Irish Farmers, Fishermen On Brink Of Ruin After Weeks Of Extreme Weather

[hatrack]

EDIT

Relentless bad weather has caused thousands of hectares of farmland to remain submerged under flood waters while hundreds of trawlers and their fishing crews have been unable to fish for several weeks.

Irish Farmers Association president Eddie Downey said the extreme weather since the start of the year, coupled with the start of the lambing and calving season, was making conditions for farm families around the country "very difficult". He warned that farmers' only sources of income – their farms – remain under water and beyond use. Saturated land means all livestock have to be housed for some time yet with an inevitable increase in workload and costs as a result, he said.

But despite the hardships, consumers will not be paying higher prices because supplies of food coming to market were assured, said farm organisations. And shops are getting supplies of fish from frozen stocks and from imports from Britain.

Most fishermen have not been able to put to sea for the past eight weeks and are suffered "huge stress" with no income to meet mortgage repayments on homes and trawlers, said Francis O'Donnell of the Irish Fish Producers Organisation (IRPO).

EDIT

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/extreme-weather-leaves-farmers-and-fishermen-on-brink-of-ruin-30015410.html

[phantom power]

1. "despite the hardships, consumers will not be paying higher prices"

so... it's alllllll good.

[hatrack]

2. Yes, we'll get all the food and energy we need from . . . Somewhere Else!

:happydance:

[Tumbulu]

3. Oh what a nightmare ....

I cannot imagine trying to deal with lambing with the whole farm under water! And here in my part of the world we are in a drought......