Bord Bia Problem

@Bass Reeves I am only asking is there anything the IFA can get out of this mess that would allow them say the achieved something.

I do believe Larry should go because you cant be the head of an organisation that promotes Irish Quality food while you are moving Brazilian food out the back door of your own business.

That is without the issue of his wife's company getting paid for a questionable contract. Secondly his whole attitude in the Dail was how dare anyone question me... reminded me of Bishop Brennan in Fr Ted.

well what i found interesting was the chair of bord bia saying his own business doesn't require/need bord bia approval as it sells business to business and is only relevant if selling direct to consumers…..90/100% of all farmers produce is sold b2b

bord bia has no irrelevance to farmers its a marketing quango for the processors/middle sellers, who wish to pay us GDT/world prices while achieving the premium in the secondary companies they set up quietly

information is control, and we are handing everything to do with our system to them in good faith thinking it benefits us in some way….elec use/diesel/feed/fert/organic manure/water/vet usage/herd register/what you had for breakfast the morning of audit…..

dairy could bite the bullet for the beef lads by drop bord bia in the morning, it would not affect us it would actually save us time money and bureaucracy our produce is only sold based on price, quality, and reputation built over decades

It is never about what it's about.

This protest is about several different things. If you are a member of grammar police please stop reading now as I don't want the normal slating I getted for not good grammar.

1.Ego.

Back in the 80s 90s 00s every ifa president had a successful well attended protest raising moral making organisation and President look good/powerful/United. Francie remembered this seen the turn out in Athlone and thought now is my time.

2.Miss labeling

The farmer anger is not about LM or small amounts of imports it's about the ease of using labeling to deceive customers about the product origin.

3. Recruitment

IFA has not modernised/keep up with farming trends. Majority of beef and sheep farmers are now part-time running greater numbers than the last generation who were full-time. These partimers were were excluded from climbing the ranks in the beef/sheep committees by the large single farm payment people who could afford to full-time farm this distorted the direction the ifa has taken(all decisions for the big shots eg derogation, upward convergence only) so these partimers have left in numbers. This protest was a way of trying to recruit them back.

4. Influence/Decision makers within IFA

The young enthusiastic progressive people in IFA at the minute are mainly pig/poultry/Tillage (due to the the old gard refusing to let go in beef and sheep section argument for another day) these sectors are hit much worse by import of products such as chicken and pork from asia/South America for further processing and placed in lovely packaging for the customer and boat loads of GM grain to suppress price. These people seen an opportunity to get a kick at bord bia and ran with it thinking the poverty beef plan foot soldiers would follow and not realising the government don't care for ifa no more.

5. Relivance

Governments were using the Ifa as a marketing tool to the electrate getting them to come out to sell/aprove bad decisions to the media since Bertie times and in return the top people were rewarded with progression from the organisation to state funded appointments. Then the IFA had the Smith issue and Joe Healy couldn't pick what he would like to progress into instead of actually doing something for farmers, beef plan appears and government relise ifa no longer have control of farmers so we don't need them. This was hoped to gain the needed relivance with government again.

As for your statement about the guy too mean to buy dinner or bring sandwiches you need to have a look subway pricing. Id be moreso asking why is he bothering with the farming if he could afford to be eating snacks in there.

Most farmers are backing the ifa on this and yes the farm orgs should go and test meat everywhere and name and shame the retailers, restaurants and suppliers of meats if the meats are from south America

Most people would have assumed that the chairman would have stepped aside when this broke but the government immediately jumped in and backed him so he dug in knowing the govt had his back and if the ifa and all farmers don't hold their ground it won't be 1% Brazil beef it will be 51% Brazil beef and our fat cattle will very quickly drop at least 500 euro per head, lads have to understand that Brazil and aus/nz beef is less than half the price of our beef

A fat steer here at approx 2500 euro today might be only 1200 euro in Brazil today, for every kg of cheap foreign beef that comes in it replaces 1 kg of irish beef and we have to try and keep our beef and lamb to be marketed as a premium product not mixing it with the cheapest hormone fed rubbish that's being imported, I just watched a bord b ad on TV promoting our quality grass fed products the govt should watch the ad and make a decision about whether they want a farm sector in Ireland and if they don't they should let us feed hormones to cattle from birth to slaughter and we'll sell at Brazil prices and after a few years farming will finish in Ireland

There was a very well attended IFA meeting in Claremorris,re the Bord Bia problem,Thursday night last, Ag minister would be wise to remove Murrin sooner than later. I'd imagine the media were surprised at the sentiment there

The one's who are prompting that article are the same one's not mentioned, in cahoots with that very media. The Grain Growers.

Grain growers are being backed by foreign interests originating in the US. Who want to see an end to the EU and Irish bord bia.

Brazilian beef was mentioned again above. Quotas are set pre Mercosur and post Mercosur. Is it 1% of EU supply.

If it was a fair balanced article the Grain Growers would be mentioned. But it was an attack on the IFA, ICMSA, ICSA. The Grain Growers were pallying up to and in the IFA for the last year. This was well planned. A Grain Growers son did their Nuffield scholarship on Brazilian Beef, Adam Woods used him as cover for his investigation in Brazil, that grain growers daughter works in Bord Bia office, Dublin. It's not exactly rocket science.

There'll no IFA by the time the grain growers are finished using them as their trojan horse.

The judgement is recognising members who are not straight forward in their views and talk.

I am critical of the IFA in this action and I know others who feel the same way. I was still on the tractor cades when the grain growers group at the time were telling members not to get involved.

There was a member on here now deceased from a farm accident who was critical of IFA in actions but still went to court for them when protesting for beef price. He was from down here and wouldn't have been shy of his talk on the grain growers group either.

I just think IFA need to cop a bit on about this. They are being led instead of leading.

It's go hard or go home time if they have the numbers to go for it.

Government candidates in the Galway West by-election should be targeted to put the fear of God in all rural government tds that they are next. But they won't because you father voted for his father and your sons will vote for his son is still very strong in active IFA members.

This issue arose only a matter of days after the Athlone protest which was organised by Independent Ireland. Noel Thomas is a candidate in the Galway West by-election for Independent Ireland. I think he will do well and be transfer friendly.

Interesting you say that as a colleague remarked recently on the glare from a solar farm he passed recently in a slightly hilly area with no real hedges around to limit visibility a bit.

One of the biggest idiots ever to grace the dail is the current environmental correspondence with RTÉ. RTÉ (env correspondent) had an article yesterday nearly congratulating Offaly on being no. 1 county for wind energy in Jan 2026. Likely to remain no. 1 for quite a while I think. No questions from Rte. It was likely a press release word for word from a PR company working for the wind industry. Last Saturday the Indo had an article from Offaly residents on Offaly being blighted with wind farms with some turbines over 200 metres tall and a lot more wind farms being planned. Data centres accounted for 22% of electricity usage in 2024. It was 5% in 2015.

I see my ESB contract is nearly up and it's going to be about 20% increase on last year.

Maybe Noel Thomas is right to have an opinion on solar farms.

Scam is putting it lightly. Most energy developers are the scum of this earth.