vital contribution that they make to the health and prosperity of our nation.

As we note the negative impact of the horrific war in Ukraine on food security, we should also note the positive impact of the actions of food produces and rural communities in Wales in supporting people displaced by the war. Their efforts should inspire us all to live up to the values they reflect—of solidarity, of fairness, and of global responsibility. I'm sure that the thoughts of all Members in the Siambr are with those people now living in besieged areas of Ukraine and in other conflict zones around the world, who experience the most severe threat of food insecurity, with children especially threatened with starvation or the lifelong impact of malnourishment.

Where I believe the position of this Senedd should depart from the Conservative motion is in its failure to acknowledge the true crises threatening food security in Wales today. Food supply to Wales remains robust, despite the immense challenges workers and businesses have faced: the disruption of the pandemic, the chaos and uncertainty of the UK Government's position on trade with our European neighbours. These have not led to widespread shortages of supply. We should also remember that globally as much as half of all food produce is discarded as waste, as John Griffiths referred to in his contribution. It would be nonsensical to put all issues of food insecurity into a single category. The conflict conditions driving food insecurity in Ukraine are having an effect on our own food security, but we each face a different set of challenges that will each require a different set of responses.

The most immediate threat to food security in Wales today is not a collapse in production or supply, but an economic crisis undermining people's ability to access food, and it is from the deliberate decisions taken by the UK Government—[Interruption.] Yes.

I'm grateful for that. Could you name me another country that isn't experiencing the cost pressures that we're experiencing in the UK that we could use as an example?

I think it's fair to say that, obviously, the pandemic has caused global disruption in the way you refer. However, your Chancellor had the opportunity to do something about it today and he didn't do it. Five billion pounds to take 5p off a litre of fuel—that's no good for people who haven't got money for food or money for energy or who haven't got a car. 

Food poverty is inevitably a symptom of poverty in general, and the UK economy, under the current UK Chancellor, has experienced the largest real-term falls in incomes for more than four decades. In this context, the Conservative UK Government has decided to impose the largest tax increases, as a share of national income, in any year in the last three decades. Unemployment support will fall to its lowest real-terms value in more than three decades. Three quarters of households on universal credit will be worse off next month than they were a year ago. And the response of this Welsh Labour Government is targeted at this cost-of-living crisis created by the UK Conservative Party.

Last month, my colleague Rebecca Evans, the Minister for Finance and Local Government, announced a £330 million package of support, above anything offered by the UK Government. This includes direct cost-of-living payments, additional winter fuel payments, and discretionary assistance funding for local councils. Since 2019, we've invested £9 million specifically to promote those community institutions who support the growing, collection, distribution and sharing of food in Wales, from holiday enrichment programmes in schools to community-growing projects and community kitchens. My party's election manifesto last May pledged to develop a community food strategy, and our co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru commits us to shaping this strategy together.

This month, I've met with farming unions, food retailers, supply chain businesses, industry trade bodies, and with my counterparts from the other Governments across the UK. This engagement is regular and provides an important means of informing and delivering measures to address our shared challenges. I recognise the Tories here don't understand how Government works, but we do not need a food summit. These discussions and meetings happen as a matter of course; it's business as usual. The community food strategy will not replace industrial or inter-governmental engagement; rather, it can respond to the desire of communities here in Wales to take a more active role in shaping the food system themselves. That is how we intend to approach its development, taking a bottom-up rather than a top-down approach.

The other major food security challenge facing us in Wales, and globally, perhaps not as immediately obvious as conflict or economic crises but certainly greater in its magnitude, are the climate and nature crises. It appears the Conservatives have not yet grasped that to deprioritise long-term actions on nature and climate is not the way to achieve food security here in Wales, as clearly was demonstrated by Janet Finch-Saunders's contribution. The Welsh Government's proposals for the long-term arrangements for agriculture are being discussed as part of the co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru. In their development to date, we have sought to reflect the United Nations principles of sustainable land management. Those principles were of course developed in the context of addressing global food security and ending hunger worldwide. I hope the Senedd can agree now is not the time to abandon those UN principles nor our commitment to supporting Welsh farming to become the most climate and nature friendly farming in the world. In responding to today's debate, I would welcome the support from the Conservatives in this Siambr in calling for a change to the ruinous policies inflicted on Wales's food producers by the UK Tory Government. The recently negotiated New Zealand trade deal

'shows a willingness by the UK Government to undermine UK farming and food security in return for negligible benefits to the economy'.

