Between Directive and a hard place

Irish farmers deserve credit for how they have controlled the effluent from the livestock equivalent of 64 million humans. Instead, they get the Nitrates Directive, after 13 years of dithering. Stephen Cadogan reports.

FARMERS are the hidden stars of Ireland's Race Against Waste, the Department of the Environment's campaign which features TV ads showing a tidal wave of waste inundating us.

We have a history of litter and overflowing landfill dumps blotting the landscape. In Dublin, litter mountains built up in public protests over collection charges, and the streets of Cork have now been hit by a similar protest.