This is a subscriber-only article
DEAR SIR:
And so the narrative of the Irish beef industry takes another terrifying twist of uncertainty with the front page of last week’s Irish Farmers Journal – “Jail factories who rob farmers.”
With beef prices stagnant and the Irish cattle kill at record highs, it is more imperative than ever that farmers are paid in a proper and transparent manner for the livestock they produce. Producer groups and farmers continue to vent their financial and psychological dismay at how they are paid, yet are powerless with the beef they produce.
It is refreshing, however, that the Department of Agriculture has at least discovered some anomalies with “excessive carcase trimming” that blatantly flout the integrity of how a factory works, thereby compromising the relationship between farmer and the meat industry. Who do we trust? What exactly happens when our cattle disappear down the darkness of the factory lairage into the hands of the meat industry?
It is alarming and disconcerting that farmers are powerless to know the answer or know how their animals are treated or graded or “excessively trimmed”.
This cannot and should not continue. So, in short – it is time to name and shame the factories that are found to be non-compliant. Have those who lost out been informed or reimbursed?
SHARING OPTIONS: