The final item of business is a member's business debate on motion 2310 on the name of our fオiysil chargerry on linking food and climate change at COP26. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I would ask members who wish to participate to press the request to speak buttons as soon as possible and I call on Mr chargerry to open the debate for around seven minutes. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The eyes of the world are on us here in Scotland. As the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26 took place in Glasgow recently. Parliamentarians, world leaders, campaigners and civil society activists were all gathered together with a commitment to tackle climate change. It was a privilege to be able to attend some of the events associated with COP26. There is no doubt that everyone has a part to play in response to the climate emergency. In this debate today, I hope to be able to highlight some of the commitments in the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration. This declaration brings together all types and size of local authorities from small and medium-sized towns to mega cities, districts and regions, territories, federal states and provinces. To speak with one voice in renewing their commitments to develop sustainable food policies, promoting mechanisms for joint-up action and calling on national governments to put food and farming at the heart of global response to the climate emergency. The declaration was developed by Norwich Scotland in partnership with IPES Food, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO, the Global Network of Local Government for Sustainability, the Under 2 Coalition C40, the Milan Urban Food Policy, PACT and many others and was presented in Glasgow City Chambers during COP26. I commend the City of Edinburgh Council and West Lothian Council as two of the Lothian regional local authorities which have signed up to the declaration. On behalf of West Lothian Council, as one of the most recent signatories, Councillor Christian Sullivan emphasised with me how the declaration builds on strong partnership work with the West Lothian Food Network, which is committed to removing the barrier to accessing food as well as recently agreed food growing strategy in the West Lothian, which looks at how food has grown in the local communities. Integrated food policies and strategies will be key tools in the fight against climate change. I know that other members will be able to give accounts from their own regions of the steps being taken in these regards. The Scottish Government is also to be commanded for becoming the lead signatory of the Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration. The Scottish Government and growing number of Scottish local authorities are amongst around 100 current signatories to the declaration. Alongside regions such as Coimbra in Portugal, Catalonia in Spain and Cross River status in Nigeria, cities such as Sao Paulo, London, Washington, Paris, Vienna, Milan, Côito, Vancouver and, most recently, the Government of Honduras. I am pleased to be able to bring this declaration and all that it stands for to this chamber. Looking at the decisions taken at COP26, the important progress was made in many areas. We should note that food systems were not on the presidency agenda, despite accounting for around 30 per cent of global emissions. The COP26 agreement did include some commitments on farming. Forty-five countries pledged urgent action on making farming more sustainable, as well as the commitments on myth and signatories promised to invest in green agriculture practice in protecting nature. The UK Government stated that it is aiming for 75 per cent of farmers to engage in low-carbon practice by 2030, while Germany promised to lower emissions from the land used by 25 million tonnes by the same year. It would be very helpful if the ministers today could indicate how the Scottish Government will support Scottish farming in achieving the goals set out by the UK Government. There are many examples around Scotland of the efforts being made to contribute to tackle the climate change. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate one of the award winners at the recent RSPB Nature of Scotland awards, which was brought to my attention. The winner of the Food and Farmer award, sponsored by the James Hatton Institute, was Concluded Organic Nature Farm in Angus. The focus of this award is to demonstrate that it is in the power of Scottish Farmer to form their way out of the biodiversity crisis by placing environmental and biodiversity consideration at the heart of management decisions. The food system is hugely complex, so joined up food policies are essential to deliver on many different goals. Dignified access to good food for all, restoring nature on the land in the sea, improving health, tackling climate changes, creating good jobs throughout the supply chain and building stronger communities. The Good Food Nation Bill introduced to Parliament could lay the foundation for this joined up food policy in Scotland, although it needs to be strengthened. The cross-party support from the right of food bill as proposed by Elaine Smith MSP in the previous session and brought forward again by my colleague Rhoda Grant also shows the support for action now. As the rest of the economy decarbonise, food system will account for an increasing proportion of both Scottish and global emissions and we can expect food to be the higher up in the agenda at COP 27. Given Scotland leadership role in under two collusion of sub-national governments, I would encourage the Scottish Government to promote the Glasgow declaration on food and climate over the next 12 months of the UK presidency. In leading up to COP 27 in Egypt, let us match this global action with strong right-based Good Food Nation Bill at home. A national food plan can only be effective if local food plans are developed too and I hope for an assurance that local authorities will be involved in developing any national food plan for our local authorities to take the steps needed in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from urban and regional food system. There needs to be far more support provided and I look forward to hearing from the minister on the steps that will be taken across Scotland to turn commitments in Glasgow ford and climate change declaration into a reality. I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate linking food and climate change and congratulate Foswell, Chowdry on securing it. It is clear that the Paris agreement and the Glasgow declaration from COP26 cannot be reached without addressing food systems. Farmers are at the front line of climate change, they experience the effects of extreme and unpredictable weather and they can and indeed are a huge part of the solution to tackle the climate emergency and support food security. Producing food and drink sustainably means rearing, growing and processing it in a way that helps preserve and protect the environment for future generations. During this year's Parliament's festival of politics, I chaired an event called Will Vegans Really Save the Planet. The event explored sustainable food production and the role our diet has in tackling the climate emergency. The event highlighted a university of Oxford report that the food system is globally responsible for a third of all greenhouse gases. It also explored whether reducing the amount of meat and dairy consumed helps to reduce agriculture's environmental impact. One of the conclusions of the event was that a vegan diet and meat substitutes can involve intensive water use, high air miles caused by flying certain products such as avocados across the globe and can significantly contribute to deforestation. One of the key messages for consumers was that procuring food sustainably means buying it from producers who minimise their impact on their environment, for example by reducing their carbon emissions and supporting the longevity of the industry. That is why schemes such as Scotland Loves Local, Shop Local and local farmers' markets such as Moffit, Dumfries, Cercwbri, Wigtown and a newly established market in Stranraer are so important to support. I thank all who support those initiatives. It was also clear from the event that a vegan diet is not the sole solution to tackle a climate emergency. Supporting our agricultural businesses to be sustainable is crucial. I welcome the steps that are being taken by the Scottish Government to support our agricultural sectors' transition to net zero. I am aware that the Scottish Government is moving forward to put in place a successor to the common agricultural policy that will guide farming, food production and land use for the future. I welcome comments or an update from the minister as to timescales for that. The Good Food Nation Bill, as was mentioned by Fousal Chydery, proposes local and sustainable food production along with the agricultural sustainability working group, led by NFU president Andrew Kennedy, Martin Kennedy, and also welcomes the steps in tackling the global climate emergency. I briefly want to mention local action by constituents. Chris Nicholson, who is the Scottish Tenant Farmers Association chair, Colin Ferguson, who is the DG chair of NFUS, and Kenny Adams and William Moses, macher, beef and sheep farmers, and filmmakers Willecky Van Rynn and Julia Farrington. The group has created an informative short film to coincide with COP26. It is called Talking with Farmers, Farming and Climate Change. You can find it on YouTube. The film highlights how important it is that farmers are supported and engaged with to tackle the climate emergency. The film provides insight and some solutions for the custodians of our land. I would encourage members to watch it and I want to commend all involved in making it. I look forward to engaging and learning from them how we promote food sustainability and how to tackle the climate and biodiversity emergencies. Finally, I was also struck by the statement that William Moses said in the film, too. He says, if we look after our soil, it will look after us. I would like to add to that so that we in Scotland can sustainably produce and provide what is recognised across the world as world-class food produced to some of the best welfare standards and also support an approach that helps to achieve the sustainable development goals. Thank you for bringing this debate to the chamber. I want to give the opportunity to discuss the importance of food production, food processing and procurement, linking nutrition, health, education and climate change. I have to say that it feels a wee bit like Groundhog Day, since I seem to be talking about this particular topic for the past five years, and it is disappointing how little progress we have actually made within that time. I have long championed the need to process and procure fruit locally. We charge our farmers with the production of the highest quality of food. We give them custodianship of the countryside. We pay the living wage. We make sure that they have the highest level of animal welfare, yet when it comes to public procurement, that is where we seem to fall down. We do not seem to recognise that there is a cost associated with making sure that our farmers are producing that high-quality food. I did a study early on in the last term around where all of food came from in our councils and in our hospitals, and I discovered that, through the Excel contract that the Scottish Government has, only 16 per cent of that food came from Scotland. I am doing that study again, just now I am redoing that investigation to see if anything has moved on in the last five years. I think that we should highlight that this is completely possible, because we all know that we have talked about this before. We have East Ayrshire, which is the gold