Talamh Beo, the new member-led organisation of farmers, growers and land-based workers organising for change in food and agriculture systems, is calling on the government to consider creating a local food policy framework and a rights-based reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
The aim is to make local food less of a niche and more widely available to everyone living on the island.
“That’s what we think subsidies should be used for: to feed people, to regenerate the land and ecosystems, and to make sure farmers can make a decent living. That’s the most important thing,” contended Fergal Anderson, a member of the core group.
He stressed that Talamh Beo is a new player on the farm representative scene, not a split from another group or a legacy from any particular group.
“Importantly it is also the only member of the European Coordination Via Campesina, which is one of only two European–wide farming organisations; the other is COPA-COGECA,” Fergal said.
“This is important because it gives us a chance to participate in EU Commission consultative groups as Irish farmers and share the issues on the ground as we see them.
“We are focused on an entirely new way of talking about food and farming in Ireland, and an entirely new set of terms to describe how to go about changing things, putting food sovereignty and agroecology at the centre of the discussion.”
The people of Talamh Beo
“Talamh Beo has members who are in the dairy, beef, vegetable and other sectors. Some in short supply chains, some selling to marts etc.,” Fergal continued.
“We all recognise that the way we farm in Ireland in the future will have to change, but we can change it for the better.
“We can farm for the land, for people, to improve the land and ecosytems instead of farming just to produce as much as we can for agribusinesses.
“We want to show the positive possibilities of what we can do with our land.
“We are currently running a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on soil biodiversity and we have a specific focus on women’s role in farming and bringing women’s perspectives to the table in terms of how we use the land and how we frame our ‘agriCULTURE’,” he said.
“We want to promote farming for nature, local food production and agroecology as the future of family farming in Ireland.
“We support food sovereignty and agroecology. Food sovereignty is all about democratisation, putting care for the land and farm livelihoods at the centre of the conversation.
“We think there’s a great future in farming if we do it better, in tune with natural processes rather than looking for solutions from agrochemical inputs or fertilisers,” Fergal said.
Agroecology
“We also talk a lot about agroecology in Talamh Beo,” Fergal continued.
“Agroecology encompasses a broad spectrum of agricultural practices based on ecological principles like building life in the soil, recycling nutrients, the dynamic management of biodiversity and energy conservation at all scales.
“Agroecological farming is embedded and adapted to the ecosystems, communities, and soils of the places where it is practiced, incorporating a social and geographical element which makes agroecology different according to people and place.
“Permaculture, regenerative farming, agroforestry, organics and biological farming can all be considered part of the broad family of agroecological land use practices,” Fergal said.