A meeting to discuss organic farming will take place in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, next Monday (November 28).
The meeting has been organised by the Irish Beef and Lamb Association (IBLA), and will be hosted by the association’s West Region at Gullane’s Hotel in the town.
The IBLA has said that the meeting will be attended by Jack Nolan, senior inspector and head of the Organics Division in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, who will present details and information on the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS).
The meeting will begin at 8:00p.m.
A question and answer session will also be held to allow for a full discussion on organics for those considering going down the organic farming route.
IBLA West Region chairperson Eoin Donnelly and vice-chairperson Kieran Delaney will be in attendance to speak about other activities of the IBLA.
Over the weekend, the association called on Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue 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 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 last 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.”