[ormondsview]

Yes, now with the bailout, who can predict what kinds of necessary evils will be foisted upon the Irish farm industry. Perhaps, as in Canada, cheap land will be bought up by agribusiness and new scientifically engineered vegetables and animals could invade the marketplace. If you're interested in the worst case scenario now playing out in my end of the world, have a look at the series in the Globe and Mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/global-food/

which is our best newspaper. Of course, our agricultural laws are less strict towards GM produce than in the EU, but given the way the global economy is going, there is much to fear. Yes, I did notice that the farm fresh eggs, milk, veg (much dearer in the market stores) had far superior flavor than our Canadian supermarket brands. Hope that it doesn't affect Irish farming in time to come.

[Belfast]

there are big drops in the price of farming land.
there is a good graph in the link below comparing prices of land in euriope before the price drop in Ireland
http://irelandafternama.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/euro-land-values2.jpg

http://resources.knightfrank.com/GetResearchResource.ashx?id=11822

http://irelandafternama.wordpress.com/tag/land-prices/

Looks like france seems a good place to buy land.
Hope the price of land for gardening keeps going down.

[ormondsview]

Yes, zoned land in Ireland was once the most expensive in the EU when the building boom was on and from what I heard, builders were getting grants to put up 5 houses to qualify for government incentives. Now there's a surplus of unfinished and vacant structures and bankrupt investors. The lesson is an old one. Don't use someone else's money. The stock market is a gamble. Buy land and pay it off.

On a more happy note, anyone read any good books lately? It seems that all the literary award winners and depressing stories written in the modern style about cold, miserable people who live with past horrors and can't move on. Looking for a good yarn, especially escapist material.

[sunnymount farm]

It's definately a concern ormondsview but I can't see ireland going down that route. The irish landscape of smaller farms in general is probably less appealing to corporate land buyers for agriculture.

[medieval knievel]

ireland probably needs to concentrate more on value added products - e.g. cheeses, which seems to be a burgeoning sector which ireland has not been historically strong in.

[Blowin]

For Ormondesview, you might like to try the Stieg Larsson trilogy. They'll probably be in your local library but make sure you read them in order, beginning with 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'.

As regards the horticultural future of Ireland, it'll need a sea change of attitude in both the business community and the private population as a whole to minimise the effects of the financial downturn. There are a whole host of opportunities out there (cheese has already been mentioned) but, as I know to my cost, if you approach businesses with a product design to develop, they ignore e-mails or never ring you back and much of the benefit that COULD be derived from the upturn in domestic food production, both in Ireland and abroad, will be snapped up by others.

In another thread I was reminded that there are commercial backers who sponsor this fabulous site. I therefore looked up the price of an item I know the UK price of and found it costing €50 here against £28 in the UK so, even with post and packing, it'll be cheaper on line. Whatever the excuse might be, this sort of thing can't go on?