'The silence from people at the top since the Irish Farmers Journal story broke is not surprising as business deals are more important than food safety,' - Eddie Kent, Mount Uniacke, east Cork.
Having read in the Irish Farmers Journal in recent weeks about the farming practices in Brazil, the farming community here in this country is gobsmacked and totally lost for words.
More so the biggest countries in the EU don’t really care once their own objectives are achieved.
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Many farmers in this country have totally reduced their stocking rates in the last couple of decades to ensure compliance with the 170kg threshold. But many have paid fines over the years for being over the 170kg and they feel totally betrayed because they could produce top-quality cattle with proper protocols for medicines, feedstuffs and all the other criteria required for Bord Bia certification. To think that now all this can be brushed under the carpet, with the stroke of a pen, is simply not good enough.
The silence from people at the top since the Irish Farmers Journal story broke is not surprising as business deals are more important than food safety and regulations.
I was never in derogation, but over the last number of years found myself in regular encounters with the powers that be in Johnstown Castle because of my precarious position regarding the 170kg penalty situation.
This situation has put smaller farmers in an impossible position trying to compete with the elite farmers for land and this scenario should never have been allowed to prevail.
We are now witnessing the complete disintegration of the Bord Bia audit scheme and there is no one to blame, only the politicians at home and in Europe.
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Title: Letter to the editor: Mercosur is madness
'The silence from people at the top since the Irish Farmers Journal story broke is not surprising as business deals are more important than food safety,' - Eddie Kent, Mount Uniacke, east Cork.
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DEAR EDITOR
Having read in the Irish Farmers Journal in recent weeks about the farming practices in Brazil, the farming community here in this country is gobsmacked and totally lost for words.
More so the biggest countries in the EU don’t really care once their own objectives are achieved.
Many farmers in this country have totally reduced their stocking rates in the last couple of decades to ensure compliance with the 170kg threshold. But many have paid fines over the years for being over the 170kg and they feel totally betrayed because they could produce top-quality cattle with proper protocols for medicines, feedstuffs and all the other criteria required for Bord Bia certification. To think that now all this can be brushed under the carpet, with the stroke of a pen, is simply not good enough.
The silence from people at the top since the Irish Farmers Journal story broke is not surprising as business deals are more important than food safety and regulations.
I was never in derogation, but over the last number of years found myself in regular encounters with the powers that be in Johnstown Castle because of my precarious position regarding the 170kg penalty situation.
This situation has put smaller farmers in an impossible position trying to compete with the elite farmers for land and this scenario should never have been allowed to prevail.
We are now witnessing the complete disintegration of the Bord Bia audit scheme and there is no one to blame, only the politicians at home and in Europe.
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