The following amendment has been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Darren Millar.

The next item will be the Plaid Cymru debate on the global impact of domestic consumption, and I call on Delyth Jewell to move the motion.

Motion NDM8121 Siân Gwenllian

To propose that the Senedd:  

1. Notes:  

a) that the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 requires Wales to establish itself as a globally responsible nation;  

b) that more than 50 per cent of global forest loss and land conversion is attributable to the production of agricultural commodities and forestry products demanded by consumers;  

c) that an area equivalent to 40 per cent of the size of Wales is used overseas to grow just a handful of commodities imported into Wales (palm, soy, beef, cacao, natural rubber, leather, timber, paper and pulp); and  

d) that vast areas abroad are being destroyed to create commodities bound for Wales, with disastrous consequences including the abuse of indigenous peoples, child labour, and the loss of biodiversity.  

2. Calls on the Welsh Government to:  

a) account for and report on the significant greenhouse gas emissions caused by Wales overseas as a result of the deforestation and habitat loss associated with Welsh imports of commodities;   

b) strengthen its economic contract—which develops a relationship with business around responsible growth and practices—to require signatories to commit to supply chains that are free from deforestation, conversion and social exploitation;  

c) develop a more self-sufficient food system for Wales by developing a roadmap towards a food system that’s fit for the future and provides communities with a sustainable source of food which would include:

(i) reversing the loss of local processing capacity;

(ii) driving local supply chains;

(iii) prioritising importing only sustainable goods from overseas; and

(iv) helping to address food poverty and malnutrition. 

d) use procurement levers to create a requirement for supply chains to be free from deforestation, conversion and social exploitation, as part of the transition to utilising locally produced and sustainable goods;  

e) support Welsh farmers to eliminate imported livestock feed that is linked to deforestation and habitat conversion overseas; 

f) support international projects and initiatives aimed at preserving and restoring forests in the main commodity-producing countries; and 

g) ensure that it promotes new trade agreements that will guarantee high environmental and human rights standards, particularly around deforestation, accompanied by strict enforcement measures.  

Motion moved.

Diolch, Llywydd. This debate is about the responsibility we hold for the actions we take and the reverberations of that responsibility as they stretch and swell across the globe. It is a debate about the impact of our actions, the consequences that our consumption habits have on people and places on the other side of our planet, and it is a debate about choices—the choices we all have, whether we're aware of them or not, to do things differently—and the choices that Governments have to empower their citizens to make those choices wisely. I use the word 'wisely' because George Bernard Shaw said,

'We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.'

It's that future that I'd like us all, in this debate, to keep at the front and centre of our thoughts, because wisdom can only truly percolate through when we are learning not just from something but for that future. So, what responsibility does Wales hold? The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 requires Wales to establish itself as a globally responsible nation. That means that, as well as taking actions here in Wales that will help people's lives in our nation, we need to be mindful of how our supply chains entangle and strangle other nations, how the choices we make about the things we eat and wear and invest in, how all of these things, have ripple effects that swell and grow into a tidal wave of waste, of ruin, of trauma in other parts of our world. We may not see their effects, but that does not make them any less real or terrible in its truest sense.

There is a sickness in our society—the sickness of indifference, the comfortable contempt we show towards that which is out of our line of sight. Each of us like to think that we do our thing, that we do our own best things for the planet, but how many of us use soap or cosmetics made with palm oil? How many of the desserts we eat contain cocoa that's not fair trade or ethically sourced? How much of the livestock feed we use for animals is leading to the extinction of other species of animals in other parts of the world, like the northern tiger, wildcats in South America, orangutans in Sumatra? Our everyday choices, insignificant as they may seem in isolation, set events in motion and they blow open the quietly catastrophic effects felt by that insidious sense of 'out of sight, out of mind'.

Llywydd, we cannot stay blind to these effects any longer. I'll set out some of the starkest statistics, and much of this comes from the fantastic 'Wales and Global Responsibility' report, commissioned by Size of Wales, WWF Cymru and RSPB Cymru. Their findings include that an area equivalent to 40 per cent of Wales's land mass, 823,000 hectares, was used overseas to grow Welsh imports of cocoa, palm, beef, leather, natural rubber, soy, timber, pulp and paper in an average year between 2011 and 2018. Much of this land—30 per cent of it—is in countries at high or very high risk of deforestation, species extinction or social issues like child labour and abuse of indigenous people's rights. The process of converting this land overseas and destroying those habitats results in 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year—the equivalent of 4 per cent of Wales's total domestic and imported goods carbon footprint.

I worry often, Llywydd, that, in these debates, when Members reel off statistics, people switch off. Our brains can't process that amount of horror, of devastation. So, as well as those statistics, I'll say this: people's lives are being destroyed by our greed and our stubborn refusal to change our habits, and the blood in our supply chains stains the conscience of the world, but very few consumers will be aware of any of this. Powers over labelling rest with the UK Government, and they do need to act to empower people to understand all of this.

