Baroness Boycott (CB)

My Lords, I support Amendment 97A in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Sheehan, and Amendments 55, 65 and 91 in the group. As others have said, we are grateful for the Government’s support. What the noble Baroness, Lady Young, just said will put a spring in everybody’s step. This is very overdue; as many people have said, this has been going on for five years. Why we have not done it is a puzzle, but it sounds as if some doors are opening. Sometimes, people get a bit confused about what forest risk commodities are: they are beef, palm oil, soy, cocoa and rubber. On the whole, they are ingredients that run right through the ultra-processed food system, which is already, I am pleased to say, on behalf of the Government, getting a lot of action in terms of trying to slow it down. The facts are nonsensical. For instance, beef is the largest driver of tropical deforestation. Beef production is responsible for 25% of global land use emissions, but it is estimated that 60% of agricultural land is used for beef production. That includes all the food that is grown for it: soy, palm oil and so on. However, it constitutes only 2% of global calorie consumption. That is just one example of why this is not only terrible for forests, nature and the infrastructure of life, on which we depend and which at the moment is in a very fragile condition, but nonsensical on many other levels.