Gabhaim buíochas leis an Leas-Cheann Comhairle agus an Aire Stáit. I am going to take a slightly different approach here as a healthcare professional and also as a farmer’s daughter. It is not going to change the current position but it is just to make the case that essential food molecules, including protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins, minerals and water, are the very things that constitute beef, chicken and grain. Maybe not so much honey, although it primarily has a high carbohydrate content. Essential nutrients such as these should never have been part of a World Trade Organization deal going back 20 years or even well before that. The reality of that is borne out if we take books such as Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat, which was written 13 or 14 years ago by Philip Lymbery, Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken and Food Fight: From Plunder and Profit to People and Planet, written last year by Stuart Gillespie. Despite the gap of 13 years between the first and last of those books being written, they identify some very serious trends. Probably foremost in everybody’s minds is the lack of a fair playing field, traceability, food standards, the inclusion of hormones and the rampant use of antibiotics in foods produced in other jurisdictions. We can look at what global food systems are leading to around the world. This crosses over with climate change and migration. It is key to all those issues that face Europe, including Ireland. Global food systems are currently leading to widespread hunger. Indigenous communities are being moved off their land to make way for supersized farms. Obesity is a very clear problem in this country. Ultra-processed foods and the fast fattening of animals are contributing to a higher fat content and this is making its way to the Irish market. Some 45.9% of Irish household purchases include ultra-processed foods. That is not to mention the hormones and the additives potentially coming in as well. The environmental damage is in itself hypocrisy. Clearing forests and river basins for intensive paddock formation, tillage, etc. in the southern hemisphere is bringing its own problems. We do not know what the ultimate CAP figure is going to be but we need a radical overhaul of our food system, one that prioritises public health, traceability and viability. Essential nutrients should never be part of a trade deal. If we learn nothing else from history, where did the Famine of 1845 to 1848 lead? That was a control of supply of food and cutting off a food supply. When including food in these trade deals, we are at high risk of history repeating itself in the 21st century.

Sentiment score: -0.02