But there's a great deal that the Welsh Government can and should be doing as well. In our debate, we'll set out why the Welsh Government must strengthen the economic contract by developing relationships with businesses around responsible growth and ethical practices, requiring signatories to commit to using supply chains that are free from deforestation and social exploitation. Luke Fletcher will set out this in greater detail. All of us in Wales have a part to play. We each need to reduce our dependence on imported commodities that drive this deforestation. Businesses need to be supported to localise their supply chains. Mabon ap Gwynfor will set out how this can be done through a robust community food strategy. 

The fragility of global supply chains has been highlighted by Brexit, the Ukraine war and the cost-of-living crisis. Our way of living is not sustainable. But those people in other parts of the world, their ways of living will simply cease if we don't change how we act, which is what Heledd Fychan will focus her remarks on.

Wales and the world is at a crossroads in history. The UN has warned that, if we don't change course on climate change, we risk creating an unliveable planet. Now, we in Wales have led the way by declaring both climate and nature emergencies. Those words are important, and we are taking steps towards net zero by 2035 through the co-operation agreement, but, by that date, if we only change the things that we can see in our own nation, in front of our own eyes, we will have casually permitted vast injustices to be perpetrated in our name. That is not the legacy we should leave for future generations. I look forward to hearing the debate.

I have selected the amendment to the motion, and I call on Janet Finch-Saunders to move amendment 1. 

Amendment 1—Darren Millar

Add as new sub-point at end of point 2:

introduce a local food and drink charter to encourage shops, cafés and restaurants to sell locally sourced rather than imported food and drink.

Amendment 1 moved.

Diolch, Llywydd, and thank you to Plaid Cymru and Delyth Jewell for bringing forward this really important and serious debate. We know that COVID-19 highlighted serious weaknesses that already existed in our food system. While some dairy farmers were pouring milk down the drain, we had many empty supermarket shelves, even in the dairy section. However, the pandemic started a brilliant buy local food momentum: instead of travelling to big supermarkets, many residents across Wales have turned to their local village farm shops and butchers. There's absolutely no better way to support farmers and Welsh produce than us, the people of Wales, buying Welsh.

As the amendment in the name of Darren Millar shows, I would like to see the development of a local food charter, which all shops, cafes, restaurants and bars selling food local to the area could sign up to, helping consumers to know which businesses are actually not only stocking local food, but supporting local food producers. It would be a simple system, like the food hygiene rating score on the door. It would empower customers to know whether the business they are about to enter procures local Welsh produce.

At the end of the day, we need to act more responsibly, because it is estimated that, if the world consumed the same amount as the average Welsh citizen, 2.5 planets' worth of resources would be required. Plaid Cymru, you are quite correct that the future generations Act requires Wales to establish itself as a global, responsible nation. Ask yourselves, Members: are we acting as a globally responsible nation if an area equivalent to 40 per cent of the size of Wales is required overseas to grow Welsh imports of cocoa, palm oil, beef, leather, natural rubber, soy, timber, pulp and paper in an average year? Thirty per cent of the land used to grow Welsh imports of commodities is in countries categorised high or very high risk of social and deforestation issues. The greenhouse gas emissions associated with the conversion of natural ecosystems and changes in land cover for the production of Welsh imports of soy, cocoa, palm and natural rubber total 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent each year. So, to put this into perspective, Welsh timber imports use a land area two and a half times the size of Ynys Môn, Anglesey; Welsh palm imports use a land area greater than Wrexham county; Welsh soy imports use a land area greater than the size of Monmouthshire; and Welsh paper and pulp imports use a land area the size of Ceredigion.

What we have is a perfect storm. Whilst Welsh Government and, in some instances, now supported by Plaid Cymru—. Some agricultural policies, such as the Wales-wide water regulations and 10 per cent tree-planting requirements, will drive down some food production in Wales. It also makes us more reliant on imports. Already, Welsh beef imports use a land area the size of the Brecon Beacons. A globally responsible Wales cannot pursue policies that unnecessarily cause an increase in reliance on goods from around the world that is destroying our planet. The Welsh Government should account for and report on the significant greenhouse gas emissions caused by Wales overseas.

Alongside backing Welsh food production, we need to support our farmers to develop their businesses so there is less reliance on imported soy. Soy, in the form of meal and beans for livestock feed, equates to, well, almost 60 per cent and 20 per cent of total imports. The Welsh poultry industry is estimated to be responsible for consuming 48 per cent of Wales's imported soy feed for livestock. So, Minister, it would help if you could outline what steps you are taking, with the relevant Minister here as well, to work with our farmers to maybe procure some alternative feed. For example, canola, an oilseed meal, peas and beans, brewer-spent grains and insect meal have been identified as some of the most promising soybean meal alternatives.

