In a week when Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue said unhelpful narratives around farming need to be countered, his Departmental colleague was actively creating one of her own.

There are plans to mainstream organic farming in the near future.

In that context, I found it refreshing to hear Minister of State Pippa Hackett discuss her personal experience recently on Newstalk’s Down to Earth podcast.

Unfortunately, I found Minister Hackett’s comments about “regular” farming less refreshing.

When asked how more farmers could be encouraged to convert to organic, the minister said there was a state scheme to support them to “rid your farm and the land of the ills of regular farming”.

I’m sure 120,000 odd regular Irish farmers will disagree with that assessment.