DEAR SIR:

Tillage farmers in Ireland have proven themselves capable of constantly taking new developments on board, whether it be to improve efficiency or sustainability. The rural environment and our soils in particular are the bedrock of our existence. Our soils have never been more fertile but we also have never asked them to produce so much. Management systems too are constantly being appraised to give us greater efficiency and sustainability. We have no future otherwise, but Europe is falling behind in developing new technologies. The EU has become regressive instead of progressive. The last 10 years of CAP has seen a real reduction in cereal farmers’ incomes. We need greater supports to meet the serious challenges ahead. Real leadership in Europe is lacking.

Older farmers, who have been using glyphosate since it was first developed, have seen the massive improvements in our production systems. It will take irrefutable evidence from all the EU’s scientific bodies to persuade us there is a major problem with glyphosate. We are very dismissive of alarmist statements about it causing serious cancer difficulties. We’ve been handling this product for the past 40 years and we see no evidence to support the outlandish claims made and I think it’s disingenuous of any leader in our society to make such statements when there are far more serious questions to be addressed. Consumers are at greater risk from chemicals in a trip to the hairdressers than from anything coming off a farm. It’s high time we dumped these snowflake policies coming from the EU parliament and elected people capable of addressing the world’s real problems.