Chamber and committees

I will make it quick. Do you think that food education should be on the face of the bill?

Why were loins not included in the pigmeat private storage aid scheme in the first place?

Thank you.

I will develop the question and go to Jill Muirie. In Glasgow, where you run your programme, how difficult or how achievable would it be to put your goals in parallel alongside the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill and deliver them locally as part of a multistrategy ambition?

On the point that you have just made, Dr Shields, do you believe that the Good Food Nation (Scotland) Bill is the means by which to strengthen the procurement rules in Scotland?

Other issues in that regard include opening up land for allotments and improving wellbeing through working in green spaces. Those aspects cut across the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019. We need to open up access to our indigenous food-growing culture.

One of the submissions to the consultation mentioned that building local indigenous food-growing culture is very important. Later on, we will take evidence from NFU Scotland. As part of its submission, NFUS said that we need to bring the whole supply chain closer together. How can we strengthen the links between farming and, for example, cities where there are levels of deprivation? I am not saying that there is not deprivation in rural areas—I hope that you understand my meaning. I ask Tilly Robinson-Miles to start.

I have a question for Polly Jones about our ambition to eradicate food banks. A leaked report says that Glasgow City Council is possibly going to axe a scheme that provides free food for children in the holidays, as part of a £34 million budget cut. The bill does not have any resource allocated to it, but local authorities will have to deliver the actions in the plan. Should there be a specific budget for this work, given that we are already seeing cuts?

You talked earlier about food banks having cans and dried foods. Replacing those types of foods is an area that could be opened up in terms of how we support people who are possibly less well educated about cooking and getting access to fresh food. Access to fresh food is an area that I am very interested in.

Twenty-one of the 66 responses to the consultation on the bill stated that education about food is key to success to meet some of the wider regard of the plan in areas such as social and economic wellbeing, the environment and health. For example, Quality Meat Scotland stated that it would like to see

“a right to food education”.

The Royal Highland Education Trust said:

“The Bill does not consider improvements to food education ... which is vital in order to help deliver”

the five overall key objectives. Bearing in mind the scope of the bill and the limitations that have been raised, how would you like to see food education delivered through the vision of a good food nation ambition?