I sense that the speech by the Taoiseach at the recent Food Vision 2030 conference was written by the environment minister, Eamon Ryan.
Every word of it smacked of Micheál Martin talking down to farmers across the country. He came across as a teacher driving home a message to rowdy school children, who were not listening.
But more of that anon!
First off, it would be appropriate to take issue with the overarching ambition laid out for Food Vision 2030 – Ireland is to become a ‘world leader in sustainable food systems’.
But hold on a moment, I thought that we already held down the top spot in this category.
Surely, we have nothing to learn from the world’s agricultural superpowers – the United States, Brazil, New Zealand and India – when it comes to producing food sustainably.
From what I can gauge, our ‘so called’ competitors seem hell bent on destroying vast tracts of virgin rainforest and using up limited water resources at a ferocious rate altogether.
I would hardly call this a sustainable way to produce food. Water is now factored in as the most expensive input when it comes to producing food on a global basis.
Yet here in Ireland limitless quantities of this critically important resource are available at an almost zero cost.
Taoiseach speaking down to farmers
Meanwhile back to the Taoiseach. Irish farmers are getting sick and tired of being spoken down to.
All stick and no carrot tends to make Jack a very angry boy.
It’s time that the Irish government took full recognition of the tremendous job that Irish farmers undertake in helping to feed the world.
In his ‘Food Vision 2030’ speech, the Taoiseach made only passing reference to the challenge of delivering global food security for the future.
Given recent developments in Ukraine, we now know what happens when two food producing powers go to war, absolute panic breaks out.
Despite being small in size, Ireland is making, and will continue to make, a critically important contribution to international food security.
Moreover, Irish farmers know that they can and must deliver greater efficiency levels across agriculture as a whole. This is taken as read.
But now and then it would be appropriate for Irish farmers to hear genuine words of encouragement from their own government for the work they already do in maintaining a countryside that is the envy of the world.
Perhaps this will happen when Minister Eamon Ryan moves on to his next job.