Minister, you said that the WWF's report on Wales's global responsibility was shocking and that you were determined to change the existing procurement policy. The Deputy Minister, Lee Waters, claimed at COP26 that it provided the opportunity for regional governments to work together. COP27 is now taking place and Wales is still not acting as a globally responsible nation. By backing this motion and my little amendment today, we can learn from the past and we can also help to lead the way forward in having a food system that is fair for all. We can co-operate to build on the brilliant buy local food momentum in Wales. Diolch, Plaid Cymru. Diolch, Llywydd.

I thank Delyth for moving the motion. Now, for such rural country, it seems strange that we, as a nation, import agricultural commodities and forestry products from countries all over the globe, but that's the truth, of course. From fertiliser to feed to construction timber and much more, a large number of these commodities are produced in other countries. And each of these countries has different levels of risk when it comes to deforestation or social risks, such as child labour or forced labour. Indeed, the footprint of Welsh imports from abroad is equivalent to 823,000 hectares.

It was Martin Luther King Jr. who said, 'Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on half the world.' Our daily actions, the decisions we take, and the way we decide to spend our money have far-reaching consequences for other countries and people across the globe, as Delyth mentioned at the top of this debate. Estimates show that we would need over 1.7 Earths to keep up with our current level of growth and consumption.

Let's look at some commodities that link our agricultural sector to the wider world. Firstly, soy. We import just shy of 200,000 tonnes of soy every year. For this soy to grow, it uses up nearly 95,000 hectares of land. That's equivalent to an area larger than Monmouthshire, as Janet referred to. As we heard from Janet, soy is mostly imported into Wales in the form of meal and beans for livestock, with the Welsh poultry industry driving almost half of our soy feed consumption. But what we didn't hear was that nearly three quarters of the soy import-land footprint falls in countries that are at high or very high risk of deforestation and/or social issues, including Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina.

Now let's look at timber. In an average year, we import 768,000 cu m of wood raw material equivalent. Timber accounts for the largest land footprint of Welsh commodity imports. The average land area required each year to answer the Welsh demand for timber is 184,000 hectares. This is an area, as we heard, equivalent to two and a half times the size of Ynys Môn. The Welsh Government has laudable aims for tree planting, but compared to the trees felled to answer our consumption needs, those ambitions will barely make a dent. A fifth of the timber import-land footprint falls in countries that are at high risk for deforestation and/or social issues, including Brazil, Russia and China. Our timber consumption is actively driving the destruction of habitats, of native culture, and of the world's lungs.

So, what should be done? Well, as Saint David said, we should do the little things. In order to reduce our dependence on imports that are driving climate change and the nature emergency, we must ensure that our supply chains are local, and in order to do that we need to develop a solid local food strategy.

There are many examples of successful community food initiatives, and at a time when we are living in a cost-of-living crisis, with thousands dependent on foodbanks and with climate change happening before our very eyes, then we must develop a strategy that works not only for us, but for our brothers and sisters across the world.

Consider the great work that's being done by Y Dref Werdd in Blaenau Ffestiniog, which is working on a local food growing project, and is collaborating with the Llandrillo Menai Group to hold cooking sessions, teaching people how to prepare nutritious food. Antur Aelhaearn in Llanaelhaearn has also been developing similar projects, and if you had gone there a few months ago, you would have been able to enjoy a feast of vegetables from the community garden. There are similar examples across the country, but we need to support them and enable others to emulate them.

There is enormous potential here for growing food locally. That's why we're calling here today for the development of a more self-sustaining food system, ensuring that sustainable products are being developed in every community, and that we are not overly dependent on importing materials.

This would mean reversing the losses we have seen in the ability to process food locally; driving the local supply chain forward; prioritising imports of only sustainable materials from abroad; and helping to solve the problems of malnutrition and poverty that are endemic in some communities. Thank you.

I thank Plaid for this motion, to coincide with COP27, and also for the passion with which Delyth Jewell introduced the debate. I also want to pay tribute to the excellent and blessedly short report by Shea Buckland-Jones on behalf of WWF, which really does summarise exactly how we are not taking account of our global responsibilities and our need not to continue exploiting countries of the global south, with all the unacceptable consequences of impoverishing local communities who cannot afford to feed themselves, ironically, whilst continuing to grow nice-to-have commodities for us in the global north.

So, it isn't just in relation to our carbon emissions, it's also in relation to our food that we need to have a just transition, so that we are supporting the poorest in the world and living much more lightly on this earth, changing our food habits and equally eating—I agree completely with Mabon—locally grown seasonal food instead of relying on food from abroad. We have to be mindful, however, that we shouldn't do this too abruptly, because some people are relying on selling us food from abroad in order to earn a living, but we have to have transitional arrangements to enable them to grow more of their own food and enrich their diet whilst we import only food that we see as luxuries, rather than relying on it.

We have seen all too often these days that relying on just-in-time food imports—their days are numbered, in any case. The combination of Brexit, the climate emergency and increasing tensions and conflicts between and within different countries means that food security issues are staring us in the face. In any case, fresh food, produced locally, tastes better and is more nutritious than food that has been prematurely picked and sprayed with wax or chemicals in order to make it look good once it has been transported across the world. So, we really do need to focus on growing food locally.

