Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has been called on to hold regional meetings on the Food Vision Beef and Sheep Group final report, similar to his tour of marts last year as part of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform.

The Irish Beef and Lamb Association (IBLA) has said that the minister should “extend the discussion to all farmers”, and not just those stakeholders in the Food Vision Beef and Sheep Group.

The IBLA made its comments after the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) submitted a statement to the wider group saying it would not support the final report that was debated at a meeting yesterday (Friday, November 18).

Subsequently, both the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) issued statements to the same effect.

Responding to those developments, the IBLA – which is not a member of the Food Vision group – said in a statement of its own: “[We] call on Minister McConalogue to take this opportunity to extend the discussion to all farmers, as he did for the CAP review, and hold a series of regional meetings that will bring all farmers and farm representative bodies into the conversation, and to have everyone’s voice heard.”

The IBLA welcomed the move of farm organisations to disassociate themselves from the Food Vision group’s final report, which is understood to be based on a progress report recently submitted to the minister.

“IBLA considers the drip feed of information on proposals being put forward, and the
proposals as we understand them, as being unacceptable in their current format,” the statement said.

The IBLA drew attention to one proposed measure, namely the plan to reduce slaughter age to 24 months.

“Teagasc itself has given caution on the risk of using intensive meal feeding to lower the slaughter age as doing more environmental damage than an older slaughter age.

“Additionally, there is no requirement proposed to ensure that the age of slaughter be displayed on the Bord Bia QA [quality assurance] logo, so that the consumer can verify that they are buying lower-carbon-footprint beef,” the statement added.

The IBLA called on all other members of the Food Vision Beef and Sheep Group to “clearly state their position on the recommendations being proposed”.