The recently-established Farmers’ Alliance says it has been “overwhelmed” by the support it is receiving from people living in Irish cities.
The farming organisation, which will officially launch itself as a political party at a public meeting later this month, has around 20 potential election candidates to date.
“We’ve had more people that want to put their names forward as candidates; we’ve yet to interview those people.
“We have people that want to put themselves forward in different parts of the country,” Helen O’Sullivan, Farmers’ Alliance spokesperson, told Agriland.
“What has really surprised us is the support that’s coming from Dublin. We had one person who said, ‘I’m not a farmer, but I need farmer three times a day. You have my full support, I’m 100% behind you’, which we thought was just lovely.
“That’s only one of many messages that we’re receiving. We were surprised to see the amount of support from the urban settings, which is great,” she added.
O’Sullivan said that small business owners have also approached the group offering their support.
Farmers’ Alliance
The Farmers’ Alliance has decided to modify their logo from “Together go Further” to “Town and Country Together”.
“We had a lot of people saying ‘are you just for farmers?’ We were telling them, ‘no, we hope to appeal to everybody’,” O’Sullivan said.
Along with Dublin, the group has attracted interest from people living in Cork and Galway cities too.
“It has given us more motivation to drive this on, because at one stage, with all the bad publicity, we [farmers] were getting and the misinformation, we thought, ‘God, does everybody hate us?’
“But to see these messages, they appreciate good quality food and where it comes from and also keeping the the local economies going.
“Everyone, no matter where they are, they all have a connection back to the land. I do believe that everyone in cities does have a connection back to the rural parts of our country, which is great,” O’Sullivan said.
Meeting
The Farmers’ Alliance is planning to hold a public meeting in the Killeshin Hotel in Portlaoise on Sunday, September 17 at 1:30p.m.
O’Sullivan said the group is hoping to meet more potential election candidates in-person.
There will be a number of speakers on the day who will discuss various issues including nature restoration; carbon sequestration; food security and the science around methane emissions.
The potential impact of the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) is also due to be explored.
Ahead of launching a political party, the Farmers’ Alliance is currently working on a manifesto.
“It’s not going to be just farming, there’s so many things that we have to touch on, so we want to be able to do it with caution and with care because there are so many things affecting our country at the moment,” O’Sullivan said.