Latest news with #Drennan
Extra.ie
2 days ago
- Business
- Extra.ie
Furious farmers back EU-wide ban on plant-based products 'hijacking' meat terminology
Furious farmers have shared their support for an EU-wide ban on vegetarian and vegan food producers using meat-related words to sell their products New rules are currently under draft by the European Commission which would result in the food producers being banned from using words such as sausage and burger to 'camouflage' their products. The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA), who represent farmers locally and internationally, have said they welcome the new restrictions under review. Furious farmers have shared their support for an EU-wide ban which on vegetarian and vegan food producers using meat-related words to sell their products. Pic: Getty Images President Denis Drennan said the use of meat terminology to market veggie foods was 'deliberate and cynical and must constitute a breach of any trade descriptions act as commonly understood.' Mr Drennan said the terms were being 'hijacked' in an attempt to 'camouflage' non-meat products. He said while 'people are free to eat whatever they want,' farmers are 'irritated' by the fact that those trying to 'replace naturally produced meat and dairy' are using words 'generally understood to refer to' those products. He said while 'people are free to eat whatever they want,' farmers are 'irritated' of the fact that those trying to 'replace naturally produced meat and dairy' are using words 'generally understood to refer to' those products. Pic: Getty Images 'Rather than come up with their own terms and descriptions, they simply appropriate the names of the very good they're trying to replace and supplant,' Mr Drennan said, 'It's unbelievably cynical.' Mr Drennan added that it was confirmation from corporations that 'they know they're unable to convince consumers by their own efforts or merits.' The ICMSA President added: 'The fact that they're being allowed to 'camouflage' and take advantage of people's understanding is wrong and will have to be addressed.' It comes as French MEP Céline Imart proposed an amendment which banned plant-based products from being labelled with a long list of terms typically linked to animal products. The European Court of Justice has already ruled that non-dairy products cannot be described as milk and cheese.
The Journal
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Journal
Farmers back EU Commission proposal that would ban vegetarian products using terms like ‘burger'
IRISH FARMERS ARE backing an EU Commission proposal that would ban plant-based products from using terms such as 'burger' and 'sausage'. Last year, the EU Court of Justice ruled that plant-based foods can continue to be sold and promoted using terms traditionally associated with meat, as long as it does not mislead consumers. A 2021 French law had banned the use of meat-related terms such as 'veggie burgers' or 'vegan sausages' from being used to market foods made from plant-based proteins. But advocacy groups, including the European Vegetarian Union, challenged this and the EU Court of Justice ruled that member states cannot prevent manufacturers of plant-based protein foods from using common descriptive names to label products. However, a French MEP has rekindled the argument. The EU Commission is currently drafting proposals for the reform of the common market organisation regulation, which allows for changes to rules governing agricultural products. French MEP Céline Imart last month added in an amendment to the Commission proposals that would mean only meat products could use terms like 'steak', 'burger', and 'sausage'. Her amendment would also ban 'cell-cultured products' from using these terms. Advertisement President of Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA), Denis Drennan, has said that the use of terms like 'sausage' and 'burger' for vegetarian or vegan foods is 'deliberate and cynical'. 'It must constitute a breach of any trade descriptions act as commonly understood,' he added. Drennan also described the use of such terms for plant-based food as the 'hijacking of traditional meat terms'. He added that is 'constitutes an admission by the corporations involved that they were unable to convince consumers other than by such 'camouflage''. He said farmers are 'irritated' to see non-meat products 'want to replace our naturally produced meat' using terms that 'they know are generally understood to refer to traditional dairy and products'. 'They want to use our terminology and the acceptance borne of centuries that those terms have amongst the general public to effectively 'smuggle' their own products past a sceptical public,' he added. He also claimed that such terms 'have a degree of acceptance and understanding that was hard earned by farmers'. 'Rather than come up with their own terms and descriptions, they simply appropriate the names of the very foods they're trying to replace and supplant,' said Drennan. 'The fact that they're being allowed to 'camouflage' and take advantage of people's understanding is wrong and will have to be addressed.' Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Agriland
3 days ago
- Politics
- Agriland
12 EU member states want animal-sourced food names protected
12 EU member states have supported a call for the European Commission to introduce protections on traditional animal-sourced food names so they cannot be used on plant-based food labels. The delegation from the Czech Republic presented a paper on the issue at a meeting of agriculture ministers in the Council of the EU this week. The Czech paper was supported by 11 other member states, including Ireland. The document said that the food market in the EU is increasingly composed of products that consist only of plant-based ingredients and are similar in appearance, taste and consistency to products of animal origin. These plant-based foods are very often labelled with the names belonging to meat, eggs, honey, fish, and products made from them. However, the paper said that plant-based products differ substantially from food products of animal origin, particularly in terms of composition and nutritional value. The Czech submission said that it is 'essential' that foods which imitate, mimic or substitute foods of animal origin do not mislead the consumer by their labelling as to their true nature. Protection of names is already in place for products for the dairy sector. However, no other protection of food names is in place at EU level for other animal-sourced products, and some member states are considering the introduction of reserved names for other food of animal origin at national level. The member states involved in the paper are calling for 'harmonisation of legal protection' to be provided on food names. They are seeking a legislative proposal from the commission to protect the names of animal origin, providing them with similar protection that already exists for milk and dairy products. The pressure on the commission to protect names of animal-sourced food has been welcomed by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA). ICMSA president Denis Drennan claimed that the inclusion of terms such a 'sausage' or 'burger' in vegetarian or vegan foods 'was deliberate and cynical'. He said that the 'hijakcing' of traditional meat and dairy terms 'actually constitutes an admissions by the corporations involved that they were unable to convince consumers other than by such camouflage'. 'Obviously, people are free to eat whatever they want but it is a matter of considerable irritation to farmers to see the very people and corporations who want to replace our naturally produced meat and dairy with their own non-meat and non-dairy products very deliberately using the terms that they know are generally understood to refer to traditional dairy and meat products,' Drennan said. 'They want to use our terminology and the acceptance borne of centuries that those terms have amongst the general public to effectively smuggle their own products past a sceptical public.' The ICMSA president said it is 'no longer tenable to allow non-dairy and non-meat products to advertise and promote themselves using terms and language associated with the traditional foods these vegetarian and vegan products are attempting to supplant'. 'It's self-evidently wrong that products that contain not a trace of meat are being sold as 'sausage' or 'burger' and being marketed in this disingenuous way. These corporations…are quite deliberately playing on people's desire for healthy, traditional, meat-based foodstuffs while actually substituting real meal ingredients with cheaper and more processed vegetable and plant-derived elements,' Drennan said.
