Scottish Government Debate: Celebrating the Resilience of Scotland’s Food and Drink Sector

Mairi Gougeon S6M-10406 That the Parliament recognises the value of Scotland’s food and drink sector and the significant contribution that it makes to the national economy, as well as to local economies and communities; welcomes the plan, published by Scotland Food and Drink, to create stability, sustainability, resilience and innovation in order to support the sector to succeed and prosper over the next 10 years; further welcomes the Scottish Government’s commitment to invest £5 million to support delivery of this plan; acknowledges the challenges caused by Brexit, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and climate change, and the need for the sector to respond and adapt, and believes that the hard Brexit negotiated by the UK Government has created serious, long-term harms, including labour shortages and new barriers to trade, especially for Scottish food and drink exporters, while driving up inflation in food and supply chain costs. Rachael Hamilton S6M-10406.2 As an amendment to motion S6M-10406 in the name of Mairi Gougeon (Celebrating the Resilience of Scotland’s Food and Drink Sector), leave out from “acknowledges” to end and insert “recognises both the challenges and the opportunities resulting from the United Kingdom leaving the European Union; acknowledges the challenges caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and climate change, and the need for the sector to respond and adapt, and believes that allowing Scotland’s food producers to adopt gene-editing technology would boost the sector’s resilience, provide greater security against climate change disease and drought, and enhance crop yields, nutritional value and reliability.” Rhoda Grant S6M-10406.1 As an amendment to motion S6M-10406 in the name of Mairi Gougeon (Celebrating the Resilience of Scotland’s Food and Drink Sector), insert at end "; recognises the plan set out by the Labour Party to stabilise the economy after the turmoil of the UK Conservative administration, reset the relationship with Europe, improve trading relationships and use the power of the Scotland Office to promote Scotland’s excellent food and drink around the world; believes that it is unacceptable that so many people living in food poverty in Scotland are those who work in the food industry; considers that more action is needed to address low pay, zero-hours contracts and insecure work in Scotland’s food and drink sector, and therefore welcomes the proposals in the Labour Party’s New Deal for Working People; asserts that food production and a sustainable environment can work hand in hand for the benefit of both, and believes that the right to food should be enshrined in Scots law."