By dairy farmer and former Macra president, Thomas Duffy.
I recently reached a milestone in hitting my 30th birthday. As a child of the internet age, my friends and former schoolmates have their entire lives mapped out on Facebook orTwitter, from old ‘Debs’ photos, to weddings, to politics and news stories of interest – the daily role of the internet is immeasurable.
But for a 30-year-old dairy farmer who sees their life and future centred on the industry, the internet has started to take on a very different form.
It’s become apparent that when it comes to food production, the internet has exposed that farmers and non-farmers are living in two separate realities.
We’ve seen an example of these types of alternative realities before in the recent US election, with tens of thousands of people believing fervently in a grand conspiracy because their preferred candidate had lost.
Some even going so far as to attack their own capital.
Unfortunately, Ireland is not immune to conspiracy theories or the proliferation of gross untruths on the internet.
Recent debates have shown an often unreconcilable difference between what we in farming believe, versus what many food commentators preach.
‘The vegans are coming’
This all needs to be measured against the sharp reality of truth. Consider the case of what and how consumers are buying when it comes to meat.
Farmers will have heard the dominant narrative online that ‘the vegans are coming’, and that most livestock farmers should be planning their exit.
Yet the recent EU auditors’ report paints a very different picture, namely of rising meat consumption across all fields.
Even persistently vilified beef saw a rise of 4% in per capita consumption in the years 2014 to 2018, when terms like ‘plant based’ became mainstream; other sources put figures for EU consumption for both 2019 and 2020 higher again.
Add to this, continued rising populations in the remaining EU nations and the outlook is far more complex than the simplistic narratives found on social and even mainstream media purporting that ‘the vegans are coming’.
Vegans and butter lovers
Equally, despite the claims of declining dairy consumption, the past few years have seen record butter consumption highs and rising demand for milk since Covid-19 started.
I’m in danger of making things sound rosy for the future of Irish farmers, and despite these facts, farmers still need to factor in one of their biggest challenges – consumer perception.
As producers of some of the most sustainable, high welfare and grass-fed meat and dairy, you would think we will ride a wave for this new demand for better meat and milk.
What the wallet says
The consumer might repeatedly say they want ‘sustainable’ and high quality, but their wallets say different.
This is apparent when we look at the Irish horticulture sector. Despite Ireland being a perfectly suitable climate for the likes of onions, carrots, and of course potatoes, our supermarket shelves are full of common Irish veg from as far away as Tanzania.
Meanwhile Irish producers are increasingly squeezed out due to the lower prices made possible by cheaper labour and lower standards for workers.
The same consumers see no issue buying and flying avocados from South America with no guilt.
Similarly you would think from social media that the only food purchased was all organic, when the reality is that three out of every four lambs raised organically, is slaughtered for the conventional market because of low demand.
The power of the internet
This all comes back to the power of the internet. Many commentators, food writers and social media influencers live within a bubble of the well-off, who might elect to spend ample disposable income on high value food.
Unfortunately, my now 30-year-old friends, cataloguing their lives on the internet and starting families of their own, are the consumers who need convincing.
At the moment, organic Irish lamb cutlets or Irish spuds are just not seen as ‘instagrammable’ as avocado toast, and despite valiant efforts, campaigns like #MakeLambGreatAgain have not met with great success.
The reality is that the internet itself needs a reality check, but this is never going to happen until the avocado aficionados wake up to the fact not all consumers have the same means or desires they do.
The real world contains many different consumers with many different priorities and tastes.