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The Informer
Green Scene M3 Parkway trains go to Connolly on weekends
Last month we highlighted the limited use of the M3 park and ride service where trains go to the Docklands station. Perhaps Irish Rail were listening to us because they have revised their timtables so that all trains from the M3 Parkway on Saturdays and Sundays now go to Connolly. This is very good news for weekend shoppers and users of the M3 who can now go directly into town and link up with Dart and Luas services. Well done, Irish Rail. A move in the right direction. However, if we lived on the M3 corridor I think we’d still be asking why peak time services still only go to Docklands, and why there is only one train an hour during most of the day – hardly an incentive to leave the car behind.
Can agriculture save the economy?
Since last month’s mention of the problems in the artisan food sector we’ve had a chance to talk to Minister for Horticulture Shane MacEntee about this and about Ireland’s dependence on imported fruit and vegetables. Naturally the topic of producer groups came up and the Minister told us he was keen to support farmers and growers in their efforts to get together and take back control of the markets from foreign owned supermarket chains. However, when it came down to the nitty gritty he felt that the funding for producer groups and co-ops should come from the members themselves and that they should band together against supermarket 'divide and rule' policies.
Which would be fine if the competition was coming from inside Ireland – but it isn’t. Irish growers are being played off against producers not just in the rest of Europe, but in the rest of the world and while the Department of Agriculture is refusing support to producer groups in Ireland Foreign Affairs, through Irish Aid, is funding producer groups in Africa. No one seems quite sure how many days food supply we have in Ireland – estimates range from three days to three weeks – but if agriculture is going to save the economy, as the government claims, the horticulture sector needs realistic support.
The ban on raw milk
And while we are on the topic of agriculture it seems Minister Simon Coveney needs to extend the range of expertise among his advisors as well. This month has seen the removal of the right of consumers to drink raw milk brought to the top of his agenda after lobbying from the Food Safety Authority. Now I’m not advocating a return to the days when you paid a premium for milk from tuberculosis free herds or the nice old lady down the lane strained out the larger chunks of cow pat through muslin but I do think that we should have the right to choose to buy milk that hasn’t had a lot of its nutrients killed by heat treatment. After all, we wouldn’t suggest that mothers boiled breast milk before giving it to their babies would we? Numerous challenges to the FSA have failed to produce a single study in Ireland showing illness linked to the consumption of raw milk bought from a clean and properly monitored healthy dairy herd. Yes, people have got sick from drinking raw milk – but they were farm families drinking the milk from their own herd and that milk wasn’t being sold untreated. The very small number of Irish farms that sell raw milk are producing it in conditions where you’d be happy to eat
By Kathy Marsh, Sonairte your dinner off the dairy floor and the same farms are making raw milk cheese which has never had the shadow of a doubt over it. We just don’t think the Minister knows much either about the health benefits of raw milk or about the hygiene standards under which it is produced. In fact, when we read the Minister’s statements it becomes pretty obvious he doesn’t even know what raw milk is. He told the Dail that “some artisan food producers are using pasteurised raw milk to make ice cream, yoghurts, cheese and milk products.” Minister, if its pasteurized it isn’t raw. We think it is time you got down on the farm and had a look at how the quality producers do it. And maybe even see on opportunity rather than a problem.
Good work at Irish Steel
Having been nasty to Minister Coveney we do think he deserves a pat on the back for finally getting the Haulbowline clean up under way – though we are not sure why the Department of Agriculture should have to take the lead on paying for the mess left by Irish Steel, even though we understand that other departments will also contribute.
"particularly pleased the Minister for the Environment will be joining us". Requests by other groups such as the Environment Pillar to attend the seminar were turned down on the grounds that they had had the same chance as the rest of the public to feed into the consultation process. Readers will remember that IBEC and the IFA jointly worked to block climate change legislation under the previous government.
Steve Jobs, environmentalist
As this column goes to press the death has been announced of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple and Pixar and a man who’s vision changed the way the rest of us see the world in our work, our play, our communications and the fulfillment of our own dreams. He wasn’t one for blowing his own trumpet as an environmentalist but it may be worth mentioning here that one of his major focuses in the last years of his life was the greening of his company from the elimination of harmful chemicals in production processes to whole life carbon accounting so that by the time of his death Apple was by far the most environmentally friendly technology company among major producers.
Business as usual in Fine Gael’s 'Galway Tent'
Hard on the heels of Phil Hogan’s decision to abolish Comhar, the Sustainable Development Council, comes the opportunity for IBEC to take the inside track on climate policy. In a letter to business leaders inviting them to a private seminar with senior civil servants and advisors IBEC Director General Danny McCoy described the event as "a timely opportunity for our members to influence the development of a climate policy framework" and he was
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