It’s seldom that you would link the self-confessed Marxist and executed 1916 leader James Connolly and the just retired governor of the Bank of England, Canadian-born Mark Carney.

As we mentioned recently, Carney put one of the most central economic developments of our time – globalisation – into perspective as in his final valedictory piece he spoke of the dilemma between global convenience and local resilience.

The theme of local resilience and global convenience has particular relevance for farmers including Canadian ones of which Carney would be acutely aware.

James Connolly took a similar view as he surveyed the chaotic scenes in both the Irish land tenure market

Canada, through all the sometimes bitter farm trade negotiations and discussions, has stuck rigorously to its insistence on maintaining broad self-sufficiency in dairy and poultry products. They recognise all too clearly that their dairy and poultry industries would be wiped out if the huge US production in both sectors were given free access to Canada.

James Connolly took a similar view as he surveyed the chaotic scenes in both the Irish land tenure market and in the price developments for farm-produced goods. Extraordinarily for a committed socialist, he was against the subdivision of large farms and estates into very small units.

Connolly was ahead of his time in looking at the internationalisation of agricultural trade.

While Connolly took the argument too far, nevertheless he pinpointed the continuing pressure that affects farmers who either do not keep up with scientific developments

He argued that “every fresh application of science in agriculture, every cheapening of transit brought about by the development of transatlantic commerce, everything in short which increases the facilities of trade tends to cheapen the price of agricultural produce and leaves an ever-decreasing margin of profit to the producer”.

While Connolly took the argument too far, nevertheless he pinpointed the continuing pressure that affects farmers who either do not keep up with scientific developments or who produce commodities where their protected status or competitiveness slips. Sugar in the Irish and indeed EU context as well as wool are classic examples. So where does that leave us? The most obvious, as a new Government takes over and a new CAP is under discussion, is the need to be aware that running a country’s agriculture and food production is a complex business and is, of course, the core reason for the existence of the CAP as well as major agricultural departments in every country.

So far, there has been remarkably little public debate on these issues

Where should the balance between having the capacity to competitively produce goods for export be tempered with the need for a spread of production to take place in individual regions or countries? So far, there has been remarkably little public debate on these issues but as the trend of production veers especially towards South America, with its scientific and natural resources, it’s time for a more measured and deeper examination.