Scientists should staff food authority, says IFA

THE vice president of the Irish Farmers' Association has called for a statutory food authority, "made up of scientists", to monitor the food industry in Ireland.

Speaking at the consumer farmer conference organised by the Labour MEP Ms Bernie Malone in Dublin yesterday, Mr Michael Slattery said: "It should be as independent as the Ombudsman's office or the Environmental Protection Agency and not be subject to pressure from any side".

Its function, he believed, should be "to analyse and make recommendations". He felt it should also have a facility to hear the views of interested parties.

He told the conference that the IFA "absolutely and totally condemned the use of illegal substances" in farming, and said cases involving such abuse going through the courts had their origins two years ago.

He was "sick and tired of the finger being pointed at farmers" and headlines which "maligned all farmers in a general way". "Ninety nine per cent of us are doing our best," he said. "You don't brand the whole sector."

The level of antibiotics residues in Irish pork, as recently disclosed, "just should not have happened". He said pig farmers pay a levy to the Department of Agriculture "to police the situation" and as farmers, they "work to what the processing industry and the Department [of Agriculture] lay down".

He criticised the view of farming as "a bonanza". If that was the case, why were between 3,000 and 5,000 people leaving farming every year, he asked. The average farm income last year was £9,644, with half of farmers on less than £5,000.

He agreed that "in a certain number of cases" there were also other sources of income.

He defended the Common Agriculture Policy as it had helped to "stabilise" farming, but acknowledged there would probably be changes as eastern Europe countries prepared for membership of the EU.