standard when it comes to this. It is procuring something along the lines of 75 per cent of its food for schools comes from locally. It can even tell you which farm the eggs came from. The reality is that we import far too much of our food. When we are discussing biodiversity, I think that, as Emma Harper said, the development of products such as soya, palm oil and almond products are hugely damaging to our climate, and they are hugely damaging to the biodiversity, because swathes of land have to be cleared. I will always take her intervention. I am just wondering if Brian Whittle would agree that it takes about 136 litres of water to make one litre of almond milk. I love it when you pre-empt what I am just about to say, Ms Harper. That is exactly right. When you clear the land, especially the production of almond, it is so water-intensive that it is one of the worst biodiversity areas that you can have, and then you have the air miles to import that into this country. We also mentioned palm oil, which is also a hugely contributed factor in this country to obesity. Our farmers have been innovating towards net zero. In fact, if you Scotland have a target ahead of the Scottish Government target of 2040, they are doing some incredible work. I have seen it out in the farms as they do that journey towards that. Even things such as reducing the amount of ploughing that they have to do, which is ploughing releases carbon into the atmosphere, are innovating ahead of the game. 85 per cent of the farmland in Scotland said that the best crop is actually grass, and grass-fed livestock is the original circular economy. The sequestration of carbon into grass is much greater than it is, for example, in a woodland. We must be careful when we allow a noisy minority to lump all the global farming practices together and talk down to our farmers. What we should be doing is taking the way that our farmers produce food and exporting that knowledge to other countries. That is how we are going to tackle climate change. When we talk about meat production globally, it does not give you the whole picture. We have a farmer in here who will hopefully back me up on this. When we look at the practices that are in the US, South America and the Far East, they differ hugely from the way in which our farmers produce food. That is the way that we need to be. Food can be produced environmentally friendly, and we need to champion our farmers and their efforts to drive towards net zero. When it comes to food processing—I have four and a half minutes already, but I will get there—food processing, we send too much of it away outside of our borders to get package. Let us push local food production, support our farmers, develop processing locally and public procurement should always take Scottish food wherever possible.  Thank you, Mr Whittle. Time flies indeed. Martin Whitfield, to be followed by Ari Amberg. Just four minutes, please. Very grateful, Deputy Presiding Officer. It is a great pleasure to speak in this Member's debate, and I extend my thanks to my friend, Foisal, for bringing it this evening and tackling such an important problem. I am going to use the word problem that faces Scotland going forward. It is a great pleasure to follow Brian Whittle, who made so much of what I was going to point out, so I am merely going to echo some of the elements of what he said and hopefully carry on for the small parts that he missed out. When we talk about farming and food, I think one of the phrases that you used about our farmers being the custodians of this country is so fundamentally important and unfortunately so frequently forgotten. I think back to my time as a primary school teacher when I always looked forward to going out and visiting our farmers to watch the faces of young people understand in some cases where potatoes and carrots came from, but more excitedly those that discovered that actually the jobs that sit in our farms are not muddy, they are not cold and wet jobs, they are highly technical IT jobs looking after the software that drives the tractors, the satellite navigation and the fact that I know of two individuals who were so taken by their journey to a farm that they changed what they wanted to do going forward to stem subjects and one of them I know has in fact ended up working on a farm and thoroughly enjoys working not with a tractor, not with a spade but with a robotic flying device that plucks out the weeds that sit in the farms and I raise that because that is one end of the farming and at the other end there are farmers who still travel out every day and labour but I raise it because farming has changed so much in the past 20 years and it is good to see the NFU through their members, through other farmers throwing themselves fully behind a net zero future and they do that not perhaps as sometimes people raise from the hope but actually from their knowledge and understanding of the countryside that they can achieve this and so I want to congratulate our farmers and urge the government to listen as I know they say they do to both the NFU but also to their members and in particular to the individual voices of unique farms that need unique support to allow them to make the changes going forward. I'd also like to offer a small tale from a few years ago which feeds into that concept of food processing where in East Lothian there was a farm that still does grow Brussels sprouts but just before Christmas its Brussels sprouts travelled all the way to Poland to receive a cross in the bottom of them to get packaged up and then come all the way back to be sold in a well known supermarket that literally overlooked the field that they were grown in and the farmer was just stunned that due to regulation due to finance that was the only way he could make his crop make money and that goes back to the other point that Brian raised about how we can localise both the growth of our food the distribution of our food but also the purchasing of our food through our schools through our hospitals through our local authorities and to start to make the same circle the virtuous circle that our cows have achieved through 300 000 years of evolution. Just before I finish I would like to make mention of one group that's raised in this and that's in respect of seafood and the Scottish Creel Fishermen's Federation and their support for low impact and sustainable development of our local seas and I would ask the minister tonight whether or not she can comment on whether or not there should be a protective circle around our Scottish waters to stop trawling which is damaging the Creel Fishermen's going forward. Thank you Deputy Presiding Officer. Thank you Mr Workfield and I call on Ariane Burgess to be followed by Stephen Kerr for a minute, Ms Burgess. Thank you Presiding Officer and thank you for so chowdery for securing this vital debate. At COP26 the Scottish Government joined the 50 by 30 coalition recognising the necessity of cutting emissions by 50 per cent by 2030. Agriculture and food systems will play a crucial role in this effort. I commend the Scottish Government on signing up to the 4 per 1000 initiative which aims to boost carbon storage in agricultural soils and reduce global carbon footprint. Presiding Officer, soil is where all begins. Healthy agricultural soils have huge potential to store carbon. 80 per cent of Scotland's land is used for agriculture so we should maximise this nature-based solution through better soil management. Soils play a crucial role in storing water which prevents flooding. This will become even more important as we feel the increased impact of climate change. Healthy soils also produce nutritious, flavoursome and filling food. This is why when considering food and climate change we need to start from the ground up. We must develop a holistic policy which shapes and supports the entire system, from soil management to regenerative farming techniques to local food supply chains to access to good quality food, all benefiting nature, climate and wellbeing. Here are some steps that Scotland should take starting with improving soil health. By developing a national nitrogen strategy we can end the excessive use of inorganic fertiliser, reduce air and water pollution, improve soil health and slash greenhouse gases. We should set a bold target, 25 per cent by 2025, for organic public procurement. That would incentivise farmers to shift to organic production and help us to reach our target of at least doubling the area of land under organic management during this parliamentary session. Moving from soil to wider land use, we need to find the right balance for how land is used between food production, carbon absorption, nature restoration, renewable energy infrastructure and housing. Agriculture and nature restoration do not always have to compete. The nature restoration fund should benefit farmers and crofters who contribute to nature corridors. Many farmers, crofters and growers such as Phil and Laura from the wildlife croft on sky are starting to practice agroforestry, where trees and agricultural co-exist. However, they have found that the current crofting grant system and agricultural payments do not support that, despite the co-benefits for food production, soil health and climate biodiversity. I will certainly take an intervention. I appreciate you taking an intervention. Could you perhaps tell the chamber how long it takes for a farmer to transition to be an organic farmer and how would the loss in production be compensated for in that time that it took to change to be organic? Thank you for that, Mr Carson. As we have heard in the rain committee, it takes considerable amount of time to transition, and that is why we are only calling on at least doubling the current 1.8 per cent of organic land that is currently under organic production. We want to go far, and what I am calling for is an incentivising to point farmers in a direction based on conversations that I have been having with people from the NFUS. Continuing on, we must change the incentives to support our food producers to adopt climate and nature-friendly practices, and we must start offering that support as soon as possible. The agricultural bill is a once-in-a-multi-generational opportunity to reshape food production. The Government has said that 50 per cent of the new support payments will be conditional on providing environmental benefits. That is encouraging, but the percentage that is conditional can be increased. Before that, we need greater investment in a just transition for agriculture to support those who produce the food that sustains us and encourage the Government to establish an advisory service to provide training and advice support, support pilot programmes and knowledge transfer, and to scale up good practice. Finally, the good food nation bill should spell out the vision for a good food nation and include outcomes that the plan should help to deliver, including food systems that promote ecological regeneration and align with climate targets and empowerment through food education and community food production. In this parliamentary session, we can transform our food system. Let's place soil, land use and nutritious food at the heart of the response to our climate emergency. I call Stephen Kerr to be followed by Stephanie Callaghan. