Make sure you are at rock bottom, before you look up…

by Kenneth Keavey

When you think it almost couldn’t get any worse, this week has proved make sure you are at rock bottom before you start looking up!

On a positive note, the weather has been fantastic, as a person without a farm I would be celebrating having a summer. The reality from a food growing perspective is a little different though, we are heading into the end of 2 months with very little rain, our weather station is reading a large moisture deficit.  Here in Galway, this is or was once a very unusual occurrence. You know those once in a lifetime climate events they used to talk about, that now happen all the time!

So out came the water tanker this week. Our crops are really struggling we have disease and drought stress across the crops. We purchased the water tanker after the serious drought of 2018, and while conditions so far are not as bad as they were then, they are pretty bad, so the tanker is out and we are watering, we have to water as the soil resembles more of a desert that a farm in Galway.

We have also taken out our old sprayer, and as luck would have it, both machines broke down. The sprayer is important as the dry soil mean very little water is going into the veggies which means they are not getting nutrients and as a result they are suffering both from lack of water and lack of food.

For the first time that I can remember we have aphid (Green fly) infestations in our brassicas.  So, we have been scrambling around, we have bought a new sprayer, and we hope to have the water tanker operational again. So yesterday we were out spraying seaweed and a liquid nutrition boost (made from plants) and micronutrients also, and finally an herbal tonic to boost the immune system of the plants. Fingers crossed it helps.

The long-term forecast is for a dry August, that will be month three of little rain, so we must get on with the time-consuming job of spraying and watering. We are lucky though here in Galway we have access to water and there are no fires.

Spare a thought for all those in France and Spain and across the world that are burning and suffering the worst impacts of the climate breaking down. Meanwhile the Fossil fuel companies are rubbing their hands together as they no doubt make record profits again from the high price of oil. They are responsible for our planet burning.  Man made climate change is our reality now, and it is happening all around us, every single year.

I see it here with my own eyes.

Having said that, we are doing all we can in our little corner of the world, and there are many people like us and your support is a vote for a cleaner greener future.

Anyway, back to watering and spraying and harvesting. Your support especially during the summer keeps us going and growing, so, thank you.

Kenneth

PS We have finalised the lineup for our sustainability festival in September and it promises to be an amazing day, if you haven’t gotten your ticket yet, please click here to get yours now. This is a not-for-profit event.

PPS We have at last the first new Irish organic potatoes from Cameron at Battlemountain farm and we are so excited, check them out here. His crops are also suffering from drought, so they are later than usual and smaller than usual, but they are here now.

When they are gone they are gone… and a great discussion this week…

by Kenneth Keavey

Just this week I had the privilege of being invited to a panel discussion and the Launch of the “GIY story” which is aired on RTE every Tuesday.  It was a very interesting discussion between Mick Kelly (GIY founder), Pippa Hacket, former minster for the departure of Agriculture, Paul Brophy the largest broccoli grower in Ireland and me.

What is the future of Irish horticulture and food? Or in fact is there a future in Irish horticulture? These were the questions being addressed.  There is little doubt that supermarket food culture has been responsible for the devastation for the horticultural industry in Ireland the exact numbers of commercial growers in Ireland (numbers supplied by Bordbia) has reduced from just over 600 growers in 2000 to 74 growers today.

That is a shocking contraction, the bottom line is clear and stark.  The pricing that has been forced on farmers over the last 26 years has caused this exodus. Primary produce is always the first in the firing line when it comes to discounts and has often and is still used today as a loss leader to lure consumers into large supermarket stores.

You cannot argue with making food more affordable and cheaper, but I would argue there are few industries that are forced to accept a price less than the cost of production, it is not right.

This too is a story of the powerful and the powerless. When any large retail organisation has massive market share it can put undue pressure on small suppliers who in truth have little option but to comply. Thankfully the scales are moving at least a little in the right direction, and it seems the crisis in the Irish veg growing sector maybe the last straw that is at last offering a little protection.

None of this is helped by the “Fake farm” nonsense that is still practiced today, this too is a mechanism to hand the power to the supermarkets. Take “Farrells” in one well known discounter, this lovely Irish family name has been placed on packs to give the impression that it is a real farm, IT IS NOT.

So it is with this backdrop that we went to the fields this week to dig the last of the parsnips, in the unrelenting cold and wet, not at all ideal conditions. To be fair, we did get a break and when we started digging it was actually dry. We have had nearly two full dry days in the last 60, who said it rains all the time in Ireland.

We are in an organic programme with Teagasc and they have kindly given us a weather station, (which I have yet to set it up, in fact when I am finished writing this that is exactly what I am going to do) once set up we will have an accurate local record of rainfall amounts from now on, it should prove for interesting reading, and maybe we will start to see in real local time the impact that man-made climate change is having on our local weather systems.

As always thank you for your support, supermarkets won’t miss you, but we will.

Kenneth