Phil Prendergast (Labour)

——but I would not do that.

Farmers' markets have a great potential to bring life and vibrancy into communities and that is reflected in many ways. They provide spin-offs to other commercial activities such as restaurants and pubs and preserve money in the local economy. That is welcome but I would not like farmers' markets to be limited to selling only organic produce because the sub-text on the Irish Farmer Markets website reads "organic products for you". It will be a mistake if the development of farmers' markets takes us further down that road.

I would visit food markets in whatever country I visit. There are farmers' markets throughout Europe but they are not exclusively organic yet they are all very successful. I check out the market in every country I visit. I love to see the local produce and find out the way it is cooked. The real taste of food in the locality is often a pleasure to experience. It gives a good insight into local culture and the atmosphere is wonderful.

I enjoy visiting the markets here and support them. I shop in supermarkets as well and try to buy local food in season but recently I spoke to a baker who told me there is no requirement to indicate if the cellophane wrapper on a product has some sort of preservative on it. That is a matter of concern to me because if it is a requirement to list the ingredients in terms of preservatives, there should also be a requirement to indicate if a preservative is sprayed on the wrapper to have an input into the freshness of the food.

Organic produce is significantly more expensive than non-organic, it is sometimes 20% to 30% more expensive. That cannot be justified because consumers are being ripped off with that level of premium. Organic food is wonderful. It has a different taste. It is easy to differentiate between a battery produced egg and a free range organic egg although a survey indicated one could not tell the difference between organic and non-organic carrots. Free range organic chicken, which I buy occasionally, is expensive but worth the cost because one knows what one is getting.

A guest chef on the television programme "The Restaurant" went out of her way to select free range organic chicken for her chosen chicken dish but Tom Doorley, the well-known food critic, suggested she would have improved her dish if she had not done that. With the right cook, animals properly killed and properly grown, stored and cooked food of whatever origin, be it organic or non-organic, will provide delicious results on the plate. Women, of course, are experts in that regard.