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