A critical factor in the future of Irish agriculture is going to be the attention producers pay to the demands of the consumer. As the Minister said in a recent newspaper interview: "the decoupling of support from production will help create a market environment which will be more orientated towards consumers' needs and should allow clear market signals on pricing and quality issues". Decoupling could prove to be a liberating experience for farmers as it may well enable them to diversify and participate in opportunities that might offer the best margins from production.