The biggest sustainability concern for Irish agriculture is "the risk of not having farmers to supply my business in 10 to 15 years," Nick Whelan, chief executive of leading Northern Ireland dairy processor Dale Farm, told the Alltech One Ideas Forum in Dunboyne, Co Meath, this Tuesday.

Farmer and ready meals manufacturer Michael Hoey of Country Crest agreed, adding that a major threat to Irish farming was the double standards between food sold on supermarket shelves and that available from the hospitality industry.

"In we go to a pub serving food or a restaurant, we don't know where the food is coming from," Hoey said. "Chefs are guilty of not applying the same traceability."

Do we need to fix Origin Green?

Whelan and Hoey were taking part in a panel discussion with Alltech chief innovation officer Aidan Connolly, who questioned the credibility of Bord Bia's flagship Origin Green sustainability programme.

Connolly said that he had heard many questions on the initiative's real achievements on his travels including in the US, China and the UK.

"Do we need to fix Origin Green?" he asked.

Whelan defended Bord Bia's programme, saying he had not seen anything better than Bord Bia's programme or its British equivalent, the Red Tractor brand, anywhere else.

Irish Farmers Journal editor Justin McCarthy agreed, saying it was "robust," but questioned Ireland's scale to establish its credentials in global competition.

"We overestimate how well we're known in the world," McCarthy said. "We should develop a British Isles food brand," he added, although he acknowledged the political difficulties associated with this.

Transparency

Sean Coffey, chief executive of Kepak's meat division, said that Origin Green was "worthwhile" but called for increased transparency in the food industry. The challenge is to ensure that consumers understand the quality, environmental and animal welfare benefits of such programmes and "return a premium to everyone in the food chain – but that's easy to say and difficult to do", Coffey said.

He echoed an earlier presentation by Eadaoin McCarthy of Kerry Group, who said consumers would increasingly question the source of their food and its suitability to their individual circumstances including lifestyle and health.

Sharing value with farmers was a key topic, leading to the panellists' fear of farmers disappearing.

They were illustrated by Teagasc economist Fiona Thorne, who said that long-term trends for both past data and forecasts in the coming years showed continuing pressure on Irish farm incomes.

"The cost-price squeeze will continue," she said, as farmgate prices consistently fail to keep up with farm input costs.

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