Forum reconnects food and farming

A NEED to reconnect farming, food and rural communities will be highlighted by Euro-toques Ireland, the Irish Branch of the European Community of Chefs, at its sixth annual national food forum and fair at Brooklodge Hotel, Macreddin, Co Wicklow, on Sunday.

The forum will examine the opportunities for diversification in agriculture and the benefits this may bring to farmers, consumers and local communities. It will also discuss how the agri-food industry impacts on rural economies and how to redevelop rural communities and guarantee their ongoing viability.

Discussion will be based on the concept, taken from the 2002 Curry Report in Britain, that the key objective of public policy should be to reconnect the food and farming industry.

Other aims of that concept are to reconnect farming with its market and the rest of the food chain, reconnect the food chain and the countryside and reconnect consumers with what they eat and how it is produced.

Ross Lewis, chef/ proprietor of Michelin- starred Chapter One restaurant in Dublin, who will represent Euro-toques on the panel of speakers, said a revival of rural communities is starting through artisan food production and farmers markets.

The Food Fair, which runs during the day at Macreddin Village, will feature over 30 of Ireland’s top artisan food producers. Euro-Toques was established in 1986 in Brussels as a guardian of European culinary heritage and as a lobby group addressing concerns about food quality and the future of food. It has 200 members in Ireland.