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and congratulations to Foslow Chowdry on bringing this debate to the chamber. We have a great deal to be proud of in the way food production has evolved in Scotland, and we have a strong future to look forward to. The world wants our products, and I know that from personal experience. We have always been innovative in this regard in Scotland. As the world moves away from high-yield, low-quality meets towards more environmentally friendly options, the long history of sustainability in the Scottish beef herd will put our products at the heart of a high-quality, low-yield carbon-neutral farming future. We have a great history, too, in aquaculture in Scotland. Farmed fish consumption globally makes up half of the global fish consumption, and that is projected to grow. We have the expertise and we have an excellent product to sell the world. Despite the fearmongering, the sector still represents a huge part of Scotland's food exports. What is the minister doing to encourage and support the aquaculture sector? The same variety of issues come up when we look at the Scottish Government's attitude to the use of gene-editing technology in crops. A gene responsible for drought resistance in barley crops was recently found. It is a defence against the effects of climate change. Last year, the European cereal crop was badly affected by the lack of water and gene-editing technology offers a solution. We still remain closed-minded to gene-edited crops. It is a wholly mistaken attitude. When will the minister review the retrograde and anti-science policy? I already know the answer to that question, because, just minutes before I stood up, I had a written response from the minister to a question similar to this. I had already posed and she said, basically, when are masters in Brussels tell us that we can do it? It is pre-disappointing. This is a series of disappointments that I have had in parliamentary questions, as it has emerged that the Scottish Government was not supporting any aquaponics projects. This is a type of food production that mixes fish farming and the growing of crops. It is efficient, recycling nutrients within a closed system. Similarly, the Scottish Government has not looked at any recent projects in respect of vertical farming, which is an essential way of growing food that reduces the need for low-paid seasonal workers in the food production sector and reduces land use. That is essential as we move towards rewilding and more forestry in Scotland. I know that those issues are subject to an on-going review, but what in Scotland today is not subject to on-going reviews. Sometimes in Government you have to make decisions with the minister update us on the progress of this review and tell us what actions they plan to take forward to support innovation. In a country where the average age of farmers is now 59 years old, we know that there is a huge challenge ahead of us in producing enough food to feed a growing global population. We know that this challenge is made more difficult from the need to reduce carbon emissions. We know that land use will change fundamentally as a result of climate change. Therefore, innovation is key in this area, as in so many other areas in response to the call for us to become net zero in terms of carbon emissions. Farms need to diversify, but too often in Scotland this has meant opening up a glamping pod or getting a grant to reweld the land. All of that is worthy, but how are we to feed ourselves when farms are turned over to custodianship? The Scottish Government must stand alongside Scotland's farmers, be open to innovation. I will. I was on my last three words, but if it's all right with you, definitely not sir. I'm happy to have Jim Fairlie intervene. Thank you for taking the intervention, Mr Kerr. I'm confused because you're talking about when the Scottish Government is going to give production. If I understand you correctly, when the Scottish Government is going to give production its priority. However, the UK Government has already said that its entire support system will be based around access to land and environmental transfer. The Scottish Government has already said that food production will be 50 per cent of the policy that it is bringing forward. We are committed to producing food in this country. The UK Government is committed to going into an environmental side of things that we have been doing for generations, so I just don't understand your logic when you went with that point. Stephen Kerr, I'm very happy to take the intervention, but that would come a lot better from a member of the SNP if they came up with some proposals about the future of farm payments. At least the UK Government has produced something that has been debated and discussed and is on-going in that process, but in this Parliament we have heard nothing. Would the member like to intervene? Would Stephen Kerr agree with me that farmers cannot meet climate change objectives with an SNP Government that cuts agri-environmental climate change funding? I think that there is a world of difference between what the rhetoric of the SNP Scottish Government is about and what it actually does and what it actually delivers in terms of outcomes. That is why I call upon the minister to respond to my invitation to her and her colleagues to stand up and stand alongside Scotland's farmers, to be open to innovation and to embrace science. How about being pro-science and pro-free trade? Thank you, Mr Kerr. I now call on Stephanie Callaghan to be followed by Paul Sweetie. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and thank you to Fossil for bringing this important debate to the chamber. The global food system is not only a victim of climate change, it is also one of the world's main polluters. The World Wildlife Fund tells us that food production is one of the biggest threats to our planet. They do have a point that food systems are responsible for 60 per cent of global nature loss and over one third of total greenhouse gas emissions. COP26 rightly focused on important topics such as deforestation and emissions, but I was disappointed that the impact of food systems and climate change was less prominent. Fortunately, food was in the menu during many of the round-table discussions, and while food presents a threat to climate change, there are global opportunities, too. As Susan Aitkenley, the Glasgow City Council, noted, food is the point where climate change and health come together. It is this connection between food systems, climate change and inequality. That is why I will always champion Scotland becoming a good food nation. For me, the Glasgow food and climate declaration was getting a bit heated, so I won't at the moment. For me, the Glasgow food and climate declaration was a significant output from COP26, placing food and local action at the heart of our climate emergency response. Almost 90 sub-national Governments have signed up to that declaration that seeks to tackle the climate emergency through developing integrated food policies. Scotland is one of the delegation signatories, and I am delighted that the South Lancer Council is one of seven Scottish local authorities to sign up. That is great news for Oddingston and Baleshill residents across my constituency. Beyond the Glasgow declaration, our Scottish Government has also trained a series of interventions that provide opportunities to transform our food systems and respond to environmental challenge. Central at the Scottish Government's response is the Overaction Good Food Nations Scotland Bill, which will see national and local Governments creating good food nation plans that deliver local responses underpinned by national policy peratives. While supporting the environment's key, there are broader benefits to health, social and economic wellbeing. I share the anxiety of many climate activists that COP26 has been big in promises but less clear in delivery. It is vital that nations transparently report and progress as food systems are redesigned, and I welcome the Scottish Government's intention to publish progress reports against our good food nation plan every two years. COP26 activists rightly highlighted that transparency is critical to accelerating responses to combat climate change. Scotland can co-produce solutions that provide us all with affordable access to local produce by continuing to work collaboratively with its world-class farming sector. Scottish farming is rightly renowned for its sustainable approach. With Scotland's strong foundations, we can reimagine our food system, harvest in more local, organic and plant-based produce, is achievable. I trust that we can harness our collective will and reputation for innovation to make that happen. School students from right across Lanarkshire have already lobbied me about the lack of sustainable vegetarian and vegan options in school canteens. I hear them and I agree with them. We must work harder to increase balanced plant-based food options and work harder to offer more local produce. As discussed at COP26, the Scottish Government is also delivering policies and interventions that place food at the heart of our responses to tackle inequalities. Extended free school meals and best start food grants confirm Scotland's focus on improving people's wellbeing while reducing harmful emissions and nature loss. Our Scottish councils are already spending around £65 million per year in food supplies. COP26 can either be a turning point for how our global food system works or it can turn out to be nothing more than a two-week jamboree for world leaders and celebrities. We owe it to our grandchildren and their children that are the former. I look forward to Scotland leading the global response as a good food nation. Ms Callaghan, I call on the Prime Minister and the open debate. Paul Sweeney, four minutes please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. It's a real pleasure to join this debate. I congratulate my friend Faisal Chowdhary from Molding region for securing it. It's a very apt moment to discuss the issue. I'm very proud that Glasgow as a city gives its name to this declaration. It's as vital as it is for the survival of mankind. What an opportunity for our collective economic potential is also something that's often overlooked. It's not about a sacrifice, it's about realising entrepreneurial spirit and realising a potential opportunity for our cities and regions across the world. I've already rehearsed much of the issues around the waste that is so apparent in our society when we realise the sheer scale of it. It is staggering 36 million tonnes of greenhouse gases from food alone and 1.3 billion tonnes a year globally, from the UK's share of that. The cost of that in terms of financial and economic costs in the UK businesses, homes and food manufacturers throwing away 9.5 million tonnes of food worth £19 billion a year. What an amazing opportunity to address that and at the same time contain our emissions. I'm happy to give way. I'm really grateful for the member to take her interventionist point because I've been trying to get into this for ages. I wonder if he'd agree with me that the fact that a third of the world's food is going to waste and accounts for something between 8% and 10% of global emissions. If food wastes were a country, it would be the third highest carbon emitter after the USA in China. Does he agree with me that it seems ridiculous that, in a time when we have such food poverty, we're not joining up those dots and reducing that kind of wastage? Absolutely. I'm really striking an analogy or mechanism of describing that to think that it's the third highest emitter in the world. I think that that is true. We have no global institutional capacity to recognise where surpluses and deficits are occurring and how we address that. I think that that is something that the international community must take much more into cognisance as we look forward. It's very hard to sometimes reconcile the macro level, the global level, of this discussion and the effects with how we can meaningfully adjust matters more locally. I think that that's why it's quite important that this was announced in Glasgow because there are practical steps being taken in the city to address this issue. I think that it's worth exploring those opportunities in more detail. As often was said, we have to think globally but act locally, and I