If some farmers do not cease what they are doing under current planning legislation, they run the risk of prosecution – up to imprisonment, following legal action by the planning authority.
Agricultural zoning should be flexible enough to facilitate diversification in farming, including a reasonable intensification of what is being carried out on-site.
As an example…
Take for example the following: A 300m² agricultural shed for the storage of a farmers’ own fresh produce is exempt from the normal planning process [subject to it meeting certain other criteria].
However, if a retail customer requests that the farmer supplies it with broccoli, as well as the potatoes already being directly supplied [and produced on-farm], this may have planning implications for the farmer.
The broccoli will likely have to be sourced from another farm, so the farm itself will now [technically speaking] be supplied with a product grown elsewhere.
On the surface this appears fine. However, the broccoli that has been brought in and stored in the farmer’s agricultural shed is not the farmer’s own produce. The planning laws are now being contravened.
The exemption declaration [from the local authority] enabling the farmer to store produce in such a shed does not include produce brought onto the farm from elsewhere.
How do we solve this?
Fixing the situation should be straightforward.
If a certain type of agricultural shed is exempt from planning, why can it not facilitate the storage of fresh produce grown in the vicinity of that farm – by other local farmers?
We are referring here to produce grown locally – within that farming community and within that area. That way, farmers can expand their businesses and, thus, contribute further to our rural economy.
If we do not address this issue as a matter of urgency, perhaps we will find that much of our green fresh produce will be imported from outside the country. This, in turn, would have significant implications for carbon emissions, food miles and – arguably – food security.
From Joe Corr, Seanad Éireann election nominee and planning professional