Farmers on a winner with beet compensation

IT was obvious at the IFA protest before the Greencore annual general meeting (AGM) that money and not the growing of another crop of beet was the main item on the agenda.

Legend has it also that when Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan phoned home during the Brussels negotiations on the future of the industry to fine-tune her stance on the issue she was told to go with whatever the IFA wanted.

That’s the view of disgruntled farmers, beet growers in the south in fact, who have met the minister and other Dáil representatives in the past few weeks to raise their concerns over the beet situation.