Sir, Once again the Minister for Agriculture has applauded the Irish food industry and mouthed a few platitudes about "trace ability", without addressing the need for a basic re think on food quality.
The overwhelming response of consumers to the sorry shambles of the last few months has been a continuing disgust that ruminants and other animals are actually fed meat and bone meal and trace ability won't affect that.
We have no comprehensive policy in place for ensuring the basic quality of the systems from which Irish food is produced. We are left playing "catch up" in reacting to every scare that comes along, rather than leading the market with natural food production.
The BBC Good Food magazine is already advising its readers not to buy Irish pork, as the manner in which it is produced (sow stalls, tethers, etc.) is not an ethically acceptable system. We have also had the unedifying spectacle of the Minister for Agriculture trying to persuade the pig and poultry producers to go back to using meat and bone meal. Consumers don't want to hear this. What they do want to hear is what I tell them "All my cattle and sheep are vegetarians. They live a well cared for, contented life and are fed on organic grass, hay and silage." Yours, etc., Inse Riada, Tyrrellspass, Co Westmeath.