We are committed to delivering net zero as Wales's contribution to averting the global climate disaster, and that requires huge changes for all of us. And reducing our carbon emissions from food is something we can all play our part in, because whilst it's our job to scrutinise Welsh Government on how quickly Wales can decarbonise its industry, its transport emissions and public buildings, that is not something that ordinary householders are going to be able to influence. Where they can make a real contribution is in what we eat, because I learned recently, and it was a really important message, that it's not vehicle use, it's not home heating, not even holiday flights that are at the top of the list of carbon emissions in individual homes; according to research for the Brecon Beacons National Park, it's household carbon emissions from food and drink that generate more than twice the carbon emissions we create from holiday travel.

So, I recently attended a conference organised by the Landworkers Alliance Cymru, where I heard plenty of evidence that regenerative agriculture is profitable without any public subsidy. That's worth repeating: without any public subsidy. One speaker reported that one acre can feed 50 families, another reported feeding 150 households on nine acres. And it creates jobs, too. It varies quite a lot, but generally it would appear that each acre of land can generate one job. So, if we had a proper training scheme for people to develop a career in horticulture, we could quickly start to deliver the food we need for our free school meals programme locally and not bring it in from outside Wales. We are blessed with people like Castell Howell who are dedicated to this campaign as well, but we are still doing far too much buying food from outside Wales, which means that the profits all leave Wales.

So, both the Agriculture (Wales) Bill and the public procurement aspects of the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill offer great opportunities to really deliver the change we need to make our ambitious universal free school meals programme affordable, as a springboard for the whole nation to eat healthier, better food, even in the teeth of this cost-of-living crisis. So, I really do hope that we can get better funding for trainees to ensure that school leavers really understand that there is a really exciting career in horticulture, and that is one of the growth industries that we need to be developing.

Wales has a long history of internationalism. Solidarity movements have existed for generations, with communities as far afield as Somaliland, as we know from Wales's coal-trading history and long-settled diaspora; Lesotho, through Dolen Cymru, founded in 1982, which after all was the world's first nation-to-nation twinning; and Uganda, where several charities have worked over four decades.

Let's take the Wales for Africa programme as a prime example. The programme connects professionals in health, education and the environmental sectors and diaspora in Wales and Africa, and harnesses the power of community-based collaborative civil society links. Rather than professional agencies or staff in country offices, projects take place through volunteers in direct contact with in-country local partners, in domains such as health, education, climate change and water. Wales for Africa catalyses huge amounts of community work here in Wales, raising awareness and funds at a local level, and Welsh Government funding of course has supported this through capacity building; the co-ordination of Wales’s fair trade movement, with Wales becoming the world's first Fairtrade Nation in 2008; efforts to mitigate climate change, including the Size of Wales project to help protect an area of rainforest the size of Wales; and volunteer placements for professionals.

So, we do understand here in Wales the benefits of working collaboratively at the international level to help our fellow people abroad, but with the contributions of my fellow Members in mind, can we really, honestly, hand on heart, state that we're making a net positive contribution to the world, when our consumption at the domestic level is actively driving climate change, biodiversity decline and the loss of culture? How can we simultaneously preach for sustainability and cultural preservation here in Wales while contributing to what amounts to cultural and environmental genocide in lands afar?

Let's look again to another case study—one championed by the Size of Wales—the cause of the Guarani people. The Guarani are one of the largest groups of indigenous people in Latin America, and their ancestral territory sits in the Atlantic forest in Brazil, only 7 per cent of which remains intact. The Atlantic forest still holds about 5 per cent of the world's biodiversity, and it provides water to around 67 per cent of the Brazilian population. They nourish, protect and respect the land, plants, animals and insects, regarding their lives as equal, and they never seek to gain dominion and power over nature or exploit it. Despite the forest suffering huge levels of deforestation, vegetation cover within legally recognised Guarani land stands at nearly 100 per cent, exemplifying the fact that indigenous peoples are the best guardians of the world’s forests.

But consumption patterns at the domestic level cast a long, dark shadow on these indigenous cultures abroad. Powerful economic forces are threatening the few lands the Guarani have been able to defend, and preventing them from demarcating and protecting the remainder of their ancestral home, through things like mineral ore production and large-scale infrastructure projects. Indeed, Guarani territories are currently threatened by up to 178 million hectares of legal deforestation on private land, and up to 115 million hectares of illegal deforestation in currently protected indigenous territories: a total area of more than 12 times the size of the United Kingdom. These threats were driven at least in part by the damaging premiership of Jair Bolsonaro, which was characterised by corruption, greed and extreme lack of regard for indigenous rights and the rights of the natural world.

But the degradation of habitats is driven by a much more fundamental behaviour, which is consumption. We are responsible for some of this consumption-derived damage, and we need to be honest about that. As a nation, we have tried to atone for our past crimes, such as our role in colonialism and empire among them, but we've also had a role to play in global climate change, in habitat loss, and our behaviour today is still driving deforestation abroad; an extractive economic relationship built on greed that destroys native cultures and habitats.

