This article is from page 30 of the 2005-11-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 30 JPG
BROADFORD farmer and Vice-Chair- man of the ICMSA beef committee Martin McMahon was in Birmingham this week to represent the organisation in a unique Farmers For Action (FFA) summit meet- ing.
Mr McMahon, who was joined by the IC- MSA’s dairy committee chairman Domin- ic Cronin, joined with leaders from farm- ing organisations representing farmers on both sides of the Irish Sea to ward that fur- ther actions are planned to highlight the erowing plight of farmers.
The FFA organised a three day strike for its organisations members earlier this month. The purpose of the summit was to co-ordinate efforts in the wake of the strike by farmers on both sides of the Irish Sea to secure fair prices for their produce from the so-called retail giants.
Along with the ICMSA, the National Sheep Association (NSA), the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW), the Northern Ireland Agri- cultural Producers’ Association (NIAPA), and the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’
Association (ICSA) were in attendance. “There was unanimous agreement on a course of further action to drive home the message that farmers are not receiving a fair share of the retail price for key prod- ucts such as dairy, beef and lamb,” said FFA leader David Hanly.
“One thing that has become clear is that consumers want farmers to get a fair share; in fact, one pole showed that 78 per cent of consumers would be willing to pay more.” He added that there 1s a commitment from all the organisations to co-operate further, and more protests and activities are being looked at. In the meantime, he challenged the retail giants to publicly accept that farmers are not getting a fair deal and to do something about it immediately. Speaking after the meeting Dominic Cronin said the ICMSA was absolutely de- termined to focus attention on farm prices, and he repeated the demand made by ICM – SA for legislation to govern the minimum price retailers can pay farmers. Mr Cronin said ICMSA was willing and able to build alliances with any other organisations ded- icated to protecting farm income.