I noticed Macra’s was the only farm organisation tent that European Commissioner for Agriculture Christophe Hansen didn’t get to visit at the Ploughing.

Macra president Josephine O’Neill tells me her team tried hard to get the Luxembourgish politician and his entourage to drop by their corner, but to no avail. While she did get an opportunity to speak with the Commissioner during his tour, she said the optics of the snub were not great. Hansen’s team wanted formal letters of invitation, I gather. Perhaps the traditional pen and paper are an older farmer’s game.

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