Review a timely opportunity for IFA to examine itself

IFA’s announcement of a review of its activities will give the organisation a timely opportunity in 2005, its 50th year, to guard itself against mid-life crisis.

In 1955 the NFA founding fathers sought economic survival for impoverished farmers, who played a vital national role in our pre-industrialisation economy, but who needed a new voice to fight their corner and battle for their fair share.

The challenges facing farmers today are very different. They include keeping enough people on the land to generate farming production, and fighting off the processing and marketing sectors to retain a fair share of the consumer spend.

The Michael Dowling led review of IFA is expected to set out guidelines on how to become a more effective and efficient organisation. But its guiding light must be that IFA continue to represent and serve all farmers in a democratic manner.

If the outcome of the review fails to maintain the founding purpose of the NFA, then it will have failed.

IFA has grown into a very powerful lobby group. Power can breed corruption. The association must guard against the organisation being used by individuals or small groups within its structure to assume positions of power, to be used for personal gain, at the expense of, or contrary to the interest of the general body of farmers.

Power should not be used to feed the greed of the few, while undermining and exploiting the weak. There are already signs of this emerging in Irish farming.