The Beef Plan Movement (BPM) has responded with criticism to a recent statement by Green Party representative, Brian Leddin.
The Limerick TD inferred that farmers are ‘the tail wagging the dog’ when it comes to their influence on government policy regarding biodiversity loss.
“Our members have been left bewildered,” John Moloney of BPM said.
“The insinuation is that farming is now so irrelevant that farmers should not have a say on policy decisions that directly impact them.
“Firstly, we would like to point out the hypocrisy of this statement coming from a political party which so few Irish people voted for. They occupy just 12 seats in parliament, but still have the defining influence on government policy.
“They even managed to occupy the position of junior minister for agriculture [Senator Pippa Hackett] with a candidate who failed to get elected,” he added.
Beef Plan Movement
Moloney went on to address Leddin’s assertion that agriculture only accounts for 1% of Ireland’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“Last year over 9.5% of Ireland’s total goods exported came from agriculture,” the BPM representative commented.
“Our food and drink industry accounted for a revenue of €37 million per day for the state and created employment for over 200,000 people.
“Almost 50% of our indigenous exports from Irish owned companies are food and drink related. When one extracts foreign multinationals, we see how vital a role agriculture plays in the Irish economy.”
According to the BPM representative, the Green Party has also failed to acknowledge the impact the mink is having on birdlife habitats.
“Many of these were unwittingly released into the wild by animal activists. These creatures have massacred vast numbers of wild birds especially ground nesting birds,” Moloney continued.
“This is something we see on a daily basis and any farmer with poultry will no doubt have come in contact with the mink. There are currently proposals in government for a cull in the mink population, which is a direct result to the destruction the mink is having on wildlife.”
‘Lazy’ comments
Beef Plan Movement has said that it is disappointed that Leddin has “adopted the lazy route in blaming farmers for all our biodiversity issues” adding that farmers do want to protect nature.
“This has been evident in the demand for environmental schemes such as the recently introduced ACRES [Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme] scheme which was oversubscribed,” Moloney said.
“However, trying to exclude farmers from the decision making process should not be tolerated. Farmers are custodians of the countryside.
“The family farm model in Ireland has been crucial to protecting the biodiversity we have. This is in stark contrast to industrial agriculture we see in other countries.”