Dairy products may still have a bright future
Those working on the land are all too easily and readily dismissed as that part of the economy that goes out of its way to get every last penny it can from Brussels and still whinges for more.
It's a convenient viewpoint easily supported by the truth that up to 50% of farm income now comes from Brussels.
As we move towards direct payments in the latest reform package, those struggling to make a living from the land will be subjected to more opprobrium from those ignorant of the land and its role in the economy and in our lives.
In fact, it plays a fundamental role in the national economy and despite the sharp decline in the number of farms over the last 30 years, agriculture is still twice as important a part of the economy as is the case in other European economies.
In 1995, Belgian agriculture accounted for just 1.3% of national GDP; Denmark 2.5%; Germany 0.8%; France 2% and Ireland a much more significant 4.8% by comparison. With the exception of Greece, whose agriculture back then accounted for over 7% of GDP, Irish agriculture is also a vitally important element of the economy.
More recent statistics showed that in pure manufacturing terms, it is by far the biggest contributor to jobs and that is to be welcomed.
In Britain, for example, agriculture contributes just 1% of GDP and to 2.1% of employment. That figure includes agriculture, fishing, forestry and hunting.
In the context of where this economy and this society is headed, we have tended to play down the potential this sector of the economy has to play in our future prosperity.
And far from decrying it, we ought to look harder at where it can lead us in the future.
When encouraging people to write, poet Brendan Kennelly used to urge aspirants to draw on the reality of their own lives. "Why pass your own street" he was fond of saying.
In Britain, the move to intensive farming has caused untold misery.
Suicide among farmers is very high and the toll on the environment from the dramatic change in practices has been huge.
Foot-and-mouth disease last time out in Britain was directly attributable to greed and mass production, nothing more, nothing less.
So while the drift is towards less and less people directly involved in agriculture, we of all nations ought to realise the potential food and drink production still offers to this economy.
It is no accident that Kerry Group and IAWS, two of the best and most outstanding companies in the food sector, nationally and internationally, are food-based operations.
Both former chief executives Denis Brosnan and Philip Lynch also have deep roots in the land, which gave them that added bit of edge when it came to strategic planning.
Whether it did or didn't, it is interesting to note that David Dilger, who did not have the same affinity with he land, has struggled harder to bring Greencore up to speed in terms of defining its role in the broader context of the global food industry.
Even in Greencore's case, Mr Dilger has moved the business into convenience and chilled foods, which all agree is the future of the industry.
From an Irish perspective, the ability of this economy, in the broadest sense of that word, to produce food and drink that has international acceptance, has been hugely aided by our green image.
But above all, the crucial pont seems to be that despite our huge swing towards US hi-technology for our jobs, the agriculture dimension of the economy has remained remarkably buoyant.
It is curious, too, that it was the outside impetus created from Brussels since 1973 that sparked the development of the food sector here. While we may have gone down some hooky paths such as non-dairy spreads etc over the past 20 years, it seems to me that the tide may be turning.
Dairy products, despite all the hostility, may still have a bright future, strong enough to make it possible for us to retain closer links with the land than has been the case elsewhere in Europe.
While price pressure is a huge factor in who can and cannot survive on the land, it behoves us to take the longer-term view, if at all possible, to ensure that we maintain a balance between rural and urban living.
We owe it to those still on the land and to the nation as a whole.
