As submitted by Talamh Beo May 27th, 2026
Food Vision 2030 and the Agri-Food Strategy
1.Time for an historic overhaul: From Extraction to Sovereignty
Food Vision 2030 currently operates on a logic of “efficiency within an extractive system.” It treats the climate, biodiversity, and water crises as technical externalities to be managed rather than symptoms of a fundamental systemic failure. To truly become a “World Leader in Sustainable Food Systems,” Ireland must move beyond the export-focused, specialization-led, and corporate-sponsored model that has dominated the last 50 years. This model—driven by the “get big or get out” treadmill—has resulted in a landscape that is ecologically depleted and socially fragile. Ireland operates a grass monoculture, exporting €21bn in commodities while importing over 80% of our fresh produce. This is not food security; it is a
precarious dependency on global markets and fossil-fuel-based inputs. We demand an historic overhaul that recognizes food systems as deeply embedded in social, environmental, and cultural systems, not just as a cog in a global industrial machine.
2. The Governance Crisis: Ending Corporate Sponsorship of Policy
The current instability in the Irish agri-food sector is not merely a fuel or input crisis; it is a crisis of governance. For too long, national strategy has been co-developed by the processing industry and transnational input supplier corporations whose primary motive is volume and profit, not the resilience of the family farm or the health of our catchments.
• We must move away from industry-led strategy groups and turn to a participatory,
farmer and citizen-led democratic framework for defining policy. The High-Level
Implementation Committee (HLIC) must be reformed to include structured, formal seats for civil society, community-led initiatives (such as the Feeding Ourselves community of practice), and small-scale producers, with a requirement for public, written responses to their critiques.
3. Rebalancing the Relationship with Nature: The Agroecological Transition
Specialization and intensification have gone too far. We have pushed our biological systems to the brink, leading to the collapse of biodiversity and the degradation of our water. We envision a future where our food and agriculture systems are integrated into a landscape where:
• We have rivers we can drink from: Water quality is restored not through technical fixes, but through the cessation of excessive nutrient loading and the restoration of riparian buffer zones managed as biodiversity corridors.
• Wildlife Thrives: Nature is not “fenced off” in margins but integrated into the whole-
farm system through silvopasture, multi-species swards, and high-nature-value farming.
• Native Woodlands and naturally regenerated corridors are common: We need a
massive shift from industrial monoculture forestry toward native woodlands and
agroforestry systems established by a generation which sees trees as part of a
functioning farm ecosystem, not just a carbon sink.
4. Redefining the Future of Farming for the next 50 Years
The next 50 years must be defined by Agroecology. This means:
• Ending the “Dumping” Model: Ireland must stop exporting its environmental
“footprint” by importing vast quantities of feed and fertilizer to produce commodities
for external markets that often undermine the food sovereignty of other nations.
• Institutional Recognition of Local Producers: We need a formal policy framework that recognizes “Local Food Producers” as a distinct and vital category, providing them with basic income supports, decentralized infrastructure (local hubs/modular abattoirs), and simplified regulatory pathways for on-farm processing.
• Land as a Commons, Not a Commodity: We must implement a National Land
Commission to regulate land prices and stop speculative corporate land-grabbing.
Land must be secured for new entrants in particular, ensuring that “more hands on the land” becomes the primary metric of rural success.
5. Alignment with Peasant Rights and Global Solidarity
Ireland should lead the EU by formally adopting and implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP). A world-leading strategy would demonstrate how a modern nation-state can support a vibrant farming population that produces healthy food for its own people while cooling the planet.
Conclusion: A Vision of Hope
The current path leads to a depopulated countryside and an ecological dead-end, as well as an ongoing dance with increasingly unstable global markets and geopolitical challenges. The alternative—a National Food Sovereignty Strategy—offers a future of vibrant rural communities, restored ecosystems, and a farming model that is respected, viable, and proud.
We don’t just need a “review” of Food Vision 2030; we need a redirection of travel toward a living land, a living soil, and a sovereign food system.
ABOUT THE MISSIONS:
While the titles of the four Missions appear relevant, Talamh Beo believes that their current interpretation and implementation are taking Ireland in the wrong direction. To truly become a “World Leader in Sustainable Food Systems,” we must move beyond the narrow, industrial definitions of “efficiency,” “competitiveness,” and “innovation” that underpin the current strategy.
