New Lisbon referendum YES vote assured thanks to the IFA.

international | consumer issues | opinion/analysis Saturday July 26, 2008 11:44 by soldierofdestiny - www.soldiersofdestiny.org

The farmers are prepared to negotiate with Sarkozy.

There is great trepidation among farmers that their stranglehold on the price of basic foodstuffs within the EEU is under threat from Peter Mandelson

An open letter from Padraig Walshe,
President of the IFA
(Impecunious Farmers Association)
Bluebell Lane,
Cuckoo Land.

To the Minister of the Dept of Agriculture & Fisheries
Kildare Street. Dublin.

Dear Mary Coughlan,

I am sorry for blocking the streets around Government Buildings with our new tractors for the 89th time this year, but we are losing patience, so can you ask the Powers-that-be in Brussels, to do something about that interfering british b*stard, Peter Mandleson.
Not only is he determined to cut all the subsidies we get to produce beef that nobody can afford to eat anymore; he has also capped the handouts for dairy farmers who just keep producing more and more milk every year ,and now the poor beasts tits are as sore as the bleedin taxpayers who are being endlessly milked in taxation to pay for higher and higher food prices.
Farming was just becoming such a lucrative business that we were close to amassing sufficient cash to buy a few sites in Ballsbridge and go into the high rise apartment business but your people have made a right hames of that business.
Need I remind you that poor farmers have to buy a milk licence quota from a rich one, if he wants to increase his milk output and make a proper return for his labours. it's scandalous. Where do you think we will get the money from.?
I urge you to use your veto in Brussels if a "milk quota purchase subsidy scheme" is not immediately implemented for poor dairy farmers to help them purchase milk quotas from the rich ones.
The pub restriction/ drinking racket/monopoly, run by many of your comrades and part time TD's in Dail Eireann; in which licences to sell drink change hands for millions of Euros has been long protected, despite the outcry from citizens for more drinking facilities.! It's a total disgrace.
However,my purpose in penning this letter to you is to seek more information about one of the newest setaside schemes for pig farmers.
As you are aware,it is alleged that many of the farmers I represent (beef, cereals, dairy farmers) now get money for doing absolutely nothing.
They get money for not growing corn & wheat or any kind of crop that would normally qualify for C.A.P.subsidies. These payments have been consolidated recently into an annual pension scheme for life. Mandleson claims the well is dry, and Europe's taxpayers have been bled almost to death, to keep us in our poverty.

We now get additional monies for trimming our hedges, and putting out food to feed the hungry pigeons and crows,who cannot eat the cereals (which we dont grow any more). We must now be compensated under the environmental protection scheme for not cutting turf on our bogs any more, as the price of oil has skyrocketed,and is beyond the affordability of the average poor farmer.
I understand there is a new grant in the offing, for the purchase of barbed wire and the maintainance of new fences, to keep hillwalkers and tourists from trespassing on so called 'setaside' land. please let us have full details of this scheme.
I understand there will also be new grants for those of us who promise not to use harmful pesticides, and are willing to build massive containment pools so the pig and cattle slurry does not contribute to the numerous outbreaks of Clostrosporidium poisoning among city folk in Galway and elsewhere who are now suing the local authorities for their long history of neglect in th matter of polluted lakes and rivers.
Now to the main business..
A neighbour of mine-a pig farmer- recently received a cheque for 5000 Euros from Brussels for not rearing pigs. As we do not represent pig producers, we were completely unaware of this.I amd my many comrades (120,000) in the I.F.A. would now like to go into the "not rearing pigs" business.!
In the opinion of your army of agricultural advisors,what is the best kind of good farming practice when not rearing pigs and which is the best breed not to rear.?
We want to be sure our members approach this new endeavour in keeping withGovernment policy as dictated by the EEU under the Common Agriculture Policy.
we would prefer not to rear bacon pigs, but if this is not the type of pig you want us not to rear, we will just as gladly not rear porkers.
Are there any advantages in not rearing rare breeds such as Saddlebacks or Gloucester Old Spots,or are there too many people not rearing these.?
As I see it,the hardest part of this programme will be keeping an accurate record of how many pigs I haven't reared.Are there any government or Local Authority courses provided by Teagasc on this.?
I recall that some years ago many of our members who were unskilled in keeping track of their sheep on the Cooley Mountains, inadvertently miscalculated the size of their herds and received subsidies for "phantom" sheep. We do not wish to see a recurrence of this problem with our "phantom" pigs.
My neighbour who has been rearing pigs for many years is very satisfied with this business.The best profit he ever made on them was 1500 Euros in 1972.
That is-until this year when he received a cheque for 3000 euros for not rearing any.
If we get say, 3000 Euros for not rearing 50 pigs, will I get 6000 Euros for not rearing 100.?
Most I.F.A. members plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding themselves down to about 4,000 pigs not reared the first year, which will generate income of about 240,000 Euros.
As they become more expert in not rearing pigs they will likely become more ambitious, not rearing perhaps 40,000 pigs in the second year from which each one would expect to qualify for about 2.4 million Euros in Department of Agriculture grants, the second year.
Incidentally we wonder if we would be entitled to receive tradeable carbon credits for all those pigs not producing harmful anf polluting methane gases.? Another point:These pigs that I plan to rear will not eat 200 tons of cereals. As we already receive payments for not growing crops on "setaside land" will we qualify for extra payments for not growing the extra cereals not needed to not feed the pigs I don't rear.?
I am also interested in the proposed "not milking cows scheme" which will compensate farmers who are not eligible for subsidies under the current milk "quota" scheme.
Please send me any information you have on that too.
With regard to the current DEFRA advice on set aside fields, do you propose to extend the payments to e-commerce based farmers with virtual fields (of which I and my members will shortly have several thousand hectares.?)
In view of the above you will realise that our members may not have time to engage in the normal activities of actually producing anything, and are likely to be totally unemployed and will therefore qualify for unemployment benefit.
We shall continue to support Fianna Fail in future elections.We only said NO to our generous European partners,recently, as a muscle flexing exercise in case you had forgotten where the real power is..
If you get rid of that b*stard Mandleson rest assured of a "Yes" outcome in the next Lisbon Referendum.
Yours faithfully, Padraig Walsh. Chairman. I.F.A,