Rural Affairs and Environment Committee, 09 Sep 2008
Meeting date: Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Official Report
382KB pdf
Scottish Parliament Rural Affairs and Environment Committee Tuesday 9 September 2008
[The Convener opened the meeting at 10:48]
Good morning and welcome to the 15th meeting in 2008 of the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee. I remind everybody to switch off mobile phones and pagers or to put them into flight mode, as incoming messages interfere with the sound system, even if the devices are in vibrate or silent mode.
We are taking evidence this morning and this afternoon on food policy, with a view to identifying a focus for a future inquiry into the subject. I do not want people to think that this is the only thing that we will do. We are trying to inform ourselves at an early stage so that, if we launch a full-scale inquiry, it will be better focused for our having already had a more general discussion.
Some committee members will arrive late, for reasons outwith their control. One of those members is new to the committee; therefore, when he arrives, I will briefly have to suspend the conversation while he declares any interests, which he has to do before joining the committee. I will flag up when we will have to do that. The declaration of interests was to have been agenda item 1.