Seminar Spells Need For Organic Future.
The Grand Global Plan for the E.U. and World Trade Talks has Ireland doing computer software and pharmaceuticals with little consideration for our farmers food or the long term health of the people.
This was the message of M.E.P. Cathy Sinnott at last Fridayâs Seminar for National Organic Week in the Organic College, Dromcollogher. Ms. Sinnott, herself a delegate to the upcoming World Trade Talks, said that the so called agenda of Free Trade will facilitate the Banks, large Multi-National Companies and very large farmers, but needs to be replaced by âFairâ Trade which respects quality, local food producers, human health and the environment world wide.
G.M. Not The Solution
The push to have G.M. Crops put into Europe, Ms Sinnott said, was not in the interest of farmers, growers or the consumer and ought to be resisted by the Irish Government as well as by communities and regions declaring themselves G.M. Free.
Health, Ms. Sinnott said, was not to be taken for granted! Organic soil gave the best food the world could produce. The major investment in research to find novel and patented crops should instead be directed to understanding diseases and pests, to finding solutions to the existing needs of people and to the conservation of the diversity of plants and animals.
The hidden costs so called âcheap foodâ produced though intensive farming and transported thousands of miles need to be considered at the point of purchase. The devastation that this global food market may carry for local producers, communities and the environment worldwide is so often hidden in the packaging. There is an increasing awareness of health and food as natureâs own medicine and the growth of farmers markets needs to be supported at national level by imaginative way to allow more young people to enter farming and growing as a career.
REPS 4 Changes
Mr Frank Macken, Senior Inspector of the Department of Agriculture said that there was also a renewed interest across Europe in organics, in the culture of quality food and in a healthy lifestyle.
He invited students and farmers to take a direct role in shaping the future of agricultural policy by making a submission towards the new REPS 4 scheme being formulated at present. Organic farming and growing he said was possible and profitable and there was a positive attitude towards people who are willing to make the changes needed.
Knowing your local grower
The theme of local food was also addressed by Top Chef and Food Writer Denis Cotter of Café Paradiso in Cork, who outlined the reasons for the increasing demand for Organic Food in Restaurants. With increasing numbers of people eating out and many doing so casually, he regarded restaurants as the flag ships of the Organic industry.
The attraction of organic food to a mature chef was its safety – being certified free of chemicals and additives; its quality and freshness; the potential for a relationship with a local grower; the seasonality and variety this can provide and the uniqueness in the very large range of crops and varieties that can be grown in the co-operation between grower and chef.
The partnership between the two offered distinct advantages to both and yielded a premier price for the produce, very little waste and the opportunity to plan. It was in fact the direct way to have traceability as the chef can visit the growers garden each month of the growing season.
A Local Cuisine
Mr Cotter, himself the recipient of several international awards and the author of a world renowned Vegetarian Cook Book, outlined the ingredients for a local cuisine. This he said was primarily about âlocal chefs using local ingredientsâ. Whether they are cooked in an Irish, Mediterranean or Asian style is irrelevant.
The very large range of crops now grown by local organic producers in local soil offers a new opportunity to carry forward a local food culture provided there is respect by the chef for the grower and the produce.
Organic farming profitable and enjoyable.
Organic Farm Adviser and College Teacher Mary Lynch described the practical steps in converting a conventional farm to Organic symbol status. Since the changes in the Common Agricultural Policy and the decoupling of stock numbers with payments, she said the time was never better to consider a change to producing less volume of animals, with less stress on both animals and people and a better price! Outlining the extra grants for organic production she said that these and the premier price for the meat or vegetables, particularly in direct selling through farmers markets, was giving a new hope for people in farming.
On a personal level, she said there was an exciting, varied, profitable and worthwhile career for people considering farming and growing. âThe feed-back from contented customers had been denied to farmers for too long and we were now reclaiming our contact with our end users of a premier productâ She intended to âstay farming, growing and healthyâ by being Organic and to leave the land and the countryside in as good as, if not better condition for having farmed it.
The evening’s seminar concluded with congratulations to some thirty graduates of the college who received Certificate and Diploma Awards at FETAC Levels Five and Six. The students were congratulated by John Cregan T.D. Dan Neville T.D. Special Guests Dr Ambrose P.P.
Paddy Oâ Hanlon Teagasc and Frank Mackan Department of Agriculture.
## Those receiving Awards included
### Organic Horticulture Certificate Students
– Margaret Barry, Ardagh; Kevin OâDea, Broadford;
– Frances Curtin,Mallow; Micheal Oâ Lonsigh, Clare;
– Marguerite Connolly, Galway; Jitka Pechancova, Prague;
– Norma Courtney, Ballyhahill; Daniel Sheedy, Limerick;
– Marion Cronin, Liscarroll; Jessica Swadosh, U.S.A;
– Kevin Duffin, Tralee; Kieran English, Caherconlish;
– Kevin Fitzmaurice, Newcastlewest; Sile Hennigan, Cork
– Mairead Kennedy, Dromcollogher; Dylan Keating, Laois;
### Diploma in Organic Enterprise Students.
– Stefanie Brussig, Sneem; Paul OâDonoghue, Ahane;
– Pat McEniry , Kilmallock; Marie Tuttle, Clare;
– Rossum McNamara, Limerick;
– Wendy Gillissen Verschage, Tralee;
### Distance learning students
Awads were also presented to students who had studied by distance learning from Sligo, Louth, Carlow, Wexford, Tipperary and Limerick.
### Special Achievement Award
– Ben OâCallaghan, Tullylease Co Cork.