Not my words, but those of the president of the Farmers Union of Wales. Not a single Conservative Member of the Senedd has yet called out the shameful decision by the UK Chancellor to break their own manifesto promise and deny more than £200 million in funding for rural development here in Wales. I have noticed some Members of the Welsh Conservatives have started to distance themselves from their counterparts in London, and I hope, in responding to this debate—

I haven't. 

—the Conservatives—[Laughter.] There is a retort. I do hope in responding to this debate, and I'm assuming it's the leader of the opposition, the Conservatives will take the opportunity to distance themselves from the policies of the UK Tory Government—policies of economic mismanagement, welfare cuts and austerity that threaten the food security of people in Wales today. Their policy is causing direct harm to our food and farming businesses.

In their motion, the Conservatives call for a revolution. Let them start today with an immediate and radical change in the policies of their own party at the other end of the M4. Diolch.

I call on Andrew R.T. Davies to reply to the debate.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. It's a pleasure to sum up this debate today and follow on from the Minister. I did offer the Minister the opportunity to point to a country that isn't receiving the same price pressures that we are in the United Kingdom, and I'd also offer the regional Member for North Wales the opportunity, as well, to make an intervention on me to give that opportunity to look to a country that isn't having the same price pressures that we're having, instead of the amendment that you've tabled that is saying that the Conservative Government in Westminster is at fault on this. So, if you'd like to make an intervention—[Interruption.]—or if the Deputy Minister there would like to make an intervention—[Interruption.] Give me a country. Give me a country. 

What about Costa Rica? I think they probably are not suffering the same pressures because they have a rich abundance of food—[Interruption.]

There's a natural abundance of food in Costa Rica, but the people in Costa Rica are also struggling under the cost pressures of importing food, and that's why we bring debates to the floor of the Senedd today, because we need greater food security. It is a fact that what's happened to this country over the last 30 years—and by 'this country' I'm talking of Wales and the United Kingdom—is that food security has dropped from about 75 per cent to 60 per cent. That is a fact, that's unarguable. Countries across Europe—[Interruption.] Well, if you'd like to make an intervention, Deputy Minister—

You don't like it when somebody heckles you, do you?

No, I'm happy to take the intervention. [Interruption.] Stand up.

I would like to hear the leader of the opposition actually contribute and conclude the debate.

Stand up. If the Deputy Minister—

Joyce Watson rose—

Go on.

Thank you for taking the intervention. We have seen today, of course, the spring budget, and what would have helped people, producers particularly, here, is around the cost of fuel and energy. If there had been a windfall tax towards helping that, rather than the 2p VAT gain—not the 5p reduction, but the 2p VAT gain—that this Government is making, it would have helped enormously those food producers taking their business forward, particularly the small ones that we represent here.

I stand by what the Chancellor delivered today for the people of Wales and the people of this country, as the Minister tried to highlight, which was a 5p cut in fuel duty, not for one month, not for two months, not for three months, but for 12 months. For 12 months. That's not just people with cars, as the Minister tried to indicate, that's for the people who haul our food, our freight, around this country, who will benefit from a cut in the price for the next 12 months. Also, the national insurance—[Interruption.] The national insurance threshold that has been lifted today in the same statement, which Martin Lewis the money expert has said is the most generous—[Interruption.] The most generous settlement that could be made—

Andrew. Andrew. Two seconds. Can I ask the members of the Government to make sure that we can all hear the speaker, please, and avoid heckling him so much?

As a man used to say in Dad's Army, 'They don't like it up 'em'. [Laughter.] That's the long and the short of this Government, because what was delivered today in the spring statement was a solution to the cost-of-living crisis. What we heard from the Minister was nothing to deal with the food security issues that we're facing because of the Ukrainian crisis. That is a simple fact. Ukraine and Russia control 30 per cent of the wheat that is exported around the globe. What is happening in Ukraine will have devastating consequences for the whole world. I will draw on the comments of the head of the UN food programme, David Beasley, who said, 'If you think we are going through hell on earth now, you just wait'. That is what's going to happen to the food supply that is unfolding in Ukraine at the moment.

