Farmers ‘slaves’ to supermarket giants
In an attack primarily aimed at supermarket giants, he said the relationship between the multinationals and farmers is not one of equals or even one of trading partners.
“Instead it is one of master and slave. Irish farmers are powerless,” he has written in the foreword to the latest Bridgestone Irish Food Guide.
The ninth edition of the publication written by him and his wife, Sally McKenna, features 1,500 entries ranging from humble cafes to the country’s finest restaurants, with local food producers, craft makers and seaweed baths dotted in between.
Mr McKenna continues that, in exercising power without responsibility, multinational supermarket chains are the “harlots of the age”.
“They are amoral and destructive and they dance only to the bidding of the money markets. While the speciality and artisanal food sector we describe [in the guide] is thriving, mainstream agriculture has been sacrificed by the Government, who have allowed multinational supermarket chains to exercised unprecedented power over the production and sale of Irish food,” he wrote.
He said the worst effects are being felt by the country’s dairy and meat farmers.
However, he said, the public is still willing to pay a slightly higher price for some of the produce offered by businesses featured in the Bridgestone guide, which has increased by 100 pages to 624 pages since the last edition in 2007.
“It may seem hard to believe but many of the people featured, whether they are artisans, shopkeepers, restaurateurs, or marketers, have had their best ever year in business,” Mr McKenna said.
“They are not all cheap products but they are quality. When there’s less money around, people will go back to what they know and they don’t want to risk wasting good money on poor products,” he said.
The latest guide offers readers the chance to find Kilkenny’s best cup cakes, the finest black pudding in Tipperary or who makes the best caramels in Limerick, according to the publicity material.
