Are we willing to accept cheap labour as the price for our cheap food culture?
It seems the Government and the public will no longer tolerate meat plants remaining open while there are active cases of Covid-19 among workers in these plants. Nor should they.
The recent spikes in one meat factory and other food processing facilities call into question the handling of the virus and the cost to human health.
A month ago, after the Oireachtas committee hearing on the Covid-19 situation in meat plants, I wrote that meat factory owners should stop hiding behind Meat Industry Ireland statements.
While moves by the meat processors to introduce increased Covid-19 testing and overhaul factory working conditions are to be welcomed, these don’t address one fundamental question what is the impact of cheap food on society?
There’s nothing new about farmers protesting about the prices they receive for their produce. Year after year, there are campaigns highlighting the impact of belowcost selling on farmers’ incomes.
But, as Darragh McCullough points out on page 6, what do people expect of a system that produces a bag of carrots for 49c or milk for 79c a litre?
Cheap food relies on cheap labour, and production on a vast scale.
But Covid-19 has put the spotlight on the realities of working conditions in the food processing plants that supply our cheap food.
Modern meat processing means we have plenty of cheap meat produced in huge factories.
However, it comes at a price to the farmer and factory workers, and we now face the threat of further plants closing their doors to contain the spread of the virus.
There’s no question that human health is paramount, but now farmers face a possibility of meat factories shutting down for a second successive year as we head into the peak season for livestock sales.
While the pandemic and last year’s beef protests are poles apart, they’ve both exposed the vulnerability and weak links in our cheap food system.
The pandemic has exposed the vulnerability and weak links in our cheap food system