So, we urge the Welsh Government to support international projects and initiatives aimed at preserving and restoring forests in the main commodity, and in responding to the debate, I hope that the Minister can outline how Welsh Government intends to achieve these aims to ensure that Wales is a globally responsible nation, not just for the climate, but for people and their cultures too.

I thank Plaid for bringing forward this debate. It's certainly a very interesting and certainly very important motion, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss an issue that perhaps gets overlooked when we discuss climate change, and that's how our consumption here in Wales affects people and communities from across the world as well as hindering efforts to combat climate change. Such issues have been raised during the development of my food Bill and have helped to inform some of the provisions within it. Presiding Officer, I won't share too much about my Bill at the moment—I'm sure Members across the Chamber are highly anticipating its introduction into the Chamber next month—but the Bill will look at placing the impact of the Welsh food system on our environment as well as on the global environment at the heart of the decision-making process through the establishment of food goals.

Now, of course, as Delyth points out, global responsibility is one of seven well-being goals set out in the well-being of future generations Act. There is an expectation that public bodies should already take into account the impact of their decisions on the wider world. But as the motion rightly states, more can be done, indeed must be done, to better account for this. And, yes, we are part of a global system of production and consumption, but we have an opportunity to be a leader here in Wales. This is why my future Bill will look to strengthen the governance around the food system further, as one element of increasing accountability within the wider system, meaning we are able to focus more on establishing what the impact of our consumption is and how to mitigate this. I listened with great interest to the leader of Plaid Cymru yesterday in his question to the leader of the house about the need for a food commission. However, Presiding Officer, we will have more opportunity to talk about this, but I'm sure that Plaid will see that many of the points raised in point 2(c) of its motion interact with my Bill.

So, what else can we do to reduce environmental impacts of our consumption? The motion lists some interesting points, such as supporting the agricultural sector to source feed that is more environmentally friendly and does not contribute to deforestation. At this point, I will, of course, refer Members to my register of interests as a farmer. We also need to look at localising food supply chains, which has already been mentioned, and identify opportunities to produce more of what we eat and then helping public bodies to source this produce. I'm interested to know how the Government's public procurement Bill will enable local authorities to build the capacity to source more local produce and to provide opportunities for local producers to get involved with local procurement.

But one thing that we could do and perhaps could have been looked at within the motion before us is how we strengthen the labelling schemes that we have to make it easier for consumers to identify products that have a more positive impact on people and the environment. As part of this, we need to increase the level of data that we collect at both Welsh and UK levels to increase transparency and understanding of the impact of our consumption. So, I'd be interested to hear from Welsh Government how it is working with partners to increase data collection and how we can enhance traceability within supply chains. In conclusion, Presiding Officer, I welcome today's debate, and I support the premise of the motion and certainly support our amendment. Thank you.

Unfortunately for you all, I'm not Luke Fletcher, as described by Delyth, but I do want to explore the economic contract. Through the economic contract, businesses must demonstrate current action in areas such as economic strength and adaptability, fair work, the promotion of well-being and becoming low carbon and climate resilient. Ideally, the economic contract would help see a Wales where organisations are resilient and adapt to changing economic and market conditions, and where they are ready to grow sustainably. Furthermore, we should see that workers are fairly rewarded, heard and represented, secure and able to progress in a healthy, inclusive environment where rights are respected. In this regard, a safe working environment where legal rights are protected would be essential to deliver the goals of the economic contract.

The agreement also rests upon the commitment that businesses must take proactive action to ensure a healthier workforce where physical and mental well-being is maximised, while creating cohesive communities that are attractive, viable, safe and well connected. Furthermore, it requires businesses to promote and protect our vibrant culture, heritage and Welsh language. But, as we've heard, Wales imports agricultural and forest commodities from many countries around the world, many of which cause social risks. We've distanced ourselves from the production process, so we don't always see the impact on businesses that our procurement policies are having. Commodity supply chains supplying Wales in these countries risk child or forced labour, modern slavery and the destruction of vital ecosystems. For this, we ought to hang our heads in shame. How can we claim to want to maximise mental and physical well-being while we drive exploitative labour practices? In what sense are rights respected when children are forced to work so we can have our morning coffee? Are we promoting cohesive communities that are attractive, viable, safe and well connected while we are complicit in destroying acres and acres and acres of forests? The Welsh Government must play its part in ensuring that businesses review their procurement policy and ensure that it includes fair and ethical practices. They should see that organisations review and develop their food policies and procurement contracts to increase product range to include fair, ethical and sustainable fruit juice, snacks and other food, where possible, and include palm-oil-free or sustainable-palm-oil food contracts to ensure that natural habitats are being maintained, as highlighted by Fair Trade Wales.

So, to conclude, the Government need to strengthen the economic contract to require signatories to commit to supply chains that are free from deforestation, conversion and social exploitation. It would be hypocritical of the Government to seek to guarantee fair working practices and sustainable business growth at home while actively contributing to slavery, horrendous working environments and environmental degradation abroad. Diolch yn fawr.