think that this is a very good example. I joined Glasgow businesses during COP26, who are launching the Plate Up for Glasgow campaign. It's being piloted by the Glasgow Chambers of Commerce through the Circular Glasgow initiative and funded by experienced Glasgow food and drink and the drink regional group. It was hosted and has been led by Giovanna Eusebi of Eusebi's deli, one of Glasgow's great restaurants. One of the amazing things that Eusebi's have been doing is promoting the idea that the tradition of southern Italy was that you would never throw things away, that it would be seen as sacrilege to throw food away, that the poverty of some of those communities meant that the scarcity of food was treated as precious. I think that the abundance of food in our rich society has often led to having a very wasteful attitude. So trying to take that culture into our current behaviours is so important. The idea that you would adjust portion sizes, that recognising that Glasgow businesses, if you're running a restaurant in Glasgow, you're likely to throw away £10,000 worth of food a year. Trying to adjust that issue, trying to reuse as much of the ingredients as possible to minimise waste. It was really a great insight into how businesses can adjust and reduce their costs and improve their efficiency and competitiveness, as well as reducing waste in the community. Furthermore, the idea of a circular economy. Glasgow's parks have seen a budget cut of 70 per cent in the last 10 years. There's 5,150 acres of parkland in Glasgow. If we can start to cultivate that land, more of it, certainly not all of it, but certainly a significantly larger share of it, we can actually be growing more of that food locally, earning money commercially in the city by selling the produce to local restaurants, and that can help to create a sustainable model for the management of Glasgow's parks. Just another example of how, rather than having a dependency model where we're having to cut things and retrench and retrench, we can have a more entrepreneurial approach by managing public assets like parklands to realise income from them and create a more sustainable circular economy in the city. I really want to commend Play Up for Glasgow for what it's trying to achieve in Glasgow, and I would urge you to have a look at their website, playupforglasgo.co.uk. It's just really great to see how we can take that global impact and adjust it to local policies that can really potentially make a big difference. Thank you, Mr Sweeney. I now call on Mary McCallant to respond to the debate minister for around seven minutes, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. It's been great to hear the debate this afternoon. I should like to begin by thanking, as the others have, Foswell Troudry for lodging this really important motion, and I thank all the members who have taken part. There have been lots of good ideas shared, such as the nature of this discussion when it pertains to climate change and environment. We touch on so many aspects of the economy and society, so it should be. There was some consensus, which I think is very good. A lot of posturing and full outrage from the Tory benches, which is deeply ironic, given that it was their chums in Westminster who, in post-Brexit trade deals, have undercut, undermined and, crucially, have ignored the calls from Scottish farmers, indeed the pleas from Scottish farmers, to be listened to. They ought to be ashamed of themselves for that. I'll make progress now, but, if you want to come in later on, I'd be glad to take an intervention. Presiding Officer, it is hard to overstate how important food systems are to us all. Food sustains us through the nutrition and energy that it provides, but it also connects us with our culture, our history, our land. It plays a crucial role in our economy and, as has been set out a number of times this afternoon, will be a key theme in our journey to net zero. Having COP26 in Scotland was an immense opportunity for Scotland. We are not yet a state negotiator, but, as a sub-national host government, it provided us with a unique opportunity to showcase our world-leading action, but, perhaps more importantly, to learn from others around the world about the action that they are taking, including on food systems. The Glasgow Declaration on Food and Climate unites signatories around a pledge to accelerate the development of integrated food policies, and, crucially, it calls on national authorities, who are so often holding the tools and the funding that is required here, to take action to ensure that food policy is aligned with credible and tangible change. The Scottish Government has long valued the role of food in our national wellbeing, our economy and in the very fabric of our society, and that is why we were so proud that Scotland was the first national government to sign the Glasgow Declaration pledge and to demonstrate our wholehearted commitment to the joined-up approach. Just while we are here, I take the opportunity to thank Nourish Scotland, who has been one of, if not the key partner, in drafting the Glasgow Declaration. The fact that so many have signed up to the Declaration is testament to their hard work. We are very proud that the project began in Scotland and I welcome the consensus across the chamber and the support for the project that the Scottish Government was so pleased to get behind. The recognition of that is welcome and, again, I thank Foisal Childry for the opportunity to discuss it. Of course, though it is not just for Governments to take action, the public sector could never take this challenge on alone. Business has a really important part to play. During COP26, on 9 November, the Scotland Food and Drink partnership launched its net zero commitment, a plan to unite industry consisting of five long-term commitments underpinned by a programme of practical interventions. Gene editing techniques allow the breeding of new crops more quickly, which is essential right now to mitigate the challenges posed by climate changes. The James Hutton Institute, which is often quoted here and part of the work that the Government has done, has welcomed plans, unveiled by DEFRA, to pave the way to enable gene editing technologies in England. Gene editing can unlock benefits for nature, environment and health farmers, develop crops with enhanced resistance to pest disease and extreme weather conditions that we are likely to see in the future. Why does the minister oppose that without basing our decisions on scientific evidence, but more with obsession with keeping pace with the EU? Will he tell us why he will not consider the Government's position, which will ultimately damage Scotland's ability to innovate and use facilities such as the Hutton Institute, which are world-leading, and should be at the forefront of tackling the implications of climate change? I will not tell you anything, Mr Carson, but I will ask the minister to respond to your intervention. I am happy to respond and, firstly, to assure the member that we do not take decisions in absence of scientific advice and we take it all the time. I am very clear about the progress as regards gene editing and the judicial reasoning coming out of the EU as regards the separation with gene modification. It is a very important subject. I am following it closely, but the Scottish Government's position on gene modification has not changed at this stage. The leading body on environmental protection. We would do well to follow the EU in that regard. Today's motion rightly asserts that our journey to net zero must go through the farm gate. Scottish farmers and producers are central to driving this agenda. Our agriculture reform implementation oversight board, co-chaired by Martin Kennedy and the Cabinet Secretary, Mary Gougeon, is working really hard to find out and to plan how we can support farming and food production in Scotland to become a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture. I would point members who have asked about the picture on that point. I am very grateful for the minister to take the information. Can she explain to us why? One of the things that drives me is the fact that Scotland is the unhealthiest nation in Europe, yet it has produced some of the highest quality food in the world. Somehow or other, those two things are not being joined together through the public procurement process. That has been the case for the last five years. Can you tell us what plans the Government has to try to join up those dots? Thank you. I thank the member for the intervention. I am happy to explain just on the point of procurement. I am sure that you are already aware of the figures, but, for the sake of others in the chamber, Scottish products are estimated to account for around 48 per cent of public sector spend, which is up from 34 per cent in 2007. It is increasing, albeit, that work has to be done. I hope that the Good Food Nation Bill, which will acknowledge that Scotland has this incredible natural larder, will tackle that problem, that too many people are not able to access the nutritious value that is here, which is being produced in Scotland. I was talking about supporting farmers and crofters to produce more of our own food needs sustainably and to farm and croft with nature. Make no mistake that finding solutions to the problem posed by climate change will require action at all levels. We aim to learn from different communities, organisations and individuals that are already building local food systems with innovative approaches. I am conscious of the time that has taken so many interventions. In that regard, in the vein of learning from others, we remain committed to increasing the sourcing of local produce in the public sector. Our support for the soil associations food for life programme, which I am sure the member is aware of, continues. It is now operating in school settings across 17 local authorities, which is more than half. It has already made a big difference to the lives of many young people across this country. The programme contributes to our goals of becoming a good food nation, reducing inequality and achieving net zero emissions by 2045. We are in active discussions with the soil association on options to extend that programme into other public sector settings, which I know was mentioned in an earlier speech. I really must make progress, but hopefully next time. I mentioned reducing inequality. The Government is committed in everything that we do to driving social justice and ensuring that no one is left behind. In climate action, that means putting people at the heart of our efforts and enshrining the principles of just transition in law that this Parliament did. I really must make progress. It is the same as it was five seconds ago. That very much applies to food policy. This ethos underpins much of the action that we are already taking by becoming a good food nation by 2025. As has been mentioned, we introduced the good food nation bill to this Parliament recently. The bill will enshrine our ambition to be a good food nation where people from every walk of life take pride and pleasure in and benefit from the food that they produce by cook, serve and eat every day. It will underpin a whole lot of work that the Scottish Government is already undertaking. As I said to the member after his intervention, it is the foundation upon which we will build a country where everyone can access Scotland's delicious and nutritious natural order of meat, fish, dairy, oats, kale and much more. It will provide the overarching framework for clear, consistent and coherent future food policy that is in line with the aims of the Glasgow declaration. I will take this opportunity in closing, Presiding Officer, simply to encourage other Governments to follow where Scotland has led in embedding sustainable, fair and integrated food policy.


