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Can Ireland Feed Itself? in conversation with Ruth Hegarty, Egg & Chicken
Manage episode 403360920 series 3490126
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Have you heard that European Farmers need to start growing wheat? If you hadn’t, following the news of the war in Ukraine; food policy makers across the EU started to talk about shortages of certain crops, particularly wheat! This is due to the large volumes of wheat that Europe has been importing from Ukraine (and indeed Russia) and the inevitable disruption to their farming and exports.
So we wanted to ask the question, is this even possible to do this in Ireland or is it even the answer? Turning immediately to someone with a mountain of grain knowledge, Andrew Workman of Dunany Organic Flour in Drogheda, Co. Louth laid bare the realities of growing and milling here in Ireland. It’s not exactly a simple answer to a simple question!
And this brings us to a real hot topic of food security and can Ireland feed itself? It seems like the answer should be yes, but the reality is very different. So perhaps the question should be worded - Could Ireland feed itself if national food policy considered it a priority? Then the answer would be yes!
To get into the nuts and bolts of this, we looked no further than Ruth Hegarty who recently penned an article for The Irish Times of the same name as this episode which started us on this research.
Ruth's business is Egg & Chicken, an agency with a focus on food, farming and sustainability. Ruth has dedicated her career to advocating for small food producers and farmers, a fairer cleaner food system, food education, and access to good food for all.
We talked to her about Ireland’s food systems and policies; Ireland’s food culture, is it really thriving like everyone says it is or should it come down to the brass tacks of accessible healthy nutritious food for everyone? We look at below cost selling; industrial agriculture; where the hope and opportunity lies for Irish food and our people.
But first, let’s dive straight into the topic of Food Security and Food Sovereignty. What’s the difference? Where should we be focusing our efforts? Where are the vulnerabilities in Ireland’s food system at the moment and why is the war in Ukraine highlighting this, when it’s a system that has been fragile for a long time.
Links:
Can Ireland feed itself? - Irish Times Article by Ruth Hegarty
La Via Campesina
Farming for Nature
https://www.farmingfornature.ie
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