Thank you to Plaid Cymru for bringing this debate forward, and thank you to Delyth for opening the debate. 

I just want to focus very briefly on one aspect. There's just so much in this, isn't there, and it's so important that we look at this issue. But I just wanted to look at food and farming. The debate that we're having is so important in the light of the development of the agricultural Bill for Wales, at the heart of which we want to see sustainable food production. We're pleased to see that food production is now included as part of the Bill, but still there's some lack of clarity about whether farmers will receive the basic payment for sustainable food production, and it would be great to hear from the Minister and the Government about any intentions around that. We do know that the Welsh Government is serious about reaching their net-zero ambitions, and we should be talking much more about reducing food imports, which we've heard this afternoon, particularly those that carry the highest carbon content. Therefore, we must grow as much as possible of our own food sustainably here in Wales. We need to be invigorating local food networks, and farmers need to be supported to produce food sustainably for local food markets. When I speak to farmers in mid and west Wales, that's their ambition too. They see their role as farmers both as custodians of the land, aware and concerned about the environment, and as food producers. So, I know we all want to work with farmers to realise that ambition of more food produced and consumed here in Wales. As Delyth said, since 2016, the Welsh food and agricultural industry have suffered the impacts of three major challenges: Brexit, COVID-19 and now the cost-of-living crisis. We want to see a bold and radical plan for the Welsh food and agricultural industries from the Welsh Government to make sure that the sector survives and thrives. 

It's very important as well about food security, which will be a major challenge, particularly with the Ukraine war. We need to make sure that we shield people—residents and our workers—from that food insecurity, and we need to be reducing our food waste. The Nature Friendly Farming Network estimates that, globally, 30 per cent of total food produced is wasted, and that, in the United Kingdom, food waste amounts to a staggering 9.5 million tonnes, 70 per cent of which is edible and intended for consumption. I've seen in my region communities working together to reduce that food waste through, for example, community fridges. The Hanging Gardens in Llanidloes is one example of those. I'd be interested to hear from the Welsh Government more about what they can do to support the reduction in food waste.

The Farmers Union of Wales for some time have been calling for local food sourcing, and the more the public sector can do to nudge behaviour in the right direction, the better. I hope we are ensuring, for example, that the free-school-meals programme uses as much locally produced and sourced food as possible. Whilst I recognise that it's ultimately local authorities that make their own decisions regarding procurement, I'd be interested to hear from the Welsh Government how to make that potentially a condition of the scheme, so that we properly fund that to use Welsh produce wherever possible.

The Deputy Presiding Officer took the Chair.

Thank you, once again, to Plaid Cymru; it's a very important debate. Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd.

I call on the Minister for Climate Change, Julie James.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I want to thank Plaid Cymru for raising this debate today, and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to contribute to it. The Government will be supporting the motion. I would argue that as a globally responsible nation, we, in fact, go quite a bit further than the motion. We clearly support the ambitions reflected in the motion, but the real challenge is in practical implementation, including accepting the need to prioritise, to be consistent in applying our principles and to work in social partnership with businesses and trade unions that find themselves needing to make major changes to their ways of working.

We are very proud of the work we have already been doing to reduce our impact on the planet. Our decision to withdraw support from exporters in fossil fuel overseas and refocus efforts towards new international opportunities in the low carbon and renewable energy sectors is one of many positive steps we have already taken to meet the 'globally responsible Wales' goal. To meet this particular goal of the well-being of future generations Act, we must ensure we take into account the impact of all of our policies in Wales at a global scale. Our work on biodiversity shows clear commitment to this goal, with the Welsh Government fully engaged in COP15 and a key partner in developing a new global biodiversity framework. The recent biodiversity deep-dive has focused on Wales's approach to implementing the target set by the Convention on Biological Diversity to protect at least 30 per cent of the land and 30 per cent of the sea by 2030. Recommendations have been published to support meaningful delivery of the 30x30 goal and immediate actions are being taken forward.

To turn to the second part of the motion, we're in the process of recalculating our own global footprint, which is being taken forward by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. This work will include the development of a global ecological footprint for Wales and improving our understanding of alignment between the different consumption-based metrics available, particularly in terms of carbon. We will also publish an estimate of Wales's consumption-emissions footprint, both within the UK and abroad.

Our programme for government outlines the need to take action and embed our response to the joint crises in all that we do. Our economic contract supports our vision for a well-being economy that is green, prosperous and equal. We are going further by developing a series of standards, and businesses in Wales are already encouraged to adopt the code of practice on ethical employment in supply chains. The economic contract will, indeed, continue to be a key element in our pursuit of social value, driving social change and global responsibility in our economy.

We have a strategic vision for the food and drink manufacturing and processing industry in Wales, with a new agricultural policy being developed and a food-focused public health policy, 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales’' These policies, alongside other key policies, such as free school meals and public body procurement guidance, collectively form an integrated policy package, all designed around the framework of the well-being of future generations Act.