This is TFNN, The Tiger Financial News Network Update. Good morning everyone, Basel Chapman here, Tuesday the 9th of May, we're looking at the down with this 10 o'clock Tiger Financial News Network Market Update, down is up 25 after being down a little bit earlier on at 33,643, I must say from yesterday afternoon all the way through this evening into early this morning, this so far is just not the kind of bear action that you would expect if this is the one and done with that big shooting, that rocket ship on Friday, we were to give them back a chunk, this is what we normally see, we're not seeing that now, so far I'm impressed, let's put it that way, but the 9 appear moving average for the Dow is still pink, it hasn't turned green, so that's a little story that we need to look at in my show, coming up the Tiger Technicians Hour, but what is green is that the 9-period moving average in the S&P is positive and it's down 11 at 41.27 and it's really trying to find a little momentum to the upside to start a new gray leg B in the 41.48 area looking at the QQQ NDX100 down for 96 cents at 322.67, now this is going to be interesting because this is Chapman Wave inside track repellent area, but I think that it's going to try to get there, we'll see if we can get to the 324 area, so looking at the IWM, the Russell 2000 small caps down again down 128 at 172, it's just really struggling, what I am looking at here is gold, the way gold holds, it pulls back really sharp and then it tries to rally, it held the 14-period moving average, it's doing quite nicely, it's up to a half for 2036, I would just say in the next five trading days, if gold trades under 2000, it's going to take a bit longer for a breather, in the meantime it's holding very well, the dollar tried to rally earlier on and then it pulled back a little bit and then it spiked higher, it's up 40 ticks at 101.7, I'm thinking that this is a phase you can separate the action of the dollar and gold and dollars trying to act independently, the crude oil is down 65 cents and the TLT bonds unchanged, I'll be back for the Tiger Technicians, don't forget check out my opening for my daily newsletter, see you in a few moments.


Bad breath is an underestimated problem affecting a significant proportion of the global population. It seems most people regularly report encountering people with halitosis. Masking agents are frequently used to cover up bad breath, but studies have shown that the use of mouth rinses, sprays, or mints containing an agreeable masking odor only have short-term effects since you're not treating the underlying cause. So the exclusive uses of masking products can never be truly considered an effective solution to the problem. The cause of bad breath is oral putrefaction. The degradation of certain amino acids mostly derived by bacterial breakdown of proteins in your mouth. Specifically, bacteria degrade the sulfur-containing amino acids, such as cysteine and methionine, into stinky compounds like the rotten egg gas hydrogen sulfide, so-called volatile sulfur compounds. If you measure these compounds spewing out of people's mouths with machines with names like breath-tron, tooth brushing alone does not significantly reduce oral malodour. Brushing alone reduces sulfur breath compounds from more than 450 down to about 300, but that's still above the stinky breath threshold of 250. Add tongue cleaning, and you can drop that down to right around the threshold, but adding an antiseptic mouthwash and antibacterial mouthwash did even better. So what's the best mouthwash to use? To find out, researchers used the cysteine challenge test. Instead of giving people dairy products, which contain the protein casing, which is rich in the sulfur amino acid cysteine, they just had the participants swish directly with some cysteine, and then followed effectiveness using odorograms. For example, tooth brushing. When people swished with cysteine before brushing their teeth, here's the spike in stinky sulfur compounds spewing out of the mouths. When they brushed their teeth with water and squished again at various times over the rest of the day, the spikes pretty much looked the same, meaning tooth brushing with water didn't remove many bad breath bacteria since the subjects were spewing out similar spikes, starting just 20 minutes later. Brushing with toothpaste works better, see how it knocks down the next spike of stinky compounds before the bacteria slowly grow back throughout the day. What about using a tongue scraper? Here's the odorogram. Tongue scraping knocks it down by about half before coming back over the next few hours. What about chewing gum? Here's that odorogram. Some effect that disappears over the subsequent few hours. What about various mouthwash? First of all, rinsing with water. Useless. Can be helpful for morning breath to rinse any stagnation that occurred overnight, but during the day just rinsing with water isn't clearing many bad breath bacteria. And swishing with scope mouthwash? Just as useless as water. Scope is an antibacterial mouthwash, but it must not be good at killing the specific bacteria that cause bad breath. Paradex, though, cleaned house, killing off those bacteria even seven hours later. What is Paradex? That's just a brand name for chlorhexidine. Uh-oh, we know about that from this video. Chlorhexidine doesn't just get rid of bad breath bacteria. It also kills off the good bacteria on your tongue that helps you make nitric oxide, which protects your arteries. And so chlorhexidine can raise your blood pressure. And that's not all. Chlorhexidine can stain your teeth. That's not what you want in a mouthwash. Adverse effects are not rare. Tooth staining, the buildup of tartar, taste disturbance, and damage to the lining of your mouth have all been reported with the use of chlorhexidine in about 9 out of 10 people. 88% of people suffer various side effects. But hey, chlorhexidine may be better than mouth washes with hydrogen peroxide, which may be carcinogenic, potentially increasing your risk of mouth cancer. That's not just based on studies on rodents either. Cultures of human mouth lining cells show significant DNA damage. Tri-closan was another common antibacterial ingredient in mouth washes now effectively banned in over-the-counter products. Tongue scraping alone doesn't always resolve the problem of holotosis. So what can we use? If that bath persists after improving tongue and dental hygiene, inactive zinc-based mouth rinse can be introduced. Zinc binds directly to the volatile sulfur compounds and prevents them from gassing out of your mouth. Mouth rinses containing zinc chloride without alcohol have been found to instantly, though temporarily, be effective for holotosis. Researchers looked at eight mouth rinses, and the most effective was a zinc chloride one, and the least effective was Colgate plaques. In fact, both of the alcohol rinses were found to be the least effective. The thought is that they may exacerbate holotosis by drying up your mouth. Here are some Sistine Challenge testing results with different concentrations of zinc chloride. Note that all forms of zinc don't work the same, though. Zinc chloride is very effective, but zinc gluconate, which was the difference between regular listerine and an advanced listerine, didn't seem to work as well.


