Farmers losing faith as threats mount
There has been a collapse in confidence levels among farmers and their families, with Brexit, the bitter beef crisis, and the Government’s depiction of the sector as “the cartoon ‘baddies” of climate change” fuelling growing pessimism.
The Irish Examiner/ICMSA poll found only 32% of respondents those polled were positive about farming in general — down from 66% a year ago.
It is the most significant swing on what has been an annual question in the poll for the past six years.
The finer details in the poll of more than 500 farmers and rural families bears this out: almost half (49%) of farmers are either slightly or very pessimistic about the future of farming, while livestock farmers are particularly negative, with 59% of them citing pessimism.
Brexit uncertainty is a major factor in the wave of negativity washing across the sector in the biggest week of the agricultural calendar.
ICMSA chair Pat McCormack said farmers were under attack on many fronts.
“The fact is that the past year has seen our farming and agri-food sectors completely undermined and under attack from a variety of threats,” he said, adding that the beef sector was “a mess” and would have to be fundamentally redesigned.
“Only the EU can solve this and if the new commission doesn’t carry on the work started by Commissioner [Phil] Hogan, then the breakdown we’re seeing in the beef sector will spread,” he said. “That’s not a threat — it’s just a fact.”
Mr McCormack also referred to what he called “the most astonishing example of government and EU hypocrisy”, the launch of the national climate action plan that he claimed depicted farmers as “the cartoon baddies of climate change”.
“Farmers barely had time to digest the implications of climate change and what it will mean for them when the EU announced that agreement had been reached with the Mercosur Group and that an additional 100,000 tonnes of South American beef would be imported as part of that agreement,” he said.
“Barely weeks after the Mercosur Agreement was signed, huge swathes of the Amazon were on fire as the ranchers interpreted the EU decision as a green light to produce more beef that they think will be exported to the EU. I cannot recall a single more demoralising episode in my years involved in ICMSA.”
Mr McCormack also referred to “the giant black shadow of Brexit” and the recently announced BEAM fund to compensate for losses on animals sales, which then excluded all dairy farmers with herds in excess of 40 cows.
Dr Kevin Hanrahan, head of Teagasc’s Rural Economy and Development Programme, said the collapse in confidence is not surprising.
“This in some sense is responding to the external environment and the commentary about issues. The farm organisations and media have made a big deal about Mercosur. The reality is that no additional beef — no additional beef — has entered the EU as a result of the deal.
The deal has not been politically ratified either on the EU or on the South American side and even if the ratification succeeds — this is likely to take a number of years — any extra beef imports will take a number of years after ratification to materialise.
“All in all, additional EU beef imports as a result of this agreement won’t hit the shelves until the mid to late 2020s. The current low beef prices have little if anything to do with non-EU beef. Because of low prices across the EU, EU beef imports are in fact lower than in 2018.”