We absolutely recognise that there is a lot of good work going on at a local level, with many shops and cafes opting for locally sourced food and drink. We want to harvest these efforts and pull together the various activities and support for food at community level by developing a community food strategy. This strategy will also look to empower industry to lead the way in enabling and encouraging shops, cafes and restaurants to sell locally sourced food and drink. Within this context, I'm able to support the amendment in Darren Millar's name as well. We can explore it as part of the work on the community food strategy, working with the industry. As I'm sure he will agree, they can and should lead on a charter of this kind. Through support to the agri-food industry and community food activity we can increase the proportion of Welsh produce consumed in Wales.

We absolutely remain committed to helping address food poverty in Wales. This year we have allocated £4.9 million to tackling food poverty, providing emergency food provision and to support the development of food partnerships that will help tackle the root causes of food poverty. To ensure children from lower-income families do not go hungry during the school holidays, we've announced £11 million of additional support until the end of February half term.

Food touches on each of the well-being of future generations goals. Procurement is therefore a powerful lever to ensure we put greater emphasis on sustainability, ethical sourcing, quality, nutrition, socioeconomic and cultural considerations rather than just cost. We are working with stakeholders to embed sustainability and foundational economy objectives into public sector food procurement. Public sector food procurement spend accounts for some £84 million expenditure a year. This spend relates to what the vulnerable and often frail in society consume on a daily basis, so it needs to be healthy, nutritious and sustainable food. We need to absolutely ensure that it continues to be sustainably sourced. And whilst I absolutely agree we must use public procurement to lever wide change, we should also put this in context: the total public expenditure on food procurement in Wales is similar to the consumer spending at just one major supermarket outlet in Cardiff.

Therefore, to truly address deforestation, as many Members have said, and conversion and social exploitation within supply chains, there needs to be a societal change in food purchasing patterns. This would be seriously advanced if the UK Government would encourage labelling requirements. I do call on Members on the benches opposite to join with us in asking the UK Government to seriously review its current labelling strategy, which is seriously inadequate to assist consumers to buy ethically. As Delyth pointed out very eloquently in her opening remarks, without that, many people who would seek to do the right thing are struggling to understand what it is they're actually buying. 

We are very strong on buying certain Welsh produce, such as milk, dairy and meat, but there are also products that are consumed in large volumes in Wales that are produced in relatively small quantities here, such as horticulture, as Jenny has pointed out. There is a substantial opportunity to turn this around, to calibrate supply with demand and to ensure more fruit and vegetables are served in school meals. [Interruption.] Go on, Jenny.

I very much welcome the introduction of the horticulture development and entry-level grants, but at the moment we only produce a quarter of a portion per person per day of fruit and veg, so that is a very long road to travel. How can you accelerate the change that we need in order to have much more of our fruit and veg, which is supposed to be a third of our diet, made in Wales?

Thank you. I completely agree. I will not have time to go through all of the detail of that, but pockets of innovation do show what is possible for wholesalers and civil society organisations working with local producers and growers to help develop fresh, healthy dishes for schools.

Minister, I don't know if you saw the request for an intervention from the leader of the opposition as well. 

I did not, sorry. Go ahead. 

Thank you, Minister. Everyone's supportive of the sentiment today, but you touched on two areas there where you want to increase local procurement—milk and red meat. It is a fact that the processing sectors in both those areas are very limited in Wales. In fact, most of our milk is processed in English dairies. How is the Government going to halt the decline and actually increase investment in processing capacity to meet the sentiment that has been expressed broadly this afternoon? 

Yes, absolutely, Andrew. I will not have time to go through every single policy that's been mentioned in a very broad motion, but I completely accept the point. One of the big issues for us is to make sure that we extract all of the value from our food supply chain, and in doing so, we help the processors to come to Wales and make use of that product. But apologies—the Deputy Presiding Officer is about to tell me I'm running out of time and I'm yet to get through another half of my speech. 

I'll give you a bit more time because of the interventions. 

I might need a little bit more than a bit more.

The sustainable farming scheme proposals contain a raft of actions designed to support farmers in the ongoing sustainable production of food alongside addressing the climate and nature emergencies. Sustainable farming is indeed the key to our future. We already have world-leading standards of sustainability within our red meat sector through our pasture-based methods of production, and in response to the shortfall in domestically produced protein for animal feed, the Growing for the Environment scheme will be a pilot to encourage the growing of crops and pastures that provide environmental benefits, such as protein crops. We do, of course, need to ensure that our farmers play their part in combating both the climate and the nature emergencies too, and in doing so, we need to encourage them to get the best out of their crops. So, that's partly in answer to that, Andrew—I was coming on to it. I haven't got time to go into it in enough depth—apologies.