1. Critique of the Current Vision: A Marketing Strategy vs. A Food System
The current vision—becoming a “World Leader in Sustainable Food Systems”—is currently functioning as a marketing slogan for an export-led commodity model rather than a roadmap for a resilient, domestic food system.
You cannot be a leader in sustainability while your primary metrics of success are export value and volume, which necessitate high fossil-fuel-based inputs and result in the continued decline of water quality and biodiversity.
Ireland should redefine “World Leadership” as the first post-industrial nation to successfully transition to Food Sovereignty and Agroecology. A leader is a nation that can feed its own people nutritiously while restoring its own soil, water, and rural communities.
2. Re-framing the Missions through Agroecology
We propose that the four Missions be re-interpreted to align with a Just Transition for farmers and citizens:
• Mission 1 (Environment): Must move from “Climate-Smart” (technical tweaks) to
Systemic Resilience. This means recognizing that a truly sustainable sector is one that operates within planetary boundaries, reducing absolute nutrient loadings and
eliminating dependency on synthetic inputs.
• Mission 2 (Viability): Must move from “Competitiveness” (scale and debt) to Livelihood Security. Viability should be measured by Net Farm Income and the density of people on the land. We propose that a Basic Income for local food producers be the cornerstone of this Mission, ensuring that caring for the land is a viable career choice for the next 50 years.
• Mission 3 (Food): Must move from “Global Trade” to Food Sovereignty. Our priority
should be an evolution into short and regional supply chains, and integrated and
complementary production systems. We need a historic shift that prioritizes domestic
consumption, institutional recognition for local producers, and the infrastructure (food
hubs/local processing) to make local food the easiest choice for Irish citizens. This must be paired with an international review of the trade rules which offer farmers only a race
to the bottom.
• Mission 4 (Innovation): Must move from “Technology-Driven” to Knowledge-Driven.
Innovation is not just a robot or a drone; it is a farmer discovering how to build soil
biology or a community developing a new land-sharing model. We need a “Social
Innovation” focus that empowers farmers rather than making them dependent on
proprietary corporate tech. We must also recognise that the best place for knowledge
to be held, stored and transmitted is between farmers who have direct lived experience
of the impacts of their actions in their fields every day.
In spite of these misgivings about the Missions, we have endeavoured to respond to the survey
as best as possible given the constraints imposed.
Mission 1: A Climate Smart, Environmentally Sustainable Agri-
Food Sector
Mission 1 Consultation Questions:
Goals relevant?☐ Yes
While the headings are relevant, the logic of “efficiency” (emissions per kg) within an export-led
model is flawed. Meeting these goals will mean a shift away from the intensive, export and production led farming model; the goals of mission 1 are not compatible with the existing model and that is not recognised here. We need a shift to Agroecology and reorientation of farming systems towards domestic food and feed production, land stewardship, ecosystem restoration and improving water quality. The focus on intensification and production has gone too far.
Most Progress:
All of these goals have failed; there have been advances in some monitoring and measuring instruments, but no real on the ground progress that we consider in keeping with what is required.
Least Progress:
The worst areas are probably goals 2 and 3 on Biodiversity and Water quality; the intensive model continues to drive nutrient loss; biodiversity measures remain focused on “margins” rather than the whole-farm system. Goal 4 also deserves a mention here as it certainly does not appear to have progressed, in spite of the incentives available for afforestation.
Absolute Priorities:
The priority must shift from technical tweaks to a systemic transition toward Agroecology and Food Sovereignty.
Absolute priorities include:
1. Reducing Input Dependency: Phasing out synthetic nitrogen and imported feeds;
incentivise reduced synthetic fertiliser use and production and use of Irish grains for
feed
2. Invest in Local Food Systems: Provide recognition, income supports and land for
vegetable and fruit production, decentralise distribution chains and invest in local
communities and hinterlands to reconnect them through short food supply chains
3. Nature-Farm-Integration: Take an integrated approach to farm biodiversity systems
using a whole systems approach to integrate biodiversity into farms, such as through
the NPWS farm plan scheme
4. Democratic engagement with broader stakeholders: Take a democratic, systems
approach and accept that our food and farming systems have impact s on all of society and future generations
Building Resilience:
Resilience is built by shortening supply chains and reducing “externalities.” Support farmers to move away from debt-heavy, intensive models vulnerable to global price shocks (fuel/fertiliser), and adopt nature based systems. Reduction in output will be balanced by reduction in input costs. This makes the system more resilient and sustainable.
