Madam, - Mary Raftery (August 2nd) attacks the subsidies that farmers receive and wonders how, apart from these, farmers earn virtually nothing.
She ignores the obvious point that without such subsidies, the cost of food would increase greatly. These farm payments are in fact a subsidy to the consumer. Payments to farmers are there to enable them to survive and at the same time produce quality food, often at below cost levels. This cheap food then benefits the non-farming public, who can now feed their families for less than at any previous time in our history.
Food is now so cheap that it accounts for only about 4 per cent of average family annual income. Not many decades ago, purchasing food often took up almost 50 per cent of family income so the current era of cheap, subsidised food clearly benefits consumers such as Ms Raftery. Bottled water, for example, currently costs more than milk in many shops.
I would also remind her that farmers pay tax like everyone else and are not a separate species living on the backs of taxpayers. Irish farmers are working under strict quality controls and environmental regulations and, despite the hardships of weather and low prices, continue to supply food of the highest quality to the home markets. We are also in competition with the produce of many other countries outside the EU that do not have the same standards as we do and therefore have far lower costs.
If farmers are living in such a feather-bedded world, why are so many leaving the industry? - Yours, etc,
JOE BARRY, Larch Hill, Kilcock, Co Kildare.