One of the slogans hung on tractors and recited at this week’s protests declared “No farms, no food”, implying both were under threat from the fuel price crisis.
An emotive rallying cry, it was accompanied by claims that fields could be left idle with fertilisers being too expensive to buy and farm machinery too expensive to run.
A contributor to one of the WhatsApp groups set up to co-ordinate actions around the country was riled up.
“Dublin needs to be starved,” he wrote. “Let them know where their food comes from.”
READ MORE
Another contributor stepped in to offer an alternative view. “Most of our food is imported.”
The brief exchange went to the heart of a contradiction in Ireland’s food supply.
According to the Global Food Security Index, Ireland is the second most food secure country of the 113 monitored, with plenty of good quality, affordable food being produced.
But there is another very different assessment of the situation.
“The reality is that we don’t have any food security in Ireland because the vast majority of what we consume is imported and the vast majority of what we produce is exported,” says Emma Howard, economist at Technological University Dublin.
“If you look at beef and dairy, which are our main produce, between 80 and 90 per cent of that is for the export market.
“We import around the same proportion of our fruit and vegetables – even potatoes are imported – so we’re really reliant on global food markets.”
Data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) further illustrates the point. The average person in Ireland eats 100kg of meat annually, but chicken makes up half of that and Ireland is not self-sufficient in chicken production. Self-sufficiency is measured at 72 per cent, meaning a lot of chicken is imported.
Even where the country produces more than it needs – self-sufficiency in pig meat is measured at 210 per cent and beef at 701 per cent – we still import substantial quantities because there is a demand for cheaper cuts and processed versions.
Wheat provides another example. Most of the bread baked in Ireland is made with imported wheat while most of the grains grown here – wheat, barley and oats – is used for animal feed.
During the last fuel and fertiliser crisis – when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 – then minister for agriculture Charlie McConalogue asked Irish farmers to start growing more grain for human consumption.
[ ‘It’s blackmailing society’: How fuel protests are impacting IrelandOpens in new window ]
But the following year the CSO reported production of wheat, barley and oats fell in volume collectively by 20 per cent.
The next year again, wheat production fell by another 20 per cent, although there was a modest increase in barley and oats.
Grain growers might be understandably cautious about increasing their output. Even those who supply the animal feed market find themselves coming up against a flood of imports.
Irish farmers import about two-thirds of their feed. When one feed mill curtailed production this week because its grain lorries were stuck by a blockade at Foynes Port in Co Limerick, the Irish Grain Growers Group were quick to suggest a solution.
Reported in farming media, the organisation said there was no shortage of Irish grain available for feed.
“The fact that we saw one mill revert to reduced working schedules in response to a single day’s port blockade highlights a fundamental flaw in the approach that has been taken by the compound feed sector – their almost total reliance on imported grains,” it said.
It makes all the more confusing the concern expressed by Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan that chickens would start starving over the weekend because there would be no feed for them.
In a paper for the Institute of Public Policy last month, three academics explored the question: “Who will grow Ireland’s food?”
Christina O’Connor and Mary Curtin of the University of Limerick and Rafael Perez-Armenteros of the University of Murcia captured how complicated the country’s food systems had become.
“Sector viability is shaped not just by production conditions, but by how supply chains are organised, how value is distributed, and how power is shared between actors,” they wrote.
It makes answering a seemingly simple question – how will the war in the Middle East and resulting fuel crisis affect Ireland’s food security? – difficult to answer.
Apart from small quantities of spices and nuts, Ireland does not import food from Iran and most of our fertilisers come from outside the region.
How will the fuel protests end?
Besides, heavy stockpiling of fertilisers took place last year in anticipation of price increases from the EU’s new carbon border adjustment mechanism, so there is enough in the country to last until the autumn.
And most of the fertilisers will go on supercharging grass growth to feed the livestock to produce the beef and dairy that is mostly exported.
Fuel prices may affect food prices because of the added cost of running farm machinery, diesel for delivery trucks and making plastic packaging derived from fossil fuels, but will they affect food supply? Will Dublin starve?
If protesters blockade the lorries bringing in food and ingredients on the ships from abroad, then this may be a possibility.
Then people would indeed know where their food comes from and the answer would be: not here.
A typical day’s diet shows much of our food is imported
Breakfast
Orange juice – imported
Breakfast cereal – imported, apart from some porridge brands
Fruit – imported
Tea – imported
Sugar for tea – imported
Milk for tea and cereal – almost certainly Irish
Lunch
Bread for sandwich – mostly imported flour
Spread for bread – mostly imported
Chicken breast pieces for filling – mostly imported
Lettuce – dependent on time of year
Mayonnaise – imported apart from artisan producers
Dinner
Pasta – imported
Bolognese – almost certainly Irish mince beef
Cooking oil – mostly imported
Tomato sauce – imported
Peppers – imported
Mushrooms – almost certainly Irish
Onion – mainly imported
Grated hard cheese – imported
Snacks and treats
Banana – imported
Granola bar – imported
Smoothie – imported
Crisps – mainly Irish
Chocolate – imported