Measures to meet emissions ceiling:
Each measure is connected; reduced inputs may reduce outputs (good for emission reduction) but will also reduce farm costs, ensuring farm continuity. Special schemes using quantum price supports for farmers in sensitive areas to reduce livestock numbers in those areas.
Expanding Carbon Sequestration:
Encourage expansion of hedgerows and increase percentage of habitat features on allowed nder BISS to 25%, allowing for larger and more expansive hedgerows and field edges, reward farmers for allowing less favourable lands to be left to develop semi-natural woodlands, encourage peatland restoration through provision of alternate rights on fuel sources such as coppice woodlands.
Water Quality Improvement:
Direct support for organic/agroecological transition. Move away from the derogation model by supporting farmers in derogation through quantum pricing schemes, allowing them to reduce livestock numbers. Develop stronger organic milk processing and marketing capacity. Reduce overall numbers and establish intervention price to ensure farm incomes while reducing volumes
Restoring Biodiversity:
Remove eligibility penalties which punish “scrub” or wetlands, prohibit reseeding unless for multispecies establishment from monoculture. Increase education directly to farmers on benefits of agroecological approach.
Scaling Nature-Based Solutions:
There is a need to combat the productivist focus of farming culture and replace it with a long term, inter-generational approach based on Agroecology and ecosystem restoration. It is an historic challenge and opportunity which requires a public information campaign aimed at farmers and communities and targeting the input heavy agribusiness model, and instead celebrating the role farmers can have reconnecting to their land and communities through providing services with positive social, environmental and food system outcomes. Reconnecting
farmers with Local Food Systems will encourage this naturally. Help farmers calculate reduced costs of exiting input intensive model.
Challenges and Opportunities:
The strategy misses the opportunity to link water quality and biodiversity recovery directly to
land-use reform. We propose a National Buffer Zone and Habitat linking scheme where farmers
are paid to manage riparian margins and establish permanent biodiversity corridors. This scheme
is implementable with existing data and would require little additional administration while
providing excellent potential outcomes across goals 1-4.
Mission 2: Viable and Resilient Primary Producers, with Enhanced Wellbeing
Mission 2 Consultation Questions
Goals Relevant?☐ No
Goal one is interfering with the implementation of most of mission 1 – “competitiveness” often
translates to “scale” and leads to consolidation. Productivity is a narrow, commodity focus which
refuses to recognise the urgent importance of delinking farming from energy intensive inputs;
we need a reappraisal of this Goal entirely to shift farming culture from extraction to
regeneration.
Most Progress:
Social sustainability has gained attention (mental health/safety awareness), though root
economic causes remain unaddressed. Otherwise little tangible progress
Least Progress:
Equitable distribution of value – farmers remain as price takers, processors and retailers are
making more profit than ever. Little or no effort has been made to address this issues which lies
at the heart of many of the problems facing farming. Horticulture offers a stark example: Between
2006 and 2026, consumer prices increased by 38.9% while vegetable prices increased by only
7%. This means producers have been operating in an economy where costs have risen substantially faster than the value of the food they produce. The result is a steady devaluation of
vegetable production relative to the wider economy and increasing pressure on producer
livelihoods.
Absolute Priorities:
Prioritize Structural Reform for Land Equity and Producer Viability:
1. National Land Commission and Observatory : To provide transparency on land
ownership and sales, monitoring the “get big or get out” trend, regulate land prices
and prevent speculative corporate land-grabbing that locks out new entrants. Allow
priority sale to new entrants over corporate actors, place a ceiling on company
ownership of land to prevent concentration.
2. Institutional Recognition and Basic Income for Local Food Producers: Introduce
new category in farming for those supplying domestic market, provide a guaranteed
income and additional supports and finance to stimulate domestic market
3. Generational Renewal: Establish grants for new entrants practicing agroecology in
order to invest in their new farm enterprises.
4. Decentralized Processing: Fund local and small scale abattoirs and mobile
processing to allow small producers to retain the margin and stimulate direct
selling.
