The Irish Examiner View: Independent food producers too valuable to lose

As our television-driven obsession around food grows and grows the number of traditional food outlets or producers in rural Ireland continues to fall.

Larkin’s five-generation bakery at the very heart of the Kingdom in Milltown is the latest of these to decide to close. Owner-baker Gerard McCarthy has decided to retire in the face of changing consumer demands and lifestyles.

The loss of so many small shops, vital outlets for the bakery, is also a significant factor — as is the fact that none of his children see a future in the business.

Traditional bakers, traditional butchers and the local abattoir too are almost relics of another time. It is not hard to imagine that we will, in time, regret their passing for cultural, health and consumer choice reasons.

Larkin’s cherished recipes have been passed on to Harrington’s Bakery in Kenmare so their legacy will live on. Nevertheless, it may be time to develop some way of sustaining independent food producers so they might endure and continue to enrich our lives. They are too valuable to lose.