The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has stated that the government must progress the Food Vision 2030 strategy.

The comments come as the High Court today (Tuesday, March 1) granted leave for a judicial review of the strategy following an application by Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE).

Food Vision 2030 is a 10-year roadmap to grow agri-food exports from €14 billion to €21 billion by 2030.

However, FIE alleges that there has been a failure to properly subject the plan to Strategic Environmental Assessment and Habitats Directives, along with a lack of monitoring.

The group claims that the plan undermines Ireland’s international and national commitments to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; will increase water pollution; and is damaging protected and unprotected habitats across Ireland.

ICMSA reaction

Reacting to FIE’s legal challenge of Food Vision 2030, the ICMSA said that is it now imperative that “the duly elected government” proceeds with the plan.

ICMSA president, Pat McCormack, said that all parties must accept that they would not get everything they sought as part of this “existentially important project”.

He admitted that the ICMSA has its own concerns about aspects of the strategy and the potential threat to commercial farming.

“We are justifiably extremely anxious about the negative consequences that the Food Vision strategy has for Irish farming and primary-food production.

“But we have to work with it as best we can and it’s high time that others – on the environmental side of this debate – finally grasped the fact that there has to be give and take on this.

“They cannot be allowed dictate to everyone else how this project is going to be developed,” McCormack stated.

The ICMSA president claimed that the latitude afforded to “unelected bodies” such as FIE was not encouraging farmers to support government policy.

McCormack said that “the FIE would have to be told bluntly that the national policy had now been decided”.

“If FIE wanted to change that then they should put themselves forward as candidates in our elections,” he added.

“Either we have a government that weighs up all the arguments and makes a decision in the national interest or we just give up and allow niche extreme groups to continue mounting legal challenges to properly decided policy and have the costly and unnecessary resultant delays.

“Either the government decides or the environmental quangos do – it’s time for that question to be answered,” McCormack concluded.