Irish grassland farming is best, say protesters

THE proposed new legislation on climate change runs the risk of eco-friendly Irish meat ceding supermarket space to stall-fed produce from South America, according to IFA members in Cork.

Angered by Green Party attempts in radio interviews to play down the likely economic impacts of the new Climate Change Bill — which will not be formally debated now until the new Government comes into power — the Cork-based Irish Farmers Association members took their protest to the street last Saturday.

Anne Keohane, chairman Cork central IFA, led a group of IFA members in a protest outside Green Party senator Dan Boyle’s office on Douglas Street in Cork. The IFA’s stance against the proposed Bill has been aired repeatedly in local and national media for the past month. Nonetheless, the farm group’s members felt that several Green Party members had suggested that the IFA was broadly supportive of the Bill’s proposals in recent broadcasts.