Food prices on the rise

December saw world food prices increase. The cost of food is now higher than it was in 2008, when price rises sparked riots in some countries.

A loaf of bread in my home town of Penygraig in the Rhondda has gone up 10% from 90p to 99p.

Meanwhile, demand for Foodbanks: the modern day equivalent of the soup kitechen, continues to grow.

We continue to waste staggering amounts of food.

It doesn't have to be this way. In Fife, Scotland, 'One Planet Fife' are working to ensure Fife's communities are resilient to food price increases. A co-ordinated plan helps community food groups co-operate with producers to source local and low input food, organising local deliveries, as well as community growing projects. Public bodies work together to agree 'sustainable food procurement' policies, enabling groups of local farmers to develop the capacity to supply what's needed, creating new jobs and reducing transport and packaging. Communities and businesses work together to reduce avoidable food waste and to use unavoidable food waste to generate energy and fertiliser. Agricultural advisors help farmers and growers to reduce the environmental impact of their businesses through changes in land management, better use of the fertiliser and renewable energy production. At national and international level, developing a food sovereignty approach which gives people and communities more control over local and regional food production and distribution and leads to a fairer and more sustainable global food system.

There's no reason why we can't do the same here in Wales.

Biofuels ruled out in Wales

This week the Assembly received a statement on the Welsh Government's Bio-energy Action Plan.

Leanne Wood:
There are potentially several difficulties with bio-energy. When energy crops are grown, processed and transported, greenhouse gases can be released, and that is a particular concern if crops have to be imported. I note from your statement that you recognise the need to proceed with caution in terms of growing energy crops, and real care needs to be taken before decisions are made to change land use from food crops production to energy production. We have received warnings from elsewhere in the world that incentives in certain countries to change land use in favour of energy crops has caused the price of many basic foodstuffs to rise quite considerably, and that has a knock-on effect in terms of population and poverty. There are also concerns about the potential effect on wildlife populations, particularly if land used for energy crops is not managed in the appropriate way. Therefore, I ask that the consultation on this takes account of the delicate balance that we need to strike when working with nature. If properly regulated and planned, a Welsh bio-energy sector could help to meet our climate change targets, but we need to tread carefully to ensure that what is a positive in one area does not result in greater negatives elsewhere.

Jane Davidson:
I can tell you categorically that the Welsh Assembly Government has no intention of supporting the production of biofuels from energy crops grown in Wales due to concerns about the potential for biofuel crops to displace food crops, and due to the energy requirements for the production of biofuels. We will be looking at all opportunities for growing different kinds of energy crops. Some of those are in the grass sector and some are woody, as you know. Work is going on with the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences at present looking at the most effective outcomes. We are hugely mindful of this issue in terms of the relationship between energy crops for transport and food crops.

Sourcing our food locally

As Plaid's Sustainability Spokesperson, I have tried raise awareness of the role that local food and projects like allotments, local growing and community gardens can make towards improving peoples' lives in Wales. Allotment gardening is becoming more popular in Wales and the UK. Growing our food locally makes more economic sense as supermarket food prices rise.

There is an urgent need for an expansion of local food production across Wales. I have spoken many times in the Senedd and elsewhere I have supported campaigns in my region such as the fight to save the Haigside allotments in Treherbert, and the campaign fpr a community garden in Ely in Cardiff. On Monday I went to see the Riverside Community Garden, a project which provides growing space for people in Cardiff and emphasises reaching out to disadvantaged groups. In Riverside the older generation pass on food growing skills to younger people which helps to build relationships and mutual respect. There is a huge amount of good work going on, but it could do with being more joined-up.

Yesterday in the Senedd I spoke in a debate on Sustainable Procurement. My main points were that the Assembly Government and public bodies under its control could and should boost local economies by sourcing as much of their food as locally as possible. Locally procured food cuts down on carbon emissions and food miles as well as ticking alot of the health boxes. If we put local procurement rules in place when contracts are issued by the public sector, then we can give small shops, co-operatives and local growers an extra leg-up to compete against the supermarkets.

The Cuban Food Revolution Comes to Wales

It's not often that I can say I am truly inspired in our National Assembly, but I was yesterday. Roberto Perez called in to Cardiff (at very short notice) for a meeting with myself and Nerys Evans AM. He was on his way through to Bristol from Machynlleth - he's in the middle of a speaking tour advancing the permaculture revolution which could soon spread to Wales.

I went to see this community-owned allotment project (organiponico)in Alamar in May, when Nerys and I were part of a Plaid Cymru study trip to Cuba. I met a representative from the Cuban Agriculture Ministry with Elin Jones AM, Plaid's Rural Affairs Minister and we were given a tour around Organiponico de Alamar, which is on the outskirts of Havana.

Cuba lost two thirds of its oil when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989. The whole food system had to be reorganised. People no longer had access to fertilisers, machinery or the means to distribute food. The organiponico movement started with people squatting pieces of waste land in urban areas. The government allowed them to use the land as long as they continued to produce food. Collective co-ops were developed and markets for selling the food were established.

Roberto Perez is one of the founders of the urban permaculture movement in Cuba and he is in Bristol tonight. He agrees that we have a lot of potential in Wales to localise our food systems and develop ways of producing food that work with, rather than against, nature.

We don't have to start from scratch. Last week I visited a number of projects in Pembrokeshire and met with some representatives of the transition towns movement. People there - and in plenty of other places throughout the country - are getting together to produce their own food and energy. As Roberto said, wherever you go in the world there are plenty of people who want to get involved in permaculture and small scale renewable energy production. It's up to governments at all levels, especially councils, to make it easy. According to Roberto, access to land is key. In Cuba there are gardens on former car parks and polluted industrial sites. They are very cheap to set up, and have the potential to employ and educate people and contribute to healthier lifestyles. With the price of food rocketing, they would be a great way of ensuring access to cheap, good food. What are we waiting for?