Members of the farmers and citizens organisation Talamh Beo are calling for all general election candidates to recognise the need for a Local Food Policy ahead of the upcoming elections.

“We hear a lot of talk from general election candidates about farming and its importance, about supporting farm livelihoods – but half the time the policies that politicians present are only supporting fertiliser companies, agribusiness exporters and agroindustry in general. They say they support farmers before the elections but once they are in government we just see more of the same, and the whole food and ag strategy moving in the wrong direction”.

Talamh Beo supports a transition to Agroecology and Food Sovereignty – meaning a realignment of production which balances production with the carrying capacity of the land, protects natural resources and restores and regenerates ecosystems and rural communities and economies.

Food Sovereignty is an alternative framework for thinking about food systems and agricultural trade internationally. Instead of a race to the bottom and a proliferation of monocultures across the globe to be traded on international commodity markets, it looks to relocalise, diversify and regulate trade so that we look after farmers and their economies all over the world.

Food Sovereignty is an international concept promoted by Via Campesina, an international movement of peasants, farmers and landworkers who have seen the devastating impacts of WTO and free trade agreements impacting on their rural communities and who know that a farm family disappearing anywhere – be it in Indonesia, Ireland, Kenya, Canada or Brazil is a loss to the land based culture which holds so many keys to building a sustainable relationship with mother earth.

Talamh Beo are proud members of La Via Campesina and believe it is precisely these kind of international connections which we need to build in order to confront the challenges of climate change, militarisation and the increasing dominance of transnational corporations and global capital over our everyday lives.

For Ireland, Talamh Beo are advocating that the Irish government give institutional recognition to producers supplying the domestic market directly, and design specific supports and policies for these Local Food Producers.

“We have the capacity to do so much better in Ireland – we have huge amounts of public money going towards supporting an export industry which means 90% of the food we produce is leaving the country, while we still have to import as much as 83% of our fruit and vegetables. We want to see public subsidies going to farmers in Ireland to produce quality, nutritious food for people on the island of Ireland, not to line the pockets of corporations”

Talamh Beo’s Local Food Policy would stimulate local food production across the country-  ensuring that people living in every village, town and city have access to high quality, locally produced food grown and produced by farmers earning a fair wage.

While some measures are aimed at the supply side – supporting farm incomes – others are aimed at improving distribution and making local food more accessible. There is a focus on social justice and inclusion, and specific support for those on low incomes to ensure that good quality food is not just the preserve of the rich but available to everyone as a right.

“It’s not enough that you can buy organic or seasonal food in a small number of shops or that local markets are about dedicated farmers standing out in the rain – every town should have a covered market space, all people should have affordable access to the best food possible, and our public institutions; schools, hospitals, universities and even prisons should be leading the way in public procurement from local growers – we need more farmers, access to land, training and markets as a priority”

For dairy and beef farmers more tied into the export market, Talamh Beo have solutions too – there need to be guaranteed prices which cover the costs of production, transparency in the entire supply chain so farmers and consumers can see what share of their purchase price is really going to farmers and producers, and a managed regional market in the EU which prioritises a transition to Agroecology over exports from the common market into other agricultural markets. Dumping heavily subsidised food produced in the EU into third markets is unacceptable.

The last fifty years of farming and food system strategy in Ireland have focused on maximising production for export, through the addition of chemical inputs, concentrated feeds and increased specialisation. These “conventional” changes undermine the real potential of Irish farms to have circular, low to zero input systems of diverse pasture, agroforestry and mixed arable protein and feed production which keep production within the natural carrying capacity of ecosystems.

Farmers cannot depend on fluctuating global markets in order to transition to Agroecological systems. We are facing a period of unprecedented instability in global trade and our existing system is too heavily dependent on global corporations. Farmers need guaranteed incomes based on stable markets. This means public market management at an EU level and a reprioritization of land use in Ireland. 

Talamh Beo are marking the way forward in Food and Agricultural Policy – too often politicians and electoral politics in general follows the short five year cycle from vote to vote. We need to think in longer, inter-generational cycles in order to transform both our cultural conception of what the land looks like, but also to build deeper, more complete farming systems which reintegrate into our landscape and ecosystems.

Talamh Beo are offering a farmer led space open to all citizens to participate in the conversation and develop those new pathways toward a better future.

Talamh Beo farmers are available for interview. For more information please contact info@talamhbeo.ie