Sir, – Your cartoon portraying farmers as backwoodsmen dressed in rags (Martyn Turner, Opinion, January 9th) is unfortunately typical of how The Irish Times appears to view farmers.
The depiction of the farmer apparently standing on bags of nitrates shows a complete lack of understanding of farming. The accompanying quote in the speech bubble was an attempt to equate the standards in Irish farming with those in Brazil. This is completely wrong.
Regrettably, it appears your paper has now become hostile towards farmers and food producers. Recently, it seems this has been fuelled by the EU and Government decisions on the nitrates and Mercosur deals.
For the record, the three largest political parties addressed the Irish Farmers’ Association national council in the lead-up to the last general election. They all committed to supporting the retention of the nitrates derogation and to opposing the Mercosur trade agreement. Other political parties and Independents gave similar public undertakings.
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Candidates and parties were elected based on these policy positions. After the election both undertakings were included in the Programme for Government. This is democracy at work. Like any other group, farmers are entitled to be represented. If The Irish Times has issues with the IFA or the political system, it should focus on that, not on demeaning farmers.
Farmers have implemented many climate and environmental measures. This is often at a cost to their business. For most sectors of society, climate action involves changes to lifestyles; for farmers, it directly impacts their livelihoods. As with all sectors, more can be done. However, running down farmers achieves nothing.
In Ireland and across Europe, getting young people into farming is a huge challenge. Those who do enter farming today are often highly educated and highly skilled professionals.
Food security will be an increasing challenge as the global population increases. We need to be encouraging farmers not demonising them. – Yours, etc,
DAMIAN McDONALD,
Director General,
Irish Farmers’ Association.
