What Do We Want To Eat?
Following a recent workshop held by People Before Profit’s Rural Caucus, RISE member Barry Ferguson reflects on the state of Ireland’s agri-food system and the need for a socialist alternative.
What do we want to eat and who do we want to produce it? As we fight for an ecosocialist future, we need to connect the right for farmers to produce food for local people with the right for working people to access affordable, healthy food.
At the moment, things are not well with our agri-food system. Under this system, agriculture is hugely important to our economy - and while many of us are less removed from the land and farming than our British and European neighbours, we still depend too much on food that is processed and controlled by large companies.
The fact is that we don't produce most of what we actually eat in Ireland, and that what we do produce depends heavily on exploitative labour, massive imports of feed, and large amounts of fertiliser. We have a dependence on intensive, increasingly mechanised systems to produce the milk and meat our farmers produce for export, and we don’t have enough tillage and horticulture as a result. We’ve seen the continuing decline of small family farms, with a massive void in succession planning preventing a younger generation of farmers from taking on work. We’ve even heard suggestions that beef cattle farmers be paid to retire out of the sector. There’s a need for an alternative system, one Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil aren’t willing to raise.
Emphasis from the Northern and Southern establishment has often been around increasing efficiency, squeezing out small and “inefficient” farmers in favour of large farms. This idea of “efficiency” essentially means trending back towards a small elite accumulating land and maintaining control over the farming sector. This “efficiency” is destroying small family farmers, a group that played an important role in the movement for Irish independence and our revolutionary tradition.
These are some of the trends which motivated activists from People Before Profit’s Rural Caucus to organise a policy development workshop on a farm in Sligo this October. Activists from around the country came together to listen to representatives of Talamh Beo and the Rural Ireland Organisation, to discuss how we could improve the party’s agricultural policy, and to share what we’ve learned from talking to farmers. A wide range of topics were discussed during workshop sessions and farm visits, with the aim of continuing work on new policy through the Rural Caucus.
The main ideas that emerged from the event centre around how food will be the key to moving our agri-food sector towards real sustainability - a topic that raises a few simple questions. What kind of food do people in Ireland actually want to eat? Why is organic, local, seasonal, and unprocessed food not usually affordable to ordinary working people? What kind of farming is necessary to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises? There is still much to be done, but we ended up agreeing on the following immediate priorities:
Food for the People: We need to fight to take back control of food policy in Ireland - both North and South. Food and farming policy is dictated by the interests of the elite and profiteering corporations. The focus needs to move more to local food production and to increasing support for growers and small farmers.
Join the Fight for Food Justice: We need to connect and work with movements such as La Via Campesina, Talamh Beo, and The Long Food Movement.
Save Small Irish Farms: We must support small and family farms and ensure they can stay in existence, as well as supporting people actively involved in growing. There must be a fairer share of subsidies for small farmers and growers, support provided for local grower’s community groups, publicly owned allotments, more cooperatives, and community supported agriculture schemes. We need to move from fighting for food security to fighting for food sovereignty.
Move to Environmentally and Socially Responsible Farming: Based on the principle of agroecology, we must push for the massive scaling up of regenerative agricultural techniques as opposed to automation and methods requiring heavy chemical input.
In the current combined crises around the climate, rapid biodiversity loss, and a rampant rise in the cost of living, we have already seen calls for price controls on food. As socialists, we must keep listening to farmers as well as the people on this island who want to eat locally produced, sustainable food. We encourage members of People Before Profit to get involved in the Rural Caucus, and to take an active involvement in learning from and listening to workers and farmers in the agri-food industry. We hope that this trip can contribute towards developing a new agriculture and food policy for People Before Profit and contribute in getting farmers involved in the fight for a new alternative.