For years, Bord Bia has been an organisation farmers were encouraged to trust. As a farmer and an adviser, I was involved in many a conversation over the years where I tried to defend and justify the existence of Bord Bia to disgruntled farmers.

I argued that the organisation was doing vital work promoting Irish produce overseas and opening doors in foreign markets.

I stood over the Quality Assurance schemes, telling sceptical farmers that Bord Bia approval meant higher standards, better access to markets and, at the very least, if your farm was able to pass a Bord Bia audit, it would be better placed to pass a Department of Agriculture inspection if one ever came up, which could only be seen as a good thing.

My willingness to defend Bord Bia has now unfortunately collapsed.

The recent revelations surrounding Bord Bia chair Larry Murrin, who is also CEO of Dawn Farm Foods, have left farmers stunned and angry.

While Mr Murrin has done nothing illegal, the optics – and the substance – of the situation are simply indefensible.

Brazilian beef, produced to standards that Irish farmers would never be allowed near, has been entering Ireland for years.

That fact alone has long frustrated farmers. But for the chair of Bord Bia to be actively involved in importing that beef while presiding over the body charged with promoting Irish food abroad beggars belief.

Credibility

Bord Bia’s entire credibility rests on the idea that Irish food is different - that it is produced to higher environmental, animal welfare and traceability standards than our competitors.

Farmers have invested heavily, financially and emotionally in meeting those standards.

They accepted inspections, paperwork and scrutiny on the understanding that everyone was pulling in the same direction. That understanding is now shattered.

What has poured petrol on the fire is the response or lack of it from Government. The Taoiseach and Minister for Agriculture have continued to back Mr Murrin, apparently unable or unwilling to grasp the depth of anger at farm level.

This isn’t about legality - farmers understand the difference. It’s about trust, conflict of interest and basic respect for the people who fund Bord Bia and underpin its entire existence.

The protests now taking place at Bord Bia headquarters reflect a widespread loss of faith.

The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has taken a strong stance and other farm organisations have followed suit.

This isn’t orchestrated outrage, it is the culmination of years of pressure, cost and regulation, now compounded by a sense of betrayal. Without farmer buy-in, Bord Bia is a dead duck.

No marketing campaign, no glossy brochure and no overseas trade mission can function without the support of the farmers producing the food.

Bord Bia was built on that partnership. Once it is broken, rebuilding it will be extraordinarily difficult. The solution is not complicated, but it does require leadership.

The Government must acknowledge the conflict of interest at the heart of this controversy and act decisively.

Pretending farmers don’t understand or will simply move on is a profound misreading of the mood on the ground.

Irish farmers are proud of what they produce. They are willing to meet high standards when those standards mean something.

What they will not accept is being held up as a premium, high-cost production system while those charged with representing them undermine that very premise.

If Bord Bia is to have a future, it must first regain the trust it has so comprehensively lost.