Like others, I welcome today's debate and the Government's intention to develop a food policy.

The vision in the motion is limited, but I am glad that the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment went beyond that and set out his broader ambition.

By accepting the amendments, he made his approach to the debate more complete.

There is no doubt that, internationally, Scotland has a very good reputation for high-quality produce.

Our future is best served if we maintain our approach and produce quality goods for international markets rather than trying to compete in the mass commodity markets as other countries do.

If we stay in the high-value markets, that will benefit our industry and our communities more in the future. Many Scottish products are already successful in such markets.

Those products include Orkney beef, as the minister mentioned, Shetland salmon and west coast prawns, mussels, scallops and crabs.

They also include the light lambs that we get from our Highlands and Islands communities and prime pork cuts.

They are all regarded as high-quality products with a Scottish label on them.

That can also be said of other produce, such as raspberries, potatoes or cheeses—

Peter Peacock: That includes cheese from Mull, Campbeltown, Connage Highland Dairy close to where I live in Ardersier, and Tain, where Jamie Stone's family has an interest.

It is alleged that, in the early days of his family's business, Jamie Stone used to mix the cheese by swimming in the bath in which it was contained.

I shudder to think what that did for the nation's health, but nonetheless the company survived.

We have high-quality produce, and many of the products have value added to them locally.

By using smokehouses or freezing plants and by creating products such as Baxters soups, Walkers shortbread or the famous Stornoway black pudding, we add value to high-quality produce and increase its reputation.

We need to keep operating in those markets and growing our export markets.

We need to open up more fully another front, which is growing more local markets for local food: markets that serve local needs, that serve the tourism offer in all parts of Scotland, that support smaller producers and that give new and additional opportunities for organic produce.

Peter Peacock: Both have a part to play.

We should not be antipathetic towards organic or traditional methods.

Consumers today are much more interested in food: where it comes from, the environmental impact of production, its health benefits and the sustainability of the production systems.

That trend will continue, providing more opportunity for local food markets to grow on the back of that interest.

As we have seen in recent years, local food has become a much bigger part of the tourism offer in Scotland. In the short-break market in particular, a significant proportion of people comes to Scotland to sample food in all its different forms.

Again, that creates an opportunity for more local markets.

A lot has been done already—I do not want to give the impression that nothing has been done.

I pay tribute, for example, to the work that John Scott has done in pioneering and promoting farmers markets in Scotland.

There have also been local food festivals, including Highland feast in my area.

The Highlands and Islands local food network helps to support those who produce local food, and the minister mentioned the living food event at Cawdor castle, which was a celebration of organic slow food.

There has been organic production in Inverness high school, which Rob Gibson alluded to but did not specifically mention, where food is being produced within the school.

Individual producers have used new techniques to market their produce, for example mail order for local food in the Cairngorms.

All those organisations struggle financially and organisationally to produce what they do and promote the local food market, and more needs to be done.

I call on the Government directly and through its agencies—such as Highlands and Islands Enterprise in my area—to give more support and to ensure that the production of local food and supporting its marketing, promotion and organisation is a key strategic and economic objective for each region.

We can do more to support local production.

For example, the apprenticeship system that the Highlands and Islands local food network has promoted to help people into the industry is a good initiative.

Perhaps we could roll that out further.

Sarah Boyack's point about the need for more local abattoirs as part of a strategic approach to producing food is critical.

They have high environmental standards to meet, and we need to ensure that they can meet them.

I want to turn to procurement and briefly pick up on some of the points that were made by Rob Gibson.

As an education minister, I had the pleasure of visiting Hurlford primary school when it was promoting hungry for success.

That school is highly successful not just in giving good food to the kids in their school meals—as featured in "Landward" on Friday night—but in marrying education about food with health, exercise and the experience of food.

The great thing that has happened in East Ayrshire is that people have broken the back of the problem of procuring food locally.

They have done that successfully, and the time is ripe to move that on, share their practices more effectively and encourage their adoption across the whole system.

We need a pragmatic and practical approach and the Government can help in that process.

Peter Peacock: I have one final plea.

It is great to have the debate, but one sector of the industry—the pig sector—is struggling terribly.

I know that the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment met its representatives recently.

It would be terrible if, after all today's good words, that sector contracted

I urge the cabinet secretary to act quickly to support the pig sector in its time of plight.

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