Sir, – As the crisis in the beef industry spirals, it strikes me that a White Paper on the future of our country’s food producers as sole traders, or in partnership with other farmers (“family farms”), might be more pressing than one on reunification.
This week’s events make it abundantly clear that the growing corporatisation of our agriculture sector is a development with seismic implications for our rural communities. Many of those protesting outside processing plants have stated that they just want to have something worthwhile to pass on to the next generation. In this regard, the very least our Government can do is to facilitate an informed, realistic and urgent debate on the future of the family farm rather than just preside, ambivalently, over its death by a thousand cuts. – Yours, etc,
PJ O’MEARA,
Cahir,
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Co Tipperary.