Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

We know this for a fact. I know this from being involved in Genetic Concern and Nestlé campaigns. We know for a fact the powdered milk we are selling is unfortunately being pushed into developing countries with poor water quality. The companies know that. They are using poor-quality water to mix formula to get women away from free breastfeeding in order to make money out of it. There are huge issues there and we could talk about them all day. Let us be realistic and have a proper, intelligent debate if we are going to talk about farming in Ireland. It is not just because of the Ukrainian war. We have failed. This model of farming has failed farmers.They have been advised for years to keep spreading the 10-10-20 and to keep expanding. They are struggling as a result, and that is the problem. It is not necessarily the rise in the cost of fuel; it is the over-dependence on external factors being shoved onto farmers and the practices we have told them to follow for many years.

I hope that something good comes out of this. It is not just about the need to grow more feed for cattle; we need to be growing more food. We import 110,000 tonnes of potatoes from Scotland and England. We cannot even grow our own potatoes. Let us be realistic and talk about food, not just feed. Do people know that you can grow 40 times more food for a person if you plant to feed them directly rather than if you try to grow food to feed dairy cows or beef cattle in order to feed that person? It takes up so much energy because these animals are ruminants. There is a lot to think about here. I am not vegan or a vegetarian, but big dairy and big beef have let everybody down. They are not serving the small farmers, they are not serving our environment or nature and they are not serving people's mental health. They are serving the banks with all the money they are being forced to borrow to go with a system that is not fit for purpose.