There is a small pub in a large village not 100 miles from here which used to keep late hours.

An acquaintance of mine said that after a certain time of night, you’d be as well to speak broken-Arabic in there.

We all laughed at this observation in our own pub but the acquaintance had made a serious point.

If you want to be understood and get your point across, it is a waste of time speaking in one language while all around you are speaking another.

Facts and figures can be interpreted to tell any kind of story but they also give a solid grounding to the position someone takes

Hearing the farmer representatives coming out from yet another committee or taskforce meeting with the minister and his officials, you’d be inclined to wonder if they are speaking broken-Arabic, while everyone around them is speaking media-friendly English.

Facts and figures can be interpreted to tell any kind of story but they also give a solid grounding to the position someone takes. Our farmer representatives seem to be lacking such data in recent times, despite the significant resources available to them.

For example, how much less grain, meat and milk will be produced on Irish farms this year given that less fertiliser will be spread? This is obviously not an easy calculation to make, but we don’t even have an estimated guess despite high fertiliser prices and subsequent lower yields being flagged months ago.

Similarly, have any agri-economists been engaged to analyse and present the percentage the farmer gets from the shelf-price of food products? I have seen 10% quoted in places but do we have verified figures for Ireland, or Europe?

Of the forecourt price, 40% was for the fuel itself, the retailer got 4% to 5% and the Government got north of 50% from VAT and excise duty

If we had an estimate for this, it would be great to share with consumers and let them see who is getting their hard-earned cash. Or more to the point, who isn’t.

This is the approach taken by the fuel retailers who had stickers on petrol pumps showing who was getting what from each litre purchased. Of the forecourt price, 40% was for the fuel itself, the retailer got 4% to 5% and the Government got north of 50% from VAT and excise duty.

With this information widely known in the public, the Government was under pressure to do something, which it eventually did by reducing excise duty last week.

The environmental lobby are masters of this strategy. What is stopping our farm lobby groups from doing the same?

I would not put the fuel retailers on any sort of pedestal. This is merely an example of a lobby group doing some analysis, interpreting the results and getting their message out into the public. They are speaking media-friendly English rather than broken-Arabic.

The environmental lobby are masters of this strategy. What is stopping our farm lobby groups from doing the same? Do your calculations, interpret the results, and get them out far and wide into the media.

I work in data analysis for the off-farm job. I understand the limits of models and estimates. But once we acknowledge the uncertainties and assumptions in any equation, then we are free to use the figures as an anchor that informs discussions.

In the absence of such figures and analysis, the farm lobby will continue to be swatted away by officials and ignored by the mainstream media.