Madam, - As a retired 88-year-old farmer, I sometimes wonder how the Ireland of today would fare in a 1939-45 situation. At that time every farm was producing a surplus of all kinds of food, and there was a great deal of knowledge about food production among the population as a whole. That Ireland is long gone. While people are more affluent, mobile, and "educated", they are also more dependent that ever before on the large-scale importation and distribution of food.
The poor quality of Irish people's diets, especially children's, is a fact. We are at the low end of every European nutritional league table. This marked nutritional "poverty" in such an affluent country needs to be addressed as part of the coming election's focus on "quality of life" issues.
I believe that any understanding of food and its benefits is intrinsically linked to the growing of food. Ireland is very far behind continental Europe with regard to the local and regional networks of food production. Many average Europeans, whilst possibly not owning their own homes, have allotments, dachas, or a small plot of land where they spend their summer, planting and harvesting food using the local methods which give their region its character and flavour.
One of the commonest sights in contemporary Ireland is the detached bungalow sitting on an acre of bare lawn. Given our own rich traditions of farming and cultivation, this is a miserable outcome for the land usage of this country. What is most worrying at this stage is that the primary school children know more about this than their parents.
Contrary to popular belief, it takes very little effort to grow food, whether people are in towns, cities or rural areas. Leadership is necessary if anything is to change. The best kind of leadership is by example. I believe that the Government should take the initiative. If every public sector office in the country were to plant two fruit trees, and to ask their employees to plant some fruit or other food-giving plants in the coming season, I believe it would be both popular and start a change in the outlook of the people of this country. - Yours, etc,
TOM JOYCE, Mount Seskin Road, Corbally, Co Dublin.