Back to basics as we realise again the value of our food

Country Living with Francis Farragher

I just wonder at times have our ruling classes just completely lost the plot. For the last decade or so we’ve been pummelled with information and data as to why we need to cut down on food production on our farms and why we need to set aside land for min-nature reserves.

Suddenly, a war breaks out, and while it might not be at our doorsteps here in Ireland, it certainly is at Europe’s front window, as one of the great grain and food supplying countries of the planet, is now faced with an apocalyptic wipe-out by the neighbours from hell.

Last week, while chatting to a few people involved in the business of farming remarked to me how it had taken a war to make us all realise that we need to have some degree of self-sufficiency in terms of the basics of life such as food and fuel.

I am of an age when I can remember tales from my late parents of what things were like in Ireland during World War II and the necessity arose to ration such commodities as food, fuel, clothing and even cigarettes.

In any of those conversations that I remember from childhood, the second world war was always called ‘The Emergency’, as Ireland balanced precariously on the edge of Europe, managed to keep their snouts out of the direct conflict.

It was though a time, I was always reminded of by my parents, when everyone realised the value of being able to produce enough food for survival. By all accounts, basic it might have been, but in the main we were able to feed ourselves, in contrast to what happened just over 100-years before that.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.