President Higgins: 'It's a disgrace to have below-cost selling'
President Michael D. Higgins has strongly criticised the practice of below-cost selling in a powerful speech he gave at the 2022 National Ploughing Championships.
The President delivered his wide-ranging remarks today (Tuesday, September 20) at the official opening of this year's event, held in Ratheniska, Co. Laois.
"It is a disgrace to have below-cost selling," President Higgins said.
He also said that there was a responsibility on consumers of food in this regard.
"Consumers, I know these are hard times, but it may be necessary to walk past the cheap inducement if you are in fact standing with the members of your community who are involved in food production," the President said.
He also used his speech to say that urban and rural people in Ireland are "one people".
"Farming, farm families and farming communities are an incredibly important part of not just Ireland’s past, but Ireland’s future," President Higgins commented.
His speech also touched on farm safety.
"I am well aware from meeting families at the Ploughing over the years, that there will be families who will be grieving from the loss of members of their family, or who have suffered serious accidents," he said.
International food security was also a stand-out theme of the president's comments.
"How is it, that out of the several thousand different things that people have eaten on this planet, that we ended up with a dependency on staple foods, on wheat, maize and rice; and that there is now a situation where, instead of the planet feeding its people, we have the people of the planet as victims of monopolies that are controlling the production, the distribution and the storage of the grains of the world?" he asked.
"There is enough food in the world, but it is part of the speculative system. The humanitarian response is important but it is insufficient," President Higgins remarked.
"It is always the tough thing to say: Have you the courage to say to the world 'do your economics differently, respect your planet differently and put people first'," he added.
