DEAR EDITOR

We constantly hear a lot about the preservation of the economy of rural Ireland and the importance of farming as the main lifeblood of its economy and employment.

During the past 25 years, we can see in beef production that there has been a decline in production because of poor prices and a lack of interest from young people in taking over.

ADVERTISEMENT

Small beef production is being replaced by large feedlots now producing 30% of our beef exports. Prices are now where they should be at, but is it too late to reverse the trend of the smaller producers who were in receipt of payments for their stock that did not cover production costs?

Unfortunately, this is now happening in the dairy sector where traditional dairy farming is being replaced by larger and larger units.

No traditional dairy farmer in the EU should have to work in such an environment where they produce milk at 10c/l below production cost.

In order to preserve the traditional dairy farmer throughout the EU, there should be a minimum price for dairy farmers up to a certain size, say at present there should be a top-up payment of 10c/litre up to 300,000 litres per farm.

This could then be reduced when prices improve.

If for nothing else, the EU needs to do this for food security and climate change and to ensure we can get food at low prices on the world market whenever it suits us.

After all, 30 years ago we spent 30% of our income on food and had no food waste – now we spend 15% of our income on food and have 30% food waste.

We are making choices on how we spend our money but we need to look after our traditional farmers to have a more stable EU in the coming years.