A three-day international conference that took place in Dublin this week was told that the idea that Europe has "plenty of food" is an "illusion".

That was the view of Séamus Boland, former CEO of Irish Rural Link and current president of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), which is one of the main advisory bodies to EU policymakers.

Boland was speaking at a three-day international conference taking place in Dublin this week, which brought together experts from around the EU on the attractiveness of farming, and the safety and wellbeing of farmers and farm workers.

The SafeHabitus Conference 2026 began on Tuesday (November 3) and ran until yesterday (Thursday, November 5).

The event is being held at Teagasc Ashtown in Dublin.

Boland was one of the keynote speakers at the event, and in a wide-ranging speech criticised the move at EU level to reduce funding for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in favour of higher defence funding.

"[Europe] is now tying to say we have to defend ourselves. Okay, let's take that for granted. But in doing that, the proposals are to reduce other budgets, including farm budgets, including food budgets, including health budgets, in order to increase the defence budget," he said.

"My great question is to you...when you hear and read about this, can you seriously take away food security from any defence point of view?" Boland asked.

He cited examples from history of wars being lost because armies did not have enough food.

"Europe had rationing up to 1954 because it was still recovering from World War II because it didn't have food to feed itself. I read recently, in 1954, rationing in Great Britain was at its highest, almost 10 years after the war," the EESC president said.

"Defence and food security are part of the same package," he stressed.

Boland added: "I'm saying to my European colleagues, if you think you can increase the defence budget and reduce the food and agriculture supports, then you're defeating one with the other. And I think [that] makes very good sense."

"We are in challenging times in Europe. And farmers, workers, and everybody has to face-up to some very tough truths here. We cannot continue to think it's a matter of taking from this budget to this other budget," he said.

Boland said that funding for defence must come from different sources.

"So if we are going to build a defence, then we have to find different ways of funding it. Maybe borrowing, maybe something else," he said.