Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald heavily criticised the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement during an address to the annual general meeting (AGM) of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) today (Monday, December 5).
McDonald, a TD for the Dublin Central Constituency, told the AGM in Limerick that it “does not stand up” to subject Irish farmers to rigorous environmental standards while the EU is set to agree to accept a further 99,000t of tariff-free beef from the Mercosur bloc.
Increased beef production, particular in Brazil, is linked to increased levels of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest.
McDonald commented: “How can it be possibly savvy or sane to, on the one hand, say we have to monitor this and monitor that, keep our emissions down, and then to even countenance, to even think about, an agreement to import beef from where the great lung of the globe is being burnt down and decimated.
“That does not stand up. It would make very little sense to look, for example, at a linear cut in the herd in Ireland on the one hand if it is a thing that products from cattle elsewhere actually have a larger negative impact on the globe.
“That doesn’t make any sense at all,” McDonald added.
The Sinn Féin leader also addressed the issue of cheap food.
Several farm organisations, including the ICMSA, have called for consumer prices to reflect the cost of production for farmers.
However, McDonald told the AGM: “We have to keep the consumer in mind.
“We have to be able to feed ourselves. We need to look at sustainable food production and feed ourselves.
“We can’t be complacent about these things anymore, because when we see a big disruption, whether it’s Brexit or the outbreak of a conflict, that throws everything that we were certain of out the window,” she commented.
She added: “Let’s not assume it has to be a zero-sum game. So the consumer wins or the farmer wins; that’s the wrong way to look at it in my view.”
The TD remarked: “The consumer has to have confidence in the quality of farming and the quality of the product, and we have to ensure that the farmer has a sustainable income so you can continue doing what you’re doing.
“So it’s not an oppositional thing. We need to do these things in tandem.”
Addressing these comments from the Sinn Féin leader, ICMSA president Pat McCormack said: “While we have to respect the affordability that the consumer may or may not have, if you take it from 2020 right back to 1995, farmers received the same for their produce in 1995 as they did in 2020.
“That is not sustainable from a producers’ perspective. We had to up the ante and produce more to keep farms somewhat viable,” McCormack added.
“The consumer needs to be made aware that if they want quality food, they have to be in a position to pay for it. If they want something else, there will be forests cut in other parts of the globe.”