So I know you've probably seen some videos like this where someone teaches you how to go from zero to a million fans, or maybe even the ones I make each year, where I tell you about all the new rules of the game and update you on what's changed, and well, it's about that time. But here's the thing. I've actually done this for work, unlike some of these YouTubers, and worked with tons of groups and they're sent to building a huge fan base, and work on this every single day with DIY, indie, and major label acts across all sorts of genres. But since I don't really want to bore my viewers, if you're sitting here watching this thinking, I am just another one of those YouTube con artists selling a course who's just spouting off with no experience, I encourage you to go to my channel page and watch the video on my biography that's featured. But the short of it is, for well over a decade, I've been a marketing strategist for all sorts of musicians, and worked on the marketing of a Billboard number one comedy record, and in the past two years have marketed and produced two different podcasts that have been the top ten of all podcasts on the Apple charts out of all one million plus podcasts released this year. But really what I think is most important is my heads in the game when it comes to music marketing. I live and breathe marketing in not just music, but comedy, podcast, streaming video, YouTube, even the curse subject of politics. I talk to managers, PR people, booking agents, campaign strategists, and even the people who run presidential campaigns, an A and R of some of the biggest artists in the world in tons of different genres. I'm on the phone every day with people who are building a new artist or building up some of the people with the biggest followings who've also taken artists to platinum sales. I've been taking that information I learned from those calls and putting it into this YouTube channel for the past three years. And whether that's from my experience or my friend's experience, I stay up on what is working and what's changing, and I update on this channel regularly and in these videos every single year. So let's get some things out of the way, though, to make this video way more enjoyable.  If you think something I'm saying is interesting and you wish you knew more about it than what I just said in this video, well, there's already videos I've made to go way deeper on every subject in this video. So just head down to the description and find the link. Since if a subject is interesting to you, all you need to do is click on it or click on the playlist I made where you can watch all of them in order and become a real expert. And the same goes for if you're not finding a section interesting. There's chapters to this video, so feel free to skip ahead. OK, so let's talk about the first pillar of marketing in 2023 for a musician. This is appealing to algorithms. And now I know a lot of you are going to get real turned off by hearing that, but listen for a second. Appealing to algorithms happens to have a happy ending, unlike what Facebook is doing to our society with their algorithms. Right now, the majority of music discovery and how people build a fan base is because they use smart strategy that appeals to the algorithm, but there's a smarter way to see this. If you deliver music in the way the algorithm likes, which means you don't have to, and nor should you compromise your music and what's within that music. Well, those algorithms will help you build your fan base, because the great thing about music today is songs that are authentic are more rewarded than ever. And I know a lot of you don't believe me about that, but it's real, but the delivery method and the way you release music has a defined way to spread as far as possible. If you follow the rules of the algorithm, and I should say the reason algorithms work is because they're the same as human attention spans, which is why people built those algorithms was to appeal to the way humans consume things. But right now what I see in the majority of artists who get a fan base is been doing effectively to build that fan base is they release a single every six to eight weeks while occasionally peppering that with an alternative version covers, remixes, or hell, even one of those sped up or slowed down versions that are popular on TikTok these days, or they add a feature to an existing song here or there. They do this for a 12 to 18 month campaign while doing something eventful every two weeks is something smaller every single week. This only takes six songs per year to fill up an entire calendar year. And if you release a single screen video at a stream of your song on the first week, then two weeks later, a lyric video, then two weeks later after that, a music video, and then an alternate version, well, you'll fill up those eight weeks really easily. And then you just start the cycle again with another song at either six or eight weeks, but a lot of people want to release a single every single week now. And when you do that, it makes people feel like the music is not important to you. And instead you're just desperate and just guessing at music songs are not a lottery ticket. They need to be emotionally powerful and people don't want to see everything you can do, but instead the best of what you do. Whereas releasing a song every two months and following it up with eventful things keeps people's attention spans engaged too many of you that I talked to on consulting calls talk about how you have 28 songs in the camp, but you don't get what makes so many of your favorite ours, your favorites, is that they know to release their best material and keep messing with the recipe of their less than stellar material. It doesn't mean you throw it away. It doesn't mean it never gets released, but they play with it until it gets better and as good as their best material. So you need to hint to your audience and the people who are going to discover you that what you're doing is exceptional by putting in the effort to make content around it and continually remind people that the music you're putting out matters because putting out music more often than every six to eight weeks. Well, it just doesn't feel eventful and people care about eventful things, which is what makes them think they should pay attention to it. I want to remind you, you're also competing with a lot of people for attention. This is why when little Nas X rose from being a completely unknown artist to having the longest running number one song of all time, he continually reminded people of his song and that it was something exceptional by over and over again, showing them memes and reminding them to build a relationship with the song. Now, a lot of people get really bummed when they hear me talking about releasing singles constantly as they love albums and EPs. And you know what? So do I. I was listening to some while I wrote this video, but you have to see EPs and LPs and mixtapes as what builds deeper relationships with fans who start to like you. It makes them think about you more and more and feel close to you. And the deeper that relationship is, the more likely they are to come see you live, buy your merch and engage with you on socials.   But we need to see it this way, that singles are what lures people in. Much like that sample of the chicken at the Chinese food stall that they give out for free in the mall courtyard, they hope to lured you in at the counter to buy a pound of it. And then they hope you'll keep coming back and doing that each day after you've tasted how good it tastes from that one free sample. We have to see albums and singles as two different things. Singles offer the opportunity to bring in enough people that they're going to go through your album or back catalog and get to know you and develop a relationship with your music. But if you aren't releasing as many singles as possible these days to bring people back to that album, you're basically not allowing your music the chance to get discovered by sending out the samples that will intrigue people and have them come and hear more from you. And this is because singles are how people first taste music and decide if they want a full meal. And right now, algorithms spread singles because the way Spotify is designed and people's attention spans work in a similar way is that the more singles you release of quality material, the more chances people have to take in your album and back catalog, which brings me back to what appeals to algorithms appeals to human attention spans. OK, so let's go over this. The top ways people discover music are Tiktok, Spotify and YouTube. And while Tiktok is doing a ton of this work these days, we are concerned about where people are going to repeatedly listen to your music and make a relationship with you, which is YouTube and Spotify. Because when it comes to DSPs and listening to music without video, if you open the majority of artist analytics of where their listens come from, if we bar YouTube, it's usually eighty to eighty five percent Spotify. And then the other fifteen to twenty percent is distributed between Apple and all the other DSPs. So like it or not, Spotify is really where you need to focus your energy and they give artists tons of tools to promote themselves, whereas all the other DSPs give you virtually none. And because we have to focus at Spotify, we have to remember why singles are important because Spotify only lets you submit one song at a time to its editorial playlist submission tool and they recommend you submit four weeks in advance. This means releasing singles more than once a month is a wasted opportunity, as your single greatest chance to have your music get discovered by a lot of people is through editorial placements on Spotify. So you're basically failing yourself if you don't go through and give that lottery ticket a chance. And let's also keep in mind it takes weeks for some songs to spread on TikTok. So pushing out different songs constantly doesn't benefit from doing it too often. And while editorial playlists are the biggest ones, we have to remember Spotify puts the artist who get on user playlists on their editorial playlists. So it's important that after your song is released, you can then pitch it to other user playlists as well as using hyperfowl and pre-save tools that encourage fans to follow you on Spotify. But there's an important part of the Spotify game to keep in mind. And that's trying to get into the algorithm so you get on Discover Weekly and release radar. And to do that you need to keep your popularity score high. And that happens by driving as many ears that will potentially like your song as possible as early as possible to your song. So getting attention from your community and driving people from your socials or especially an email list is crucial to this. I have a lot more to say about this in other videos that are linked in the description if you want to learn more. But truly your mission when you first release a song is to try to get as many ears to your song as possible that are familiar with you and already like you or have the potential to like you because they like your genre of music.  But there's another platform we have to consider, which is YouTube, which not only helps with music discovery, it's also where you can build relationships with fans. Since we all know a great music video could be what tips you to be so blown away by what you're listening to and watching that you send it to a friend. In fact, today I found this group called the Northern Boys that are probably the best hip hop group I've heard out of Britain and forever.  But honestly, these lyrics are incredible, probably wouldn't have glommed on to it as well. If I hadn't watched the video accompanying the song, but I sent it to 12 different people today because that's the power of music videos. It made me understand who they were as an artist feel the songs more. But YouTube rewards those who are uploading weekly or bi-weekly, which is a little bit of a conflict with what I just told you about Spotify. So putting up behind the scenes videos, playthroughs, vlogs, lyric videos, and single screen videos of your song helps the algorithm favor you. It's served you to more fans while feeding the attention spans of fans who are starting to grow a relationship with you. This is also why doing first that single screen video, then the lyric video or visualizer, then your music video and then an alternate version helps you so you serve another video every two weeks. So maintaining consistent sustained promotion by posting to YouTube not only helps you algorithmically, it helps audience to see you're regularly feeding them and you're an eventful artist who they should be paying attention to.  