Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I reiterate my thanks to the Cathaoirleach and the team behind the event earlier today. It was really lovely.

We are good at labelling. Of course, this applies to all walks of life but today, I want to challenge our understanding of two ways in which we label farmers. One is loaded with positive assumptions, the other much less so. One is the label "productive or commercial farmer" while the other is the somewhat belittling term "hobby farmer", which is often used to describe those who farm on a part-time basis. Regarding the term "productive farmers", we are referring to farmers who farm full time to produce as much meat, milk or grain as possible. Traditionally, that was seen as an undisputed positive but we now realise that some of that production has come at a cost and many such farms put significant pressure on our natural environment. Take something as basic as hedges. Data from Teagasc has indicated that a staggering 90% of hedges on intensive farms are classified as low quality exhibiting issues such as impoverished ground flora, low species diversity and gappiness. Increasingly, there are other pressures on such farms. Rising energy, fertiliser and feed costs have impacted on farmers across the country. Our pig sector is in significant difficulty and our grassland farmers are facing very challenging decisions in terms of fertility inputs this year.

Perhaps we should not be quite so quick to consider the drive for more and more production as an unquestionable good, particularly now when we allow the term "hobby farmer" to be tossed around almost as an insult because most farmers in Ireland are in fact part time and there is nothing wrong with that. They manage their land and farming enterprises like any other but they rely on off-farm income to survive and raise their families. Of course, many of these farmers are not in receipt of the big EU direct payments. Often this is because they were not farming in a particular way during the reference years at the start of this century when we decoupled payments from livestock numbers to land area-based payments. Many of these farmers may then have been breeding and providing quality stock to other farmers who are in the position to bring the animals through to slaughter but it is the latter rather than the former who have largely benefitted from the past 20 years of payments.

However, with the levelling of EU direct payments in the form of convergence and other measures, it is quite likely that we will see more part-time farmers in the future. Some bemoan that but I believe it should be welcomed and encouraged. Some of the best farmers I know are part time. They love what they do and because they are not wholly reliant on their farms for income, they can afford to be more flexible, experimental and innovative. I do not think it is really important whether a farmer is full time or part time. What matters is that farmers appreciate that their land must do more than just produce a profit at any cost. Profit at the expense of the environment is just too costly for us all so let us stop praising it and start acknowledging those farmers who see themselves as true custodians of the land - as managers of enterprises, yes, but also as caretakers who are just passing through determined to leave to the next generation land that has been nurtured, regenerated and enriched. Such farmers are engaging in real productive farming.