The Herald Scotland
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
What would happen if we set a lifespan of 65 to cut cost of old folk?
People can buy and sell time to each other, and TimeTrad's less scrupulous employees are not above tricking them out of it either. With executives on one side rich enough to live past 100, and junkies on the other with only hours left, James Calgary, 34, has traded away most of his allotted years in the belief that he would be left decades of life in a bequest, only to be bitterly disappointed. Read More: Trading time crops up again in the title story, with two old death artists, Drennan and Pilgrew – men who have turned suicide into spectacle by killing themselves repeatedly before huge crowds – meeting after years of estrangement. Drennan considers himself an artist, and feels personally slighted that Pilgrew has come to regard their vocation as nothing more than a fairground attraction. Some of Mackenzie's imaginary futures feel disturbingly close to home, like 'Buy or Be Bought', depicting a land of turbo-consumerism where people are forced to buy unwanted and unnecessary goods, able to stem the tide of pointless purchases only by buying Decline privileges, which can cost more than the junk that's continually being foisted on them. (Image: PA) Or 'Eden Rich', set in the offices of Victor Pelling, who has devised a way of implanting information directly into the brain. A novella-length sci-fi political thriller, it addresses the increasing political power of tech bros – though the fact that neither press nor politicians figure out Pelling's means of acquiring it feels like a bit of an oversight. At a time when students are already getting ChatGPT to do their work for them, it also hints at abolishing education by programming knowledge into children. 'Certain Things About McFarlane' marks a departure from fantastical, if worryingly familiar, futures towards a more abstract science fantasy, introducing Richard McFarlane, a professor of Polypragmatics, who is scheduled to be the opening speaker at a conference. As he goes to his room to prepare, however, he becomes dislocated in time and space. McFarlane's ordeal isn't meant to be taken as a dream, but nevertheless it's rare to read a piece of writing that so convincingly replicates the logic of how dreams progress, a feeling heightened by the character's panic as the time for his speech approaches and he's still no nearer his destination. This story also marked the point I realised how eager I was to turn the page and see what Mackenzie's imagination had brought forth for the next one. There's more to speculative fiction than anticipating worst-case scenarios for present-day anxieties, and Mackenzie's flights of imagination are as intriguing and compelling as they are relevant, questioning where we're going as a society and what we're prepared to sacrifice to get there.
Irish Independent
10-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
‘Food prices must remain at current levels or rise if farmers are to make a margin'
'The reality is if the farmer is not getting paid for what they are producing, they will not stay farming,' he said. 'Young people will not say this is a vocation when you have a mortgage and bills to be paid, and kids to be put through college – you have to make a margin. 'There are no vocations out there anymore – there are other options. If you don't have young people coming in, the industry dies.' Drennan, a dairy farmer from Kilkenny, said the 50c/L currently being paid to dairy farmers is giving them a margin, but milk prices have fluctuated and will continue to do so. 'If the milk price was 34c/L, then there is no margin. Go back to 2023 when the milk price collapsed at the beginning of the year and by August, it was down to around 33c-34c/L,' he said. 'The reality of dairy farming in 2024 is that the average dairy farmer income was well below the minimum legal hourly wage.' He said it 'should be easy for people to join the dots – if your electricity bill and fuel for your car has gone up, so have farmers' bills'. If the price of food goes up 5-10pc, there is a national outcry, but if the price of Sky or Netflix goes up, it's OK He said Eurostat figures show Ireland was paying 38pc of income on food in 1980 and now it's less than 9pc, and we are the lowest in Europe. Ireland is only one of two countries in the EU where less than 10pc of family income is spent on food, with the average spend 14.3pc. 'If the price of food goes up 5-10pc, there is a national outcry, but if the price of Sky or Netflix goes up, it's OK.' The price of a weekly shop is rising at more than double the general rate of inflation, according to new figures from grocery data firm Kantar. ADVERTISEMENT Grocery prices were up 4.96pc by May 18, compared to the same 12-week period last year, according to the data. That's well over double the general rate of inflation, which the Central Statistics Office puts at 1.4pc in the year to the end of May. Grocery prices are also rising twice as fast as they were in the same period last year, Kantar said. Earlier CSO data in May showed the price of a pound of butter had risen by close to €1 over the past year to an average of €4.69, a surge of more than 26pc. Recent figures from the CSO show that in the 12 months to March 2025, the Agricultural Output Price Index rose by 20.8pc. The most significant output price increases in the 12 months to March 2025 were in cattle (+40.4pc), milk (+17.6pc) and sheep (+4.3pc), while decreases were recorded in potatoes (-9.3pc) and vegetables (-1.6pc).
