world wide farming

brianthebard

Just about all farmers in Ireland must know that the money they earn now is the same as farmers earned 20 years ago. Farmers missed out on the gains of the past 20 years for a variety of reasons, such as cheap imports, Supermarket wars, government ignorance, and it must be said a failure to better approach the market on the part of the majority of farmers.
My question is do the users of this board see a system anywhere else in the world which is more equitable, pays better, is better in tune with the environment, and they would like to implement here?

djmc

I think multinationls processers and supermarkets like tesco etc have been sqeezing farmers world wide for years in view of ever larger profits for
themselves
In Ireland we also have the problem of being an island
In europe farmers can drive across borders with animals and produce for better prices and more compation so get better prices
I think france or italy take better care of their farmers and have better unions

brianthebard

80% of Irish cattle are produced for export though, and a very large percentage of pork, just as examples, so its not really true to say it is just location that is causing the problem.

djmc

Yes but its cheaper for countrys to import Irish than to pay their farmers
A few years back the french farmers were stoping trucks coming off the ferries and dumping irish beef into the sea.
A beef animal there was worth double the price it is here
Pigs are also worth more on the contanent

brianthebard

So the EU system is inequitable? How would you change it?