When does perception become reality?
And when does an excess of suspicion impair critical thinking?
The Dealer was asking himself those very questions this week at a farmer meeting.
The well attended gathering had gone through the various talking points in the proposed CAP negotiations and had moved onto ‘other business’.
The other business topic which quickly dominated proceedings was the proposed extension of the EU Deforestation Regulation to cover produce from EU peatlands, wetlands and drained grasslands.
The implications of this move were not lost on the crowd.
There is a suspicion among those farming hill, heavy land and designated ground that the proposed extension of the Deforestation Regulation, as well as the scrapping of the ANC’s mandatory status in the latest draft of the CAP proposals, is part of an overall plan to reclassify much of the west of Ireland as habitat rather than agricultural land.
Is this paranoia on the part of farmers or, as good old Blackadder would say, a cunning plan on the part of Government mandarins who want greater strategic control over what they view as the country’s disjointed approach to land use?
There is no doubt but that the designation of much of the west as a glorified national park would have obvious benefits from a water quality and carbon emissions perspective.
However, would any government be willing to take on the massive political angst and grief that such an approach would inevitably provoke?
Who knows?
One thing is certain, however.
These suspicions, which are honestly held by very sound and intelligent individuals, point to a worrying and growing disaffection and distrust of the Department of Agriculture and other State bodies among those farming marginal lands.
And that is not good.