Building Resilience:
Diversify farms and move away from the existing grass only strategy. Support horticulture and
grain production for domestic human consumption, develop cooperative structures linked to
urban areas to facilitate market access and ensure the farmer receives greater proportion of
consumer cost, thus facilitating lower intensity of production.
Long-term Income Resilience:
Reduce dependency on expensive inputs and debt. Support “low-cost, high-value”
agroecological systems.
Generational Renewal:
Recognise that new entrants to farming are often the most innovative and can invigorate the
sector and rural communities. Establish a publicly backed Land Bank for new entrants. Stop
focusing solely on family inheritance; provide pathways for young people from non-farming
backgrounds to access land. Introduce installation aids through the CAP which support new
business diversification on farm.
Making Diversifiction more Attractive:
Support investment for processing on farms. Support Local Food Hubs and reform “Food Safety”
regs that treat small kitchens like industrial factories; develop light touch regulations for small
scale and volume. Allow farmers to sell processed goods from their own primary produce VAT
free. Teagasc national farm survey excludes horticulture. Horticulture is frequently identified as
a diversification pathway, yet the exclusion of the sector from core economic monitoring limits
evidence available to support expansion.
The absence of data constrains understanding of resilience, farm viability, diversification
outcomes and the contribution of horticulture to domestic food production.
This is particularly significant given policy ambitions to increase domestic fruit and vegetable
production.
Enhancging gender equality and women’s participation:
1. Improved income security and viability, particularly for small-scale and local food
producers, as low and unstable incomes can disproportionately affect participation
and retention.
2. Improved access to land, finance and installation supports, including supports
tailored to new entrants and diversified enterprises.
3. Recognition and support for diverse farm models, including horticulture, direct
sales, processing and short food supply chains where women are often strongly
represented.
4. Improved childcare, care supports and flexible participation mechanisms to enable
engagement in farming, training and decision-making processes.
5. Improved data collection and visibility, including gender-disaggregated data across
all agricultural sectors, and better representation of women working within family
farms, local food systems and diversified enterprises.
6. Support for community-led and cooperative models, which can improve
participation, reduce isolation and strengthen resilience.
7. Review succession and inheritance through a gender lens, recognising that farm
succession remains overwhelmingly male-dominated. Policies aimed at increasing
women’s participation must address unequal access to land, ownership, succession
opportunities and farm decision-making.
Improving farm safety, mental health and wellbeing:
Address the economic pressure to work harder and faster. Safety is a byproduct of a viable, less-
stressed livelihood. Encourage and renovate meitheal culture so workloads are shared. Support
rural development and outreach services for isolated farmers.
Competitiveness and Economic and Social Goals:
Competitiveness should not be measured on volume of production alone. An agroecological
farm is more competitive because it doesn’t spend its margin on chemical companies; therefore
reassess economic competitiveness to integrate hidden costs of fuel, fertiliser and other energy
intensive extractive systems and compare with closed loop Agroecological farming.
Challenges and Opportunities:
There is no holistic analysis which goes beyond economic metrics; we should look at the broader
social situation of farmers and not assume increased income will provide better mental health
outcomes for example. Also there is a major blind spot on the monitoring of corporate
landgrabbing in Ireland, including large scale forestry in Leitrim for example.
Mission 3: Food that is Safe, Nutritious and Appealing, Trusted
and Valued at Home and Abroad
Mission 3 Consultation Questions
Goals Relevant? ☐ No
The focus is too heavily on export reputation at the expense of domestic food security.
Most Progress:
Organic marketing has at least helped to show organics as an option.
Least Progress:
Coherent food and health policies. Ireland still has high rates of diet-related illness and relies on
imported ultra-processed foods.
Absolute Prioirties:
Developing an Integrated Food Sovereignty Strategy:
1. Institutional Recognition: Formally define and recognize “Local Food Producer” in
DAFM policy. This should unlock tailored supports, simplified regulatory
requirements for on-farm processing, and specific grant streams.
2. Public Procurement: Mandate that 50% of food in state institutions
(schools/hospitals) is sourced from local, agroecological producers.
3. Regional Food Hubs: Capital investment in storage, packing, and distribution
infrastructure to bridge the gap between local farms and consumers.
4. Food Sovereignty Targets: Develop a new metric for the strategy: “Percentage of
the national dietary basket produced domestically.” Incentivise and support
horticulture and tillage
5. Establish Stocks: The Irish government should develop and maintain stocks of basic
food stuffs to help alleviate the impact of food price surges in global markets
Greater Resilience:
Food stocks, short food supply chains, decentralised production, storage and processing.
