Puy lentils may be associated with the warm climate of Puy-en-Velay in southwest France, but north Cork arable farmer Tom Fouhy has just harvested 3t of the protein-rich little pulses.
A former Farming for Nature (FFN) ambassador, Tom has been going against the grain to figure out what pulses and speciality crops he can grow organically on his 84ac farm in Castletownroche.
This year, he has grown lentils, fava (broad) beans and lupin beans, a staple food across Egypt and the Middle East.
Tom’s hunch that pulses are going to feature more on Irish plates and in Irish fields in the coming decades shows he’s the one with his finger – literally – on the pulse of Irish agribusiness, and this was proven at the launch of FoodVision 2030, Ireland’s agripolicy until 2030, at Dublin Castle recently.
A low supply of pulses has been identified as one of the challenges Ireland faces to its food security and the availability of nutritious foods into the future.
This is according to Lawrence Haddad of GAIN (the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition), who was speaking at the FoodVision 2030 launch.
Ireland needs to redirect agriculture subsidies from staple crops to increasing production of nutritious foods, according to the Food Systems Dashboard that Lawrence Haddad helped to design. Many fascinating statistics on Irish food and agriculture can be found at the online resource.
The Irish potential to grow pulses
Tom is one of many that have been chosen to deliver a selection of bitesize talks on their vision for the future of food at the Food Futures event taking place at The Crawford Art Gallery in Cork on Friday (November 4) from 6:00-8:00p.m.
It is the closing event at ‘Meat and Potatoes’, the food-themed exhibition which has been on display in the gallery since July.
It will involve a series of TED-style talks that will feature Tom’s take on the Irish potential to grow pulses; space-age solutions to urban farming with Jenny Twomey from Green Towers; European Farm to Fork strategy with Dr. Barbara Doyle Prestwich from University College Cork’s (UCC’s) School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES); and the latest research on potato blight resistance with Dr. John Mackrill of UCC’s Department of Physiology.
The evening will be hosted by food policy expert Ruth Hegarty and will also feature a host of interesting nibbles. It will also leave time for a last look at the ‘Meat and Potatoes’ exhibition, which comes to a close on Sunday, November 6.