I read the AgriLand article recently on the IFA-commissioned report on the beef industry – compiled by Jim Power; I went into it with an open mind – until you plucked ‘populism’ out of the lexicon.

I feel you badly missed the opportunity not to include the opinions of ‘conspiracy theorists’.

Also Read: Opinion: Perhaps we should bury a beef report, if it doesn’t ‘pander to populism’!

Nonetheless, AgriLand needs to understand that rubbing shoulders with the well-paid, well-pensioned senior public servants in the agricultural sector will serve only to sharpen your ‘senses’ for paranoid farmers and ‘politically-ambitious’ individuals.

You will have a long tenure in those exalted public positions, especially if you decide to invoke the word ‘populism’ regularly. The many unfortunate whistle-blowers know that such views won’t trouble anyone except the small, unimportant little people.

Visceral reaction

I have a visceral reaction to people who invoke words like ‘populist’ as a way to denigrate or detract from an argument. I do not intend this to come across as an attack; it’s just that I spent 35 years farming – perhaps the greatest waste of time from an economic perspective that one could expend.

I have come to the conclusion that we – as farmers – now spend too much time and personal resources within a bureaucratic nightmare…for zero financial reward.

Realising this unfortunate fact is not nearly as ‘popular’ as it should be…in my opinion.

From a farmer/reader in Co. Galway (name supplied but not published)