As the opener, Sam Kurtz, touched on when he was opening this debate—. He talked of the cost pressures within the industry, he talked of the interdependency of the industry, from primary producers, farmers, to the processors and the retailers. That's why such an important part of the motion that's before the Senedd today is about pulling together that whole chain to discuss what is needed from Government. You have a unique opportunity, Minister, with the agricultural Bill that is coming before the Senedd in April to actually do that. That's why the Agriculture Act 1947 was so important—that the Labour Government brought forward in 1947—to address the crisis that faced Europe from the devastation of the second world war and the food security that needed to be put in place. That's why we put the motion down today to try and be constructive in trying to tease out from the Government a vision for where it wants to be. But, as we heard from the Member for Cardiff Central who said that there was a lack of coherence in the Government planning—. I can see the Minister whispering to her colleague the Minister for education. You might like to take note of what the Member for Cardiff Central said about the lack of coherence around the plans that you have put in place as the Minister for rural affairs for the last five years. That's not me speaking; that's coming from your own benches. 

I want to see the Senedd working collaboratively together so that we can deal with the food security issues that Peter Fox has tried to touch on with his Bill, the food Bill that he has put forward that is moving through this Senedd at the moment and touches on the points that John Griffiths also mentioned about food waste, because that is another critical component that we need to deal with—rather than just producing the food, seeing so much food going to waste from major multiples as well as restaurants. But it is the issue that the amendment tabled by Plaid Cymru, which talked about the trade deals that have been discussed post Brexit—. I make no apologies for those trade deals at all. It is an opportunity for us to unlock the potential and open up markets, the Pacific rim market of 1.2 billion consumers—1.2 billion consumers. I will stand on any platform and make the case that we need to be engaged to support the farmers in Wales and the rest of the UK to unlock that potential. That's where the growth will be coming from. But, in the immediate, what we need to be dealing with is making sure that we have the capacity here in Wales to grow the food, to process that food, and sell that food.

The point that was made about milk production is well made time and time again: sadly, we don't have a major milk processing facility here in Wales; we have to send that processing capacity over the other side of Offa's Dyke and then return it. So, Members across the Chamber can talk about local production, but unless we've got the processing facilities to do it, we're not adding value here in Wales, and that's really important—something that the Government again could be focusing its energies on, that the Irish Government have been so successful with. I have time and time again raised this point with the Minister and the Labour frontbench about the 'Harvest 2020' document that the Irish Government brought forward, that Janet Finch-Saunders touched on. She was talking about the other countries—Finland, for example, with exceptional food security rates, and the Republic of Ireland coming second in the league table because they've got the processors, they've got the producers, and they've got the retailers around the table and have mapped out a way forward to achieve that. We haven't succeeded in doing that here in Wales, and we need to up our game.

John Griffiths's contribution was so well timed, highlighting success stories of local produce actually making it from the farm in a local area in Newport to the actual retail space from vending machines and the Newport market redevelopment. That is an important development that more producers need to be able to access and enjoy that benefit that we can see. But, it is vital, Minister, that you use the opportunity that you do have to use the agricultural Bill to put those incentives in place. Several Members, including the regional Member for North Wales on your own benches, said that producing food is a public good. It is a public—[Interruption.] Well, your own Member on the backbenches pointed that out. And with the greatest of respect, what's going on in Ukraine today will be measured for decades to come, and the danger is that we don't use this opportunity to make sure that we make food security an important part of what we want to support going forward. And you can count on it as being a public good. It was European regulations that would prevent that being part of the public good. You have the legislative ability to carve out your niche here, Minister, and put your stamp on this. And I would hope today that we could call on the Chamber to support the motion that's before us, because it is vitally important that we gain the attention of the public of what is coming down the road at us. And if we can do that by driving forward a food Bill that Peter Fox has put before us, and also the agricultural Bill that your Government are bringing forward in the spring, we can make a real difference to people's lives, the length and breadth of Wales.

And I will end again on that comment from David Beasley, who's head of the food programme, who said if you think that we're going on hell on earth at the moment, you just get ready for it, because that is what's going to happen the longer the Ukraine war continues, and it's wrong if we don't put the precautions in place to make sure that people can have food on the table at an affordable price. We can do it, we must do it, and we can't lose this opportunity to get on with it. So, I hope the Senedd will support the motion before them today.

The proposal is to agree the motion without amendment. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I did hear an objection, therefore I will defer voting on the motion until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

And we have now reached that voting time. In accordance with Standing Order 12.18, I will suspend the meeting temporarily before proceeding to voting time.

Plenary was suspended at 18:01.

The Senedd reconvened at 18:06, with the Deputy Presiding Officer in the Chair.