Food for thought — minister for food at the Cabinet table

WITH so much momentum still driving the economy, it is easy to lose sight of the huge transition taking place in Irish agriculture.

It is significant also that the ending of the sugar beet regime in Ireland went virtually unnoticed by the wider media.

In the context of Irish agriculture the ending of the sugar beet regime, that denies 3,700 farmers their main income source, would have resulted in riots in the capital, had it happened 10 or fifteen years ago.

How times have changed. We are fast reaching the point where an Agriculture Minister is no longer needed to look after the interests of what is now a marginal segment of the Irish economy.

However the loss of farmer power and the materialisation of the once all- powerful Irish Farmers Association, should not blind the state to the reality of our thriving food sector.

The loss of farmer power means the time was never more opportune to give food, as opposed to farmer politics, the support it deserves in changing Ireland.

That’s the other side of Irish agriculture and the food and drinks sector today accounts went over e7 billion, a figure of considerable importance, and which masks the enormous evolution of the food sector as a vibrant part of the economy over the past 20 years.

But the figures have been well rehearsed. What this country has failed to do is to give the sector the support it deserves.

The need for a ministry of food in Ireland that will underpin the importance of the Irish food sector in all its guises to this economy.

This is a sector with low import content and huge export potential. Brody Sweeney of O’Brien’s Sandwich Bars has written about it extensively.

He has a vision of Irish produce being distributed across designated Irish food emporia, housing the best range of food and drink this country has to offer to international consumers.

Our green image, not as green as it once was perhaps, still travels well, and the belief is that this country has much more to gain in this sector of a fast evolving global food economy.

On the processing side Kerry Group and IAWS in particular have shown leadership.

Meanwhile, the less public sector of the industry, that ranges across a massive variety of foods from meats to fish and the enormous variety of farm house cheeses that have evolved in recent years.

While all of this reflects well on the state bodies such as Bord Bia and Enterprise Ireland who have lent significant support, a sense of unease exists that with the down playing of agriculture, for reasons we do not have to go into here, the massive potential of the food sector in Ireland has still not been fully exploited or supported to the extent that makes sense.

Because Irish agriculture was so politically charged the broader picture of what this island could achieved as a food island, has still to be achieved.

Some of the top players in the industry such as David Dilger and Jerry Henchy, if they were pressed would argue that a Ministry of Food is long overdue in this county.

Such a move would put the focus on food where it belongs in the first decade of the new millennium.

With the number of full-time farmers falling continuously, the issues required to be dealt with behind the farm gate are becoming a lot less critical to the country’s future than those outside.

When we look at the amount of money being pumped into science research it raises the question why we ignore the food sector to the extent that we do?

We should use what we are naturally familiar with and do all in our power to give it the best possible opportunity of blossoming to its full here at home and internationally.

Irish agriculture as we knew it has had its day.

It’s time the voice of Irish food manufacturing and food processing came to the fore and it’s high time that the government appointed a minister for food with a seat at the cabinet table.