Professor Mark Keane:

In some ways I am getting a bit depressed by the discussion. In the end, we may not have a choice about this. As the Senator stated, the commoditisation of food cannot continue in the way it is going because it will hit the sustainability aspect. It will hit the environment. As many members pointed out, there are elements that are complete contradictions. There are pressures from both sides.

I am an optimist, probably because I work in an area where technology and ideas change quickly. We need to keep in mind that we have done this previously in the IT sector and other sectors. We might not like the processor because it makes too much money from the primary producers, but these are successful sectors in the Irish context. If anything, Ireland has shown that it can adapt to these technologies and that it is adaptable, once it becomes clear what we have to do. We will see radical change in this sector over the next 20 to 30 years. A new generation will emerge which looks nothing like the current generation. The current generation will not move on from it does at the moment, which is typical. There will be consolidation in the sector as well, and many small farms will disappear. One would hope that we will find a processing niche, possibly in new, higher quality products that are backed by initiatives such as certified origins, etc. but we have to think in those terms. We cannot continue having a discussion about how the farmer is getting screwed and complaining that there are too many constraints from different sources. We have to rethink this problem and start to do something about it because if we sit around and complain about it. we will not solve the problem.