Coming up to Christmas, I think back to my childhood and happily remember what it was like then. I spent my Christmas holidays with my grandmother Maggie and uncle Philip on the farm in Ballyjamesduff. I did so from the age of about seven until I was around 18.

The day I would finish school, I was on the bus leaving my parents and three younger siblings behind.

And it is where I got an appreciation for life on a typically small livestock farm as winters are not easy on a farm like this.

Cows calving, ferrying wheelbarrows of silage, sweeping dung, feeding sheep, frozen drinkers and so on.

Today, my children think that was all mad Ted! But for me at the time it felt normal. When I was in primary school in Castleknock, most of my classmates and I had one thing in common: we had at least one parent from the country, and in many cases, a grandparent or an uncle and aunt farming.

It has all changed. Dublin has doubled in population. I love the diversity. But in all that, we are moving another generation from the land. It has consequences for farmers.

Listening to some learned people now talking about farming and food production, they just have no clue

I remember my dad talking about how when he was a young barman in Dublin in the 1960s giving solidarity to the protesting farmers sitting outside the Department awaiting a meeting with the minister. He and a couple of other country lads would go down to sit with them after the pubs closed. He would be delighted telling my grandparents back in Cavan that he had done so.

Listening to some learned people now talking about farming and food production, they just have no clue. They view farmers and farm life through a prism of distain. There is a general misunderstanding and complete disconnect with life on the land. There is this utopian view of the world which views modern Irish farming as dysfunctional, confrontational and selfish.

One wonders how those that are free to dismiss the role of farmers in society survive. Do they live on water and air? I do not wish to sound facetious but any comment on the contribution Irish food production makes to the climate crises should be taken in the round.

When we take a shower or wash our teeth, we waste water. There are few things in the world we do which does not have a consequence for the environment. We try our best individually to avoid waste and destruction. But the demonisation of farmers in Ireland has bypassed reality.

There is a real debate about carbon leakage which needs to be had

The production of food including plant-based food has a consequence for the environment. In fact, the farms with the biggest fields I have been on with no hedges are farms with no animals.

So if we all go plant based, we need more combine harvesters and so bigger tillage fields.

There is a real debate about carbon leakage which needs to be had. It is easy for the Irish Farmers’ Association to say that a reduction in Irish beef production is going to lead to an increase in the destruction of Brazilian rainforests. It is also easy for environmentalists to dismiss this theory out of hand. It is also unfair for environmentalists to use the climate crises to further their cause for the elimination of animal farming. They are separate issues. We definitely need to talk about animal welfare and live exports and so on but it is disingenuous to conflate the issues.

For those who feel free to decry Irish farmers on Twitter, how many have actually been to a farm to speak directly to farmers?

Simple courtesy

If you are on a bus or a plane or a train and want to listen to something on your phone, put on a pair of headphones. Thank you.