Environmental ‘Activists’ and The Fine Art of Projection

Dear Sir: I write as the President of ICMSA, one of the components of the “unholy alliance of farm bodies and industry” identified by Sadhbh O’Neill in her article on Thursday that “is lobbying to shore up the entire fantasy” that is Ireland’s efforts to retain our Nitrates Derogation. I don’t know whether it is a fantasy – nor apparently does the EU Commission that was here just last week looking at our case – but we should probably both defer to Ms O’Neill who would appear to have a much deeper understanding of fantasy, certainly based on this article.

The preamble that attempts to link the case for retaining Ireland’s Nitrates Derogation with the matters pertaining to the Beef Tribunal is plainly intended to introduce the current situation as some kind of sequel (‘They’re back!  And this time it’s personal!’). I’m not even going to bother rebutting the attempted connection because there is no connection. ICMSA had no involvement with the Tribunal, nor for that matter did farmers in general. Using the Beef Tribunal as a scene-setter just gives Ms O’Neill her chance to offer readers her preferred lenses through which they should view Irish farming and wider agri sector. It’s perfectly plain what she’s trying to say: the situation might change, but the intention to deceive and act corruptly remain the same. This is not reportage or analysis; this is common abuse and a slur. It’s unworthy of what was once a newspaper of reputation and record.

Farmers having been handed their ‘Black Hat’, Ms O’Neill moves on to the revelation that “relationships between industry, farm bodies, State agencies, political parties and academic expertise have been painstakingly mapped by investigative outfit DeSmog and a comprehensive ‘influence map’ has been published”.

I’ll happily admit that ‘influence map’ is a new one on me; I hadn’t heard it before. In the context in which Ms. O’Neill uses it, it seems to refer to an overlap that has a farmer (say myself) who’s a member of ICMSA, sitting on a state or other board, which I do in my capacity as President of ICMSA. This, we are to understand, is a kind of ‘tentacles of the octopus’, whereby unscrupulous farm leaders (me again, I suppose) are placed in position in which they can operate with others as a kind of shady cabal coordinating and influencing State policy towards retention of Ireland’s Nitrates Derogation and the resultant destruction of our rivers and waterways. All achieved through arm-twisting duly elected politicians to enrich our farmer-members with only a doughty group of incorruptible and clear-eyed visionaries (Ms O’Neill and her associates) standing in our way.

And it is intriguing and entertaining in a kind of 1970s ‘Scooby-Doo’ plotline fashion. But, if I and the other farmers are operating as a shady cabal directing State policy on behalf of our farmer-members from the shadows and using that overlapping power mapped out by DeSmog, where’s the evidence?  The dairy farmers that ICMSA represents have seen their income fall by 69% in just the last year. That’s not a misprint: According to the Teagasc National Farm Survey published in August, dairy farm incomes fell by 69% in year 2023.

I imagine what Ms. O’Neill is going to say: that Teagasc are part of the same ‘map’ and they’re in on the racket as well; another part of the “unholy alliance”.  But I don’t think that maths can be classified as part of the conspiracy and the data is right there for anyone to look at. Based on the Teagsc figures published, we calculated – and I stated at the time – that an average Irish dairy farmer working a normal 60-hour week was coming out with less than the minimum wage before meeting any debt repayments. So much for the ‘influence map’.

ICMSA doesn’t want to rubbish the idea of an ‘influence map’; it’s a free country and Sadhbh and DeSmog are perfectly entitled to draw any conclusions they want. What others will understand as an attempt by State bodies and agri-food concerns to have some input from the farmers on whose work and produce everything else rests, she chooses to understand as “an unholy alliance” formed to destroy our rivers and lakes. But what about the fact that farmers operating under Derogation are the most heavily regulated in the State? Or that we have numerous instances of Derogation farms right besides pristine waterways? ICMSA thinks that it is possible and logical to retain our Derogation and improve water quality; there’s a lead-in time but measures are already in place. 

Just on that bit about “anonymous shareholders” in the milk processing facilities to whom she makes reference. Who are they? With the exception of Kerry Group, all milk processing facilities are farmer-owned. We’ll wait.

As a matter of record in which we take pride, ICMSA has never – in its near 75 years of existence – made a donation to a political party or ever endorsed one. Not once. While Sadhbh is contemplating that, can we suggest another ‘influence map’ that we think might be much more revealing about ‘who-has-come-from-where’ and overlapping membership. Would DeSmog be interested in mapping out the fascinating – and conspicuously unremarked upon – overlap between environmental NGOs, ‘activists’, media figures and commentators, commercial environmental consultancies, appointment to one or more of the dizzying array of State-supported quangos and eventual candidacy for political parties?

Ms O’Neill thinks we have the politicians’ ears, that they do our bidding. This is what they call ‘projection’. It’s not the farmers who move in the shadows and can offer the ‘plum’ appointments and express queues to boards, bodies, and ballot papers. Everyone can guess which ‘side’ has those gifts in its giving. I won’t speculate; I don’t believe in using papers to slur. 

Sincerely, 

Denis Drennan, President, ICMSA