Contact:Kathleen Walker
Quality, not quantity, has to be the priority in agri-food production in future.
At a time in history when food should be of superb quality, E.U. policies have turned agri-food into a tasteless, unappetising and at times repulsive product for which consumers pay an inflated price.
Taste is an explosive sensation which is nature’s way of ensuring that our bodies receive the nutrition necessary for good health.
Under E.U. agriculture policies consumer interests have been ignored. Since Ireland joined the E.U., consumers are treated as a nuisance element detrimental to the great economic plan on which the EEC was based. Under this plan great quantities of poor quality food have been produced, the best of which was sold to intervention. Consumer concern played no part in the scheme.
As a result this country lost its best quality foods which were replaced by high yielding crops which give little pleasure or satisfaction in consumption. These products are further damaged by poor management and processes. For example, the shelf-life of milk was lengthened, yet within the past four months I bought milk on four occasions which, though within the sell-by date on the cartons, was sour,
Fresh food are usually several days old before they reach retail outlets. Their quality deteriorates with delay. Producing seasonal crops all year round reduces their appeal and their distinctive quality. Strawberries are a luxury item at their peak season but seeing them on sale at a much reduced price just at this moment is evidence of how they lose their appeal out of season.
Animal products reflect the foods consumed by the animals. The fish meal included in processed feed for pigs and poultry in the 1980s turned many people off the end product.
During the decade 1979-1989, stale, rancid butter put on the retail market saw butter consumption in Ireland drop from 44,000 tonnes in 1978 to less than 10,000 tonnes in 1989. Corrective action was finally taken when a customer contacted a radio programme to say that the butter on sale in her local supermarket was covered in mould. The small quantities of butter on display in supermarket shelves nowadays is visual evidence of the huge damage done to the butter industry and, for those slightly older, butter is a most repulsive product.
During the 1980s, milk was often sour when distributed to schoolchildren. Indeed, it was often sour when purchased in shops as it continues to be nowadays. As a result, milk was replaced by fruit juices and concern is presently being expressed that teenagers are suffering from osteoporosis.
THE PUBLIC have lost all confidence in the safety of food. They are being given negative, confused and contradictory information which implies that agri food in particular is damaging rather than beneficial to health.
Information which is sponsored by vested interests is suspect and loses credibility. Information on food and health should be given by health authorities.
There must be a return to the more tasteful, although less productive, crops which make food a joy to eat. This is also true for our farm animals. Our native Kerry cow produces milk with higher protein and less fat content then the more popular breeds. It produces less milk but at lower cost per gallon. It is a lighter weight so doesn’t damage pasture in wet weather a do other breeds.
Satisfying consumer demands must be the benchmark for incentives offered to producers.
Consumers must be strongly represented in organisations concerned with food. There are too many organisations and bodies interfering between producer and consumer. The price paid to producers is only a fraction of that paid by consumers.
A Ministry for Food, totally separate from the production aspect, must be established urgently.
As a family carer, responsible for the purchase of food for forty years I am totally disillusioned with the management of the food industry. Is there any prospect that consumers will in future be viewed as an economic element of the food industry?