So Tom Arnold will chair the Agri-Food 2030 committee. This latest iteration of the “five-year plan” for Irish farming will actually be the fifth, although most people are only aware of Food Harvest 2020 and the most recent Foodwise 2025.

They have been successful in terms of planning for the rapid expansion of the dairy herd and increase in food exports, both in value and volume terms.

The fly in the ointment is farm incomes, which have not tracked the upward curve. Farm profits are flatlining and the family farm model is on the brink of implosion, as a mood of discord and discontent prevails.

Tom Arnold needs to ensure the next grand plan is farmer-facing. The key priority must be the establishment of a margin for farmers on milk, on meat and on crops.

Martin Keane’s comments to a Dutch magazine have been the subject of intense scrutiny. It may be that the Glanbia chair is guilty only of telling the unpalatable, unvarnished truth this week. He maintained that Irish dairy farmers can’t expect the same prices as their European counterparts because of the need to export most of our produce, and the relatively small proportion of milk that can be sold fresh to the consumer, the least costly product to develop. Dairy expansion has (ahem) diluted the percentage of fresh milk sales for our dairy processors.

It’s the same message that Meat Industry Ireland has been telling farmers, that the Irish agri-food sector is a price taker. The processors make no apology for retaining their margin, and when markets are difficult, that doesn’t leave much for the farmer. This won’t fix itself.

No one is suggesting there is an easy answer to protecting farmers’ margins, but setting it as a stated goal is a starting point. If you fail to plan you plan to fail is a cliché but also a truism.

The good news is that Tom Arnold has spent a significant portion of his life fighting for justice, in his role as head of Concern, economic justice, and climate justice as a trustee of Mary Robinson’s foundation. He served on the United Nation’s scaling up nutrition (SUN) committee, so understands the need for Ireland to help to feed the world.

Part of his extensive CV saw him serve as the chief economist of the Department of Agriculture, so he should be able to sift through the figures. Increased volume and value of food output has not equated to increased farm incomes.

Unless they improve, the whole agri-food sector will fall apart.