Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The Minister’s industrialised farming system does not work for ordinary farm families. Almost half of farms in this country have an income of less than €10,000. The Minister’s industrialised farming system works for Greencore, Kerry Group, Goodman and the big dairy farmers, but it does not work for others. The figures are there in Teagasc. Instead of incentivising and pushing farmers to engage in industrialised farming that does not work for small farmers, is extremely damaging for the environment and does not work for society as a whole, why do we not instead have a farming policy that is based on food sovereignty, the principles of regenerative farming and paying farmers for the carbon sequestration services they provide? Instead of subsidising farmers to engage in industrialised farming that is damaging for all of us, why not instead pay farmers for the important services they provide in terms of our environment? Who would win from that and who would lose from that? Big agri-business would lose from it and the vast majority of small farmers and ordinary people would win from it.

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