Greens 'a positive force for many farmers in Ireland', says Hackett

Senior Green Party representatives are meeting with farmers, environmentalists and their organising bodies at the National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska this week.

Top of the Green Party’s agenda is to dispel false notions of being in opposition to the farming community. At a bustling exhibition space, the Party’s grassroots members and local election candidates are surveying attendees and aiming to recruit more members from farming backgrounds.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and Laois-Offaly Senator Pippa Hackett said:

“The Green Party has been a positive force for many farmers across Ireland in Government. From the hugely increased organic farming payment rates to the new €1.3 billion euro forestry scheme which will put thousands of euros in farmers pockets for planting trees on their land. There are those who want to chain us to the past and pretend that the Green Party is against farming and against rural Ireland. The opposite is true. As a farmer myself, I know first-hand that farming and nature are absolutely compatible and provide a more sustainable income and a better way of life.

“Our experience at the Ploughing shows that farmers want to do their best to protect nature, and with the right Government supports in place, this is possible and will form the basis of the sustainable farming model we need to embrace for the future.”

Listening to farmers at last year’s Ploughing found that startup costs and ‘red tape’ were the biggest barriers farmers faced in engaging with environmental projects.

The Green Party stand can be found at The Hub, Block 4, Row 35, Stand 536, Units 71-74.