Fair farming incomes rated higher than food quality

Animal welfare and ensuring a good income for farmers are more important than food quality to Irish consumers, an EU survey has found.

The questionnaire — carried out during a warm, dry, and sunny October — found the Irish rated farmers’ contribution to protecting the environment and dealing with climate change as the least important objective.

However, the lessons of the economic crisis were not lost on the Irish public, who rated the importance of agriculture higher than any other EU nationality.