And then they talk about you on social media. So it's by nature humans seek out commonality in others and want to bond over what they enjoy. Doing this not only appeals to the algorithm, it reminds fans to grow relationships with you. So they are thinking about you more and more and want to go deeper with you. But I know what a lot of you are thinking. Oh, Jesse, what is the matter? Don't play the touch to me anyway. What's the matter if I can find some playlists? So the greatest thing about algorithms is instead of some gatekeeper choosing you, if you use smart strategy, you can draw connections between you and other artists algorithmically and then have the platforms push you to one another. I made a video on how collaborations, remixes, features and split releases are the greatest marketing opportunity in the history of music. They should really watch it as it's linked below. And these not only introduce you to another artist fan base, but they live on another artist page and are tied to you for years to come continually growing your fan base. As that artist also makes new fans. But there's an added algorithmic benefit to this. You end up in the release radar and discover weekly of that artist. I've talked to the managers of some of the larger artists who say this can help a lot more than getting on the biggest playlist, especially those artists who are regularly doing collapse. But the benefits of this don't stop at YouTube and Spotify. One of the things musicians seem to forget is the way Instagram and TikTok algorithms learn to recommend you is the algorithm that looks at when two artists are tagged together and mentioned together. And when it happens regularly, like when you're playing shows all the time with another artist or do a song with another artist, the algorithm ranks how often this is happening between the two of you and then recommends you to one another's audience. This aside from some music genome methods, the streaming services have is just about the only way an algorithm knows to link you to someone else. So if you're one of those people who's always complaining that the algorithm doesn't pick you up, this is what you need to be doing. I mean, Spotify radio, all it's doing is just playing the artist that the majority of people listen to from that other artist that you just got done listening to. This is why not being an island to yourself matters. You need to be regularly tagging and doing things with other artists to help you grow. But what does that mean practically, though? Doing features, collabs and remixes as well as split releases and making sure you tag properly on Spotify and YouTube, you will link to those other artists to get you on Spotify radio playlist as well as discover weekly and release radar playlist and then doing music plus talk DJ sets on Spotify or radio shows and tagging the artists on Instagram and Twitter can help those sites spread you and link to you algorithmically as well as messaging other artists and socializing on Twitter can help you get you seen by their fans. And the same goes on TikTok. Now, before you get any big ideas, the key with these algorithms is they work at scale, meaning if you're just doing this with Drake and tagging him all day, it's not going to tie you to him. There's too much other competition. But this right here is why knowing your community and working with other artists of your size and doing this with artists who are just a bit above you in fan base size is the key to growing, which is why you really need to know your community, which I emphasize over and over and over again on this channel. So you're probably wondering how you find your community and use it to leverage your fan base. So instead of getting into the details of that, I instead want to show you how it plays with the other pillars of this. But let me put this into frame for you. I just explain why knowing who the other smaller artists in your community are is important. Since these are the people you should be doing collabs, remixes, split releases and features with and playing shows or even tours, but also putting them in your Spotify artist playlist. Since this helps the algorithm think you belong together as more people listen to you.  So doing as much research about who your community is will show you the other artists you should be creating a connection together with. So the algorithm knows who to serve you to the fans of. But community work goes way deeper than algorithms. This is actually about people. I know I said the last part was about people too. But this is even more so knowing where people in your microgenre, your local scene, etc. congregate, whether it's the clubs, discord chats, subreds is how you meet the people who open doors for you and connect you to the right people. So often the artists who grow are the ones who are most engaged in their online communities. Since the people who are in those communities are tomorrow's taste makers playlists or A&R at a cool label and knowing your community allows you to know who's the best mixer or director in your price range in your community to make you level up. And if you're just trying to get signed, one of the most common ways that happens is by working with the mixers, mastering engineers, photographers and directors in your community and then they share the work they do with you and all the A&R who they work with and follow them, then see your name and your song. And if you have a great song, well, that's how managers and label relationships often start. You need to be taking time every single day to understand your community. And truly one of the things I see that's the difference between whether people are growing fast or not is whether they've done the work at this. As it makes you a better artist, a student, better student of the game and most of all, those who reach out in their community get propped up by it. And this is how you get your first fans. So many people wonder what the first step to getting fans is. I'll tell you this. It often is that you make friends with somebody on a message board. They post about you to their fans and then you post about them when they put up new songs. And then you have a web of people like that who are connecting you on the algorithm again. And that's the first steps to start to get a leg up and build a fan base. It truly the difference I see when I do consults with artists who do this work for 10 to 15 hours compared to the ones who don't and don't listen to me and watch what I call my most important video are nine times out of 10. The artists who actually are making progress are the ones who did that work and the ones who ignore it. Well, they're mad. So head to the description and watch that video. So the other main pillar of how you connect with people is when you show yourself on social media, vlogs, interviews and whatever I want to say this, the majority of musicians I talk to on a daily basis have made social media far too complicated because they don't realize what they are actually seeing what appeals to you or any audience is not someone trying to be something they're not. We all have authenticity radars that give us cringe the second we see something inauthentic and yet most musicians talk to me as if they should be doing some performances that's not authentic to them and that they're not comfortable doing. It is literally the thing I hear most when I talk to musicians and I got to be honest. That's not what I see blowing up and making fans for artists. Here's what is instead of thinking about branding or imitating other people, think about your authentic thoughts and personality and how you can display them more often on social media devote time each day to thinking about your most interesting thoughts or the most interesting things you're doing or the traits of your personality that are most charismatic and then how you can use them to build relationships with fans by showing them who you are on social media. The honesty and vulnerability you express in your music paired with doing that on social media is what people actually latch on to these days. And if you show them that they want to get to know you better and listen to your music. So many times musicians think something is contrived or coached that they see from big artists when really the huge artist that you admire what they're doing is being themselves because they know how to do this and they've thought long and hard and probably talked a lot about themselves with their team and they've developed so well how to show themselves to the world because it's a muscle that you need to exercise or else you're going to be bad at it. And so many people say I'm not good at this. Yeah, you have and done the exercise yet to get good at it. And by being in the habit of any time something interesting comes to your mind or in line with the artist image you want to project. Well, your favorite artists know how to share that because it's a muscle they're using every single day. The other thing musicians really make a mistake of is they think their personality and social media needs to be the same as their music sounds. They think that their music is dark. They have to be dark. Feed V Bridgers makes some of the more sad and moody music yet her whole social media personality is jokes. Many musicians who make playful music can be passionate about politics. People want you to be yourself. And often the depth of yourself of not just being the person who makes the music is actually the appeal. Now, that with that said, if you're mood and what you want to share is actually a continuation of your music and it lines up with it. Well, that's extremely powerful, but both ways do work. And so that's what I see working is each day thinking of how you tell stories or thoughts in an authentic way that work. If you don't get what I mean by stories, I have a whole playlist and tons of videos on that. Since authentic story driven content is really what makes artists spread on social media. I also want to say this, but note, you also need to remind people regularly about your music and making stories that involve your music. Just saying your song is out now is the weakest cell of a song possible. Tell the story of how the song makes you feel and makes others feel or how you felt when you made it. If you do that, you'll see your song streams increase.  But I know what you really want is a cheat sheet on which social media apps you should be using. So let me leave you with this. Instagram is where little discovery of new artists happens, but it's where many people go to keep up with their favorite artists or to investigate the artist's vibe when they first hear them. Twitter is where people keep up with artists they like, but it's also the best place for you to deepen relationships with people, especially in your community. It start relationships with the people you want to know and build relationships within your community. And TikTok is where so much artists and music discovery happens today. It's nearly immeasurable, but Facebook now hides your posts so much that unless you pay, trying to update fans there has basically become irrelevant from Facebook's own bribery schemes, making them that, which brings me to that in nearly every genre of music. If you want your music to get discovered, getting good at TikTok yourself or paying for TikTok influencer campaigns is the best way you can get your music discovered for little money or effort. Now, it's much more complicated than that, but luckily for you, I have an entire playlist on everything you need to know to blow up on TikTok in 2023. But trust me, there's so many different not cringe ways to do TikTok creatively today. If you're not at least looking around and finding how you fit them into your music, you're not doing your music and your dreams justice. TikTok's an evolving creative medium. And if you think you knew what it was six months ago, it's already changing. There's so many avenues for creativity and what you can do there that works to spread music. OK, so the last pillar of how you grow in 2023 is to understand the cheat code technique for your genre. So I can't get super specific with this since each genre or microgenre has their own cheat code. And what I mean by this is there's often a trick happening at each moment, a practice or an aspect of music promotion you can focus on that will get you more fans if you understand it and allocate more time to it. Think of it this way. Right now, hiring a radio campaign, if you're a DIY pop artist, well, you'll find somebody who will take that money, but you may as well set it on fire since there's no chance you'll ever get played unless you have a ton of streams that have created momentum around your music. But a moody and D rock artist doing this for college rock radio or serious XM could really be a small amount of money for the games that you see at a total cheat code. If you're making songs that sound like the Beatles and you're buying TikTok ads, one might be reminded that the people on TikTok's parents weren't even alive when the Beatles were together. Each genre has a promotion or marketing tactic specific to it that could lead to explosive growth. One of the reasons we watch your community so closely is that you start to understand what the cheat codes are as you study it, understand and research the cheat code technique of your genre and then exploit it as much as possible once you see it. Since if there's one thing I see over and over again, so we'll say this artist blew up from TikTok. But when I actually look under the hood of what they were doing, I often see there was this other cheat code technique they were doing that is not as clear to the eye as TikTok views. It's very rare an artist's massive growth comes from concentrating one place. It's often an accumulation of a few smart strategies. And I just laid out all the top lines of those for you here. So let's review really fast. To distill this video into a few small rules, they'd be this. And the more you follow these rules, the more your music will spread. Appeal the algorithm by releasing a song every two months on Spotify and pitch it to editorial playlists and then follow up by pitching to user playlists. Release a video of just the album cover, the two weeks later a lyric video or a visualizer, the two weeks later a music video, as this appeals to people's attention spans, as well as YouTube's algorithm. Learn to do your community work every single day as the time spent doing this sets you up for a greater understanding of what you should do and finds the people who will elevate your music career.  Create connections on social media and on Spotify and YouTube between you and other artists were similar to you or that are equal or just a bit bigger than you in fan base size. So the algorithm understands how to recommend you or connect you to the fans of those artists. Instead of thinking about branding or imitating other people to vote time each day to thinking about your most interesting thoughts or traits and your personality and how you can use them to build relationships with fans on social media. Okay, so this video here kind of sums up what we talk about in this channel. Hit the description and learn more as I have so many more links below and watch this video on the screen now to learn about the cheat codes for music promotion that I just mentioned.


