Jim McCarthy rages against the EU machine

The ethics of European politicians in adopting policies which restrict food production while millions in the world starve, have been questioned by one of the world’s biggest farmers.

Irish farmer, Jim McCarthy, who has extensive farming interests in USA, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and Latvia, as well as in Ireland, told the annual meeting in Aberdeen of the North-East of Scotland Farm Management Association that the stance of politicians in limiting production and blocking the use of new technology was “morally indefensible”.

“A minority of eco-fundamentalists have commandeered farm policy with no democratic mandate and we’ve all allowed it to happen,” he said. “A billion people in the world go to bed every night hungry, while our politicians enforce policies which lower production and increase costs. Where’s the ethics in that?”

He railed in particularly against the European Commission’s continued refusal to allow genetically modified crops while the rest of the world was forging ahead with GM technology.

“We are being denied the most exciting technology of all – genetic modification,” he said. “GM has the proven potential to reduce inputs and growing costs, reduce disease in crops and ensure more consistent yields. Large improvements to the environment will follow with less synthetic inputs being used in the form of chemicals. It has to be challenged by both farmers and the scientific lobby.”

He insisted the way forward for the farming industry was to reduce costs and concentrate on producing for commodity markets. Producing for specialised markets meant higher costs and subsidising these markets was holding back the commercialisation of European agriculture.

His views are in sympathy with UK farm minister, Jim Paice, who repeated his mantra in Edinburgh earlier this week that farm subsidies must be phased out.

McCarthy said the loss of subsidies would drive forward efficiency and highlighted New Zealand where efficiency had improved from 1 per cent to 5 per cent a year in the 20 years following the loss of subsidies in 1984.

European farming was over mechanised and he saw no reason, for example, why combine harvesters could not be used to harvest crops in Spain in May and June and then move north to northern European countries where harvesting was much later. He advocated the use of minimum tillage (no ploughing) to reduce the need for heavy machinery and cut energy costs.

How much energy is required to produce a tonne of grain, a litre of milk or a kilo of beef will be the “environmental judge” of the future, he suggested.

McCarthy, whose farming interests include dairy operations of 7000 cows in Missouri and 8000 cows in New Zealand and a 4000 hectare arable operation in Latvia, is now negotiating to acquire a large farm in the Belgian Congo with a view to growing two crops – soya beans followed by grain – each year.