John Carty (Fianna Fail)

The value of the organic food industry to the economy was €104 million last year. This is a significant increase from 2003 when it was valued at €34 million. The faster we can grow this important industry, the better. One hundred years ago, the population of the world was approximately 1.7 billion, but now it is almost four times that and we can expect a world shortage of food in the not too distant future. We must try to ensure that does not happen. We have the means of producing food in a clean environment and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has encouraged this over the years by enforcing traceability and setting up schemes to ensure high standards of regulation. While we sometimes complain there is too much regulation, we have done a good job on controlling the spread of animal diseases.

I compliment the Minister of State and his staff on encouraging development in this area and on ensuring we are to the fore in the production of high quality food.