Welcome back to the weekly ranking show where we go through all the ATP and WTA rankings for the week And we had a lot of the top 10 playing this week And of course the next week if we're gonna have a lot of players playing at the canadian open But this week we had a lot of the top 10 for the women playing and some big changes to the top 10 Let's go have a look at the results from last week though Because we had some big winners from last week as well starting with the WTA winners from last week on the two tournaments Both on hardcourts now starting with samson over taking the win over Canepi at the city open in washington winning that one in three sets four six six three six three to lift her second trophy And she got a boost in the rankings over the san jose open kazik kina Capped off a very good week defeating rogers in a very long final six seven six one six two And she got a boost in the rankings a career high ranking for her We'll talk about that in a second over in los carbos We had danum evident world number one finally winning a trophy this year defeating nori in the final So a good win there from eddie seven five six love in the end So he gets his us open campaign off to a good start and nick karyos He wins the city open against nishioka six four six three with another good win there And he's won his second trophy at that event So very good results from some key players especially going to the us open series They'll be watching a lot over the next couple weeks Let's start with the wta rankings for this week because as I said we had a couple of changes to the top 10 igish ryontech Clearly still on top. She is not going to be moving anytime soon. She stays at number one Contivate she comes in at number two But maria sakuri she drops down to number four after having a poor result last week in san jose And bodosa she goes up to number three after winning all the way to the semifinals So it's so tight up the top of the rankings jaber She comes in at number five as I said very close behind the other two above her sabalenka She comes in at six pagula at seven muguru through at eight But we have a big change to the top 10 with kazakhina winning a big trophy last week in san jose And she gets to a career high number nine in the world three spots higher than last week and rato khanu She stays in number 10 for now kicking daniel colin's out completely after not being able to save the points that she won last year At this time So she's gone out eight spots outside of the top 10 completely having a look at the wta finals race now And we had some big changes as well with fiontech staying on top and she's qualified well and truly jaber stays at number two But again kazakhina with a good week last week She goes up three spots into that number three slot adding 500 points for winning san jose pushing down Goff who's at number four now and pagula who goes down to number five maria sakuri She dropped down to number seven making way for bodosa who went up to number six Again making the semifinals of san jose and then a little bit of a change down the bottom with kudamatova going up one spot Also made the semifinals of san jose and belinda benchage goes down to number nine after not playing last week and daniel colin She stays in at number 10 for now, but i expect this time next week We will have a new number 10 because colin's is not playing whereas everybody else in the top 20 on the wta is actually playing in Toronto which is worth some serious points All right, let's have a look at the players that were outside the top 10 who got a boost in the rankings and Shelby rogers making her biggest final of her career Unfortunately couldn't win a title but got to a career high number 30 in the world this week Career high for her which is 15 spots higher than last week So making the final of a big event she got rewarded and samson over She won a title at the city open and she goes up 18 spots to number 42 in the world So players that did well this week outside the top 10 getting a big boost Some of the players that went down in the rankings this week. We had syrif She goes down 13 spots to number 60 in the world and peckovich She goes down outside the top 100 now at 108 which is 40 spots lower than last week Both had points from last year that they couldn't defend and lost to them all and dropped down in the rankings because of it All right, looking at the ATP rankings now and not too many crazy changes at this stage with only a couple of the men playing Daniel mevadev stays at number one adding to his total after winning and lost carbos Zverev stays in at number two with raffa staying at number three Elkreds are still at number four for now with city pass very close behind him So next week in Montreal will be a very interesting tournament for both of them Djokovic is staying at number six for now, but expect him to drop down over the next few weeks Casper root at seven rubelab at eight Felix O'Jalley assume at nine But yannick's dinner after choosing not to play this week and defend his washington open trophy He lost 500 points dropped out of the top 10 two spots lower than last week and making way for hubi hercatch Who makes his way back into the top 10 this week heading into montreal But a lot of those names especially down the bottom half of the top 10 will be playing this week So expect some changes this time next week having a look at the race of the finals and again Not too many changes because not many of these names have played With raffa staying at the top at number one. He is so close to qualifying only a couple hundred points And he will be qualified for the hb finals elkreds. He's still at number two with city pass at three Casper root at four, but daniel mevvedev He goes up one spot higher than last week after winning in lost carbos pushing zverev down to number six Mevvedev comes in at five and after not playing wimbledon He is starting to regain some of the points So it's good to see meddy back on the winners list and zverev We don't know when we'll see him. So I don't know if he's going to be in the top 10 for long rubelev He stays at number seven ojelia seam at number eight taylor fritz comes in at number nine And noback jokovic rounds out the top 10 But this time next week he might be out of the top 10 completely because he doesn't get to play Until after the u.s. Open and a lot of the guys behind him are very very close in the race of the finals And very close to kicking him out of the race completely having a look at the players that outside the top 10 Have gotten a boost this week and it was the finalists from the city open Kirios he goes up to 36 in the world, which is actually 26 spots higher than last week and nishi oka He's almost cut his ranking in half 42 spots higher than last week to number 54 in the world Going into the u.s. Open series in canada next week So a couple of guys played well last week at a big event It was worth a lot of points and gone up the ranks and kirios is trying to get seated at the u.s. Open So we'll see how he goes plays it went down to the rankings mcdonald went down 24 spots to number 72 after dropping all the points from the final that he made Last year in washington dominic team. He goes down 60 spots after having a couple of good weeks He's now down at 232 in the world after dropping points from three years ago that was still hanging around So dominic team on the verge of making it possibly back to the top 100 Now has to work even harder to earn his spot at the u.s. Open So there you have it They are the rankings for this week and some big changes on the women's side not too many on the men's side But like I said this week will be crucial. Let me know down in the comments below What do you think of the rankings this week? Are you surprised by anything? Of course? Novak Djokovic I mean, how long will he stay in the top 10? We know after the u.s. Open He's going to drop a lot of points. So who knows he might drop out of the top 10 I don't know but then I'm ever there kind of secures his spot at number one for now A lot of things are going to change over the next few weeks. Let me know down in the comments below What are you most surprised about with the rankings this week?