Ella McSweeney's posts: Recent Episodes
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Wendell Berry reads part of Welsh poet RS Thomas' poem "Lore"
wendellberry #rsthomas #ellamcsweeney #farming #poetry #poems #wales
Wendell Berry reads his poem "The Peace of Wild Things" while sitting in his house in Henry County, Kentucky. Recorded as part of BBC Radio 4 doc on Berry for The Food Programe - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b066tk2c
wendellberry #kentucky #poetry #poems #farming #food #ellamcsweeney #bbc #bbcradio4 #fooodprogramme
Wendell Berry has been described as 'An American Hero' but his work and teaching have inspired and influenced leaders, writers and campaigners around the world. Ella McSweeney had no hesitation in choosing him as her 'Food Hero' and travels to meet him at his farm in Kentucky. She explains why his work affected her so profoundly, even thousands of miles away in Ireland.
As a leading and respected farmer, writer, campaigner, philosopher and poet, he wrote that "Eating is an agricultural act" yet argues we have become disconnected from the land by the industrialisation of the food chain, that the growth of agribusiness has driven many small farms out of business with a loss of their 'moral fibre and wisdom' and is destroying rural communities. He argues we must acknowledge the impact of agriculture to society.
Yet despite his widespread influence he lives at a different pace to the majority - using horses to work the land and refusing to get a computer.
For those unfamiliar with his work Ella will explain just how significant he's been on politicians and game-changers and, for those who know him already, a chance to hear his thoughts on how to feed ourselves without destroying the land and plant we have.
Ella also visits the city of Louisville to see how people are putting his thoughts into action in projects that provide access to fresh food and but also unite communities otherwise divided.
Presented