Last Saturday, I was delighted to be asked to chair a large gathering of beef farmers, following a visit to Richard Burns’ impressive farm, Lisbeg Farm, Eyrecourt in Co Galway.

Elsewhere, Darren Carty reports on the farm itself, but what really struck me about the day was a comment made by one of the two panellists, a Dr Tom Peters from the US.

He was brought in for the day by the hosts, Easyfix of Ballinasloe, Zoetis the new name for Pfizer Animal Health, Alltech and Bord Bia.

In an aside, Dr Peters said to me, “That’s amazing and really positive – your national quality assurance scheme does not allow sludge from the cities to be spread on any farmland that’s going to get the national quality assurance mark from Bord Bia.”

That, of course, is the case. Coincidentally, just last week Irish Water, which is responsible for the disposal of sludge and municipal sewage as well as supplying clean water to households and industry, invited comments from the public on the place of municipal sludge.

As a major international consultant on livestock farms, Dr Peters does not allow sewage sludge to be spread on any farms with which he is associated.

The choice for Ireland is quite clear, in my view. We either stick with our present policy, which has met such approval from so many industry observers and customers across the world, or we, in fact, ignore the tide that is ever more demanding in delivering food products of higher quality and provenance.

In the last week, I also came across two further endorsements of this view. I went to a lecture by Aidan Cotter, the head of Bord Bia, who delivered to a packed audience in the RDS his view of the importance of reputation and the quality perception of Irish food. Our food is becoming ever more international in its markets and has to strive increasingly to have some distinguishing characteristics that give discerning consumers a reason to buy it.

The need for a particular reason to buy high-quality food was apparent in a recent address in the Westminster House of Lords by Matt Ridley, a distinguished scientist and columnist with The Times of London, where he spoke of the continuing likelihood of a plentiful supply of basic commodity foodstuffs, as agricultural productivity around the world continues to increase.

It was the first time that I was exposed to the view that climate change and more greenhouse gases will augment rather than restrict food supplies.

We don’t need any reminder in Ireland, especially in times like these, of the need to have our food products bought by those who are particular about the food they eat and give their families.

The fact that our quality assurance schemes forbid the use of municipal sludge in the production of milk, beef and grain, should be seen as a distinguishing mark, rather than a handicap to competitiveness.

Irish Water has a job to do, and we must respect that, but ideally, they should develop a technology to remove the phosphorus for use as a dry, usable, sterile mineral, while incinerating the organic matter and impurities. To reverse the current quality assurance programmes would be turning back the clock.