Through our Wales and Africa programme, we have been able to demonstrate our commitment to being a globally responsible nation by supporting a number of tree-growing projects in sub-Saharan Africa. We know that by protecting and planting trees, be it in Wales or further afield, we can make a significant contribution to the fight against catastrophic climate change and deforestation. There are global concerns, which is why the Welsh Government provides support to Size of Wales and other Welsh organisations with campaigns and projects being delivered in Africa, working in partnership with a number of countries on their tree-growing initiatives. Foremost amongst these is the Mbale tree programme in eastern Uganda, where our partners have now distributed over 20 million trees, working towards a target of 50 million by 2030. 

To conclude today, turning to trade as part of our responsibility to act as a globally responsible nation, we've been clear with the UK Government that no trade agreement should ever undermine our economic domestic policies. In Wales, we do not view trade deals in purely economic terms. Elements of trade deals that could advance protections around labour and the environment, including deforestation, are treated as one of our main priorities. Whilst we have the power to make representations to the UK Government during trade negotiations—and we do so frequently—the power to negotiate the trade deals themselves ultimately lies with the UK Government. We do not have the final say on deals, but we continue to push the UK Government hard to ensure that trade deals contain provisions that work in both the interests of Wales and in the interests of Wales as a globally responsible nation. Diolch.  

I call on Delyth Jewell to reply to the debate. 

Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you to everyone who's participated in this valuable and important debate this evening. 

This was an incredibly timely debate. WWF have brought out a report today that warned that deforestation in the Amazon is accelerating to the point of no return, so I really do welcome everyone's enthusiasm for this debate.

Janet, you helped us to visualise on the map of Wales the impact of our consumption habits. I'm happy to confirm that we would support the Conservative amendment. Thank you for your contribution. 

Thank you, Mabon. That Martin Luther King quote says it all, and thank you for setting out how the agricultural sector can be part of the solution to this situation. 

Thank you, Jenny, for setting out the contrast between the 'nice to have' habits that we have and the threat to life itself in many places, and talking about the changes we all need to make through our diets.

Heledd's contribution, I think, was really important in contextualising this in the context of global solidarity, talking about the Guarani people and the cultures at risk because of our indifference. What could be lost will not come back, and the world would be so much the poorer for it.

Peter Fox's comments about his legislation were very interesting, very timely, and I'm sure that we'll all really look forward to reading more about that. I agree with your point, Peter, about the labelling. It is a reserved matter to Westminster, and I really do echo what the Minister was saying and what you as well, Peter, were saying: this is something that really needs to be looked at. We need to empower people to make the right decisions.  

Diolch, Pred. My apologies for mixing up Peredur with Luke; it's because of the beards. But seriously and sincerely, thank you for setting out what businesses can and must do in the context of all of this.

Diolch, Jane, for your comments about food waste. That is a really horrifying statistic about 30 per cent of food being wasted, particularly considering how much you said is actually still edible.

Thank you, Minister, for your remarks setting out the challenges inherent in doing the right thing. I'm very glad that you're supporting the motion, but, again, I would echo what you were saying about the labelling. This is something where Governments really need to empower people, because there are so many things where everyone wants to do the right thing; it's just making it the easiest way possible for that to happen. 

Before we vote on this really important motion, I'd like to just share a few final thoughts with Members. Yesterday, I hosted a youth COP event in the Pierhead. It was organised by Size of Wales, and in the meeting, a room of schoolchildren was addressed by George Sikoyo from the Mount Elgon Tree Growing Enterprise in Mbale, Uganda. George was talking to the children and those of us politicians who were lucky to be in the room about the millions of trees planted in Uganda on behalf of Welsh citizens. He talked about the global problems that we face and how we can help mankind through showing solidarity and friendship. He told those children, 'We are in the same village called Mother Earth.' I hope we can all reflect on George's words. If we can grow trees in other parts of the planet, we shouldn't at the same time be allowing ourselves to contribute directly to trees being cut down and forests being destroyed in another part of that same planet. Our conscience should not allow that dissonance to continue.

There's one final thought I'd like to leave with Members. It centres around the words of John Donne. Perhaps Donne's most famous and most commonly quoted words are his remarks that

'no man is an island, entire of itself', and that because every man is 'part of the main', each man's death diminishes the writer because he is 'involved in mankind'. Dirprwy Lywydd, no man is an island, but neither is our own island, on the fringes of the north Atlantic, cut off from the main, adrift from its own conscience or consequence. Indifference can blight entire nations too. Donne compels us in the same meditation not

'to send to ask for whom the bell tolls'.

When a bell tolls in this sense, it signals someone's death. Donne is saying that any man's death means that the bell is tolling for all of us.

This debate is premised on the notion that the sounding bell signaling alarm and imminent disaster, which we should each be hearing resounding in our heads—that climate clamour—does not only toll for places on our planet that are beyond our reach, cut off from the main. That alarm bell is a call to all of us as well. The toll the catastrophe will take will have consequences for everyone, because we belong to mankind; we are in 'involved in mankind'. It is a bell that tolls for you and for me as well. I ask you, please, to listen to it.

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

Voting deferred until voting time.