It’s time that we brought in a rule mandating anyone who comments about Irish farming to have some genuine experience of the industry. People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy is a case in point.
The Dublin TD’s latest offering on Twitter sets out to smear the Irish dairy industry. It’s disgraceful. Does Murphy not realise that the hard work of Irish farmers is helping to pay his monthly salary?
But all of this begs the real question – when was the last time that Murphy got up at 5:00a.m and put a set of clusters on a dairy cow?
But hang on, it just struck me that Murphy might need the help of translation services before being able to answer this question. If clarification is required in this context, Murphy can always contact the Agriland office.
Comments by Paul Murphy
The background to all of this is the recent World Milk Day and Bord Bia’s associated promotion, highlighting the sustainable nature of Irish milk production.
Nothing wrong with that, you might think. But I sense that Murphy is just like so many other armchair commentators in the country – ready, willing and – seemingly – able to castigate the industry at their leisure.
The climate change debate has given people like Murphy an easy opportunity to let fly at the farming industry. They seem to think it’s the thing to do.
But the reality is that these same people do nothing but spout gibberish about an industry they obviously know nothing about.
I also sense that our Dublin 4-based national broadcaster is more than happy to help Murphy and his ilk in promoting an agenda that fundamentally distorts the true picture of what’s going on within Irish agriculture right now.
They all fall into the ‘rose tinted’ glasses brigade, harking back to the good old days of farming when the sun always shone on our rural areas and farming families lived ‘picture perfect’ lives.
Reality of Irish farming
Well here’s the reality – the good old days of Irish agriculture are in the here and now.
Back in the last century, cattle were riddled with tuberculosis (TB) and brucellosis. Moreover, the families looking after these animals were impacted by the same diseases in equal measure.
Back in the day, the housing facilities on Irish farms were deplorable with many animals out wintered.
The end result of all this was a destruction of pastures on an industrial scale with animals dying in their droves – a direct result of the atrocious conditions, in tandem with the likes of flu and worm infections.
The improvement in the animal welfare standards achieved on Irish farms over the past decades has been nothing short of remarkable.
So instead of castigating Irish agriculture, Paul Murphy might like to take the opportunity of painting it in a more realistic light.
He might also like to take the opportunity to investigate the farming practices followed in other countries – both in Europe and further afield.
He will quickly find out that the scenario of dairy cows, beef cattle and sheep peacefully grazing our green pastures is, indeed, a uniquely Irish phenomenon.