Global Reputation:
A shift to an Agroecological production system and clear indicators of improvements in our
biodiversity, water and other environmental indicators. Genuine demonstrations of sustainable
farming practices such as soil health, animal welfare guarantees rather than just green labelling.
Consumer Trust:
Increased transparency in the food chain; mandatory labelling of all pesticides, herbicides and
other products (such as preservatives) applied or added to food before sale. Labelling also to
include percentage of price paid to farmer, middle man and retailer.
Value-added Processing And Innovation:
Focus on small scale, modular processing on farm, encourage cooperative organising around
processing and marketing of short food supply chains. Make direct selling of meat, flour, milk,
butter, eggs, cheese, vegetables, fruit and other produce common in every Irish county and
province. Start small and allow for gradual expansion rather then depending on large scale up
front investment.
Challenges or Opportunities:
Food Poverty; often the most vulnerable in society are the least likely to have access to healthy
nutritious locally produced food. Connect local producers with community food initiatives to
ensure access to healthy food regardless of income, introduce a social credit for low income
groups which can only be spent with Local Food Producers.
Mission 4: Innovative, Competitive and Resilient Agri-Food
Sector, Driven by Technology and Talent
Mission 4 Consultation Questions
Goals Relevant: ☐ No
Innovation is too narrowly defined as “Ag-Tech” (sensors/drones/data). We need Social and
Systems Innovation, much of which is already being demonstrated by Agroecological farmers
across the country.
Most Progress:
Data gathering and consolidation has advanced, but this remains part of the specialised, analytic
element of agricultural services rather than an integrated approach which upskills farmers, and
focuses more on verifying production metrics and sectoral export competitiveness rather than
ecological or social resilience.
Least Progress:
Goals 1, 3, and 7 are severely lagging and lacking. There is an absolute deficit in policy
coherence, genuine local food innovation, community-led social innovation, and challenge-led
research that focuses directly on resilience and the delivery of public goods. Instead, the strategy
remains bound to top-down knowledge transfer that ignores grassroots expertise
Absolute Priorities:
1. SFSC Advisory Service: Fund specialist Short Food Supply Chain (SFSC) Advisors
within the AKIS framework to support farmers in direct-to-community marketing.
2. Farmer-led R&D: Shift research funding to Farmer Living Labs focusing on soil
biology, low-input systems, and heritage seeds.
3. Appropriate Technology: Support small-scale machinery and open-source systems
that reduce farmer dependence on proprietary corporate technology.
4. Agroecology Apprenticeships: Create a formal QQI-accredited apprenticeship in
Agroecological Farming.
5. Redefine innovation: Treat “New Entrants” as the most important innovators in the
system.
Increased Investment:
Funding must move to systems learning and social economics. Key areas include soil biology
restoration, open-source heritage seed breeding, and the development of decentralized
processing models (e.g., modular abattoirs) that keep economic value directly within rural
communities. Research funding must move from theoretical to tangible/in field practice.
Digital Transformation:
Digital tools must be open-source, farmer-owned, and transparent. Technology should
empower primary producers to form short supply chain networks and community food hubs,
rather than locking them into corporate software dependencies.
Skills and Tealent Pipeline:
Generational renewal requires supporting new entrants, young growers, and women farmers
who may come from non-farming backgrounds. True farm wellbeing must be addressed by
eliminating the root causes of distress: soaring debt, extreme input volatility, loss of autonomy,
and isolation. Encouraging the installation of new entrants thorough targeted economic supports
needs to be a priority. New entrants and farmers already working on short food supply chains in
a policy vacuum are true innovators
Competiveness and Social and Economic Goals:
Competitiveness must be redefined. Small producers should be supported through shared
marketing, product aggregation, and transparent pricing.
Challenges or Opportunities:
The Contradiction of Food Dumping vs. Development Aid: Under Goal 7, there is a severe lack
of policy coherence. For instance, public funds have heavily backed the massive export of highly
processed products (such as Fat-Filled Milk Powder) to West Africa. This practice actively distorts
local markets and undermines the food sovereignty of local dairy farmers abroad, contradicting
Ireland’s stated international development and sustainability goals.
