Unfair to tighten regulations while price-returns are so low

AS the IFA raised the ire of a few of the major supermarket groups by highlighting the difficulty in getting a decent price for fresh produce, because of alleged loss leader discounting by the stores, at farm level producers were being advised of the requirement for greater adherence to production regulations and standards.

It makes a nonsense of the situation that producers are expected to meet higher and higher standards in production for less and less return. The supermarket bosses are very quick to demand the highest standards in production, but very slow to accept higher standards cost more money. To-date farmers have been the losers for the higher standards in food production which have been forced upon them. Farm fresh food remains among the healthiest, most hygienic and nutritious available on the shelf of any supermarket in the country. For contrast take a look at the label of processed food and count the additives, colourings, and preservatives which have been added in the processing, and given that most of us don’t have a clue what they are, or what effect they may have on health, it can be a bit scary.

Occasionally we learn through the media that one or other of these additives, which we may have been consuming for years, has to be removed, because of newly discovered health concerns. We are left to wonder why it was ever allowed in. Just as the IFA was engaged in a war of words with the supermarkets, the Crop Production and Safety Division of the Department of Agriculture, based at Maynooth, was writing to livestock farmers to inform them of two additional commitments on quality which they must sign up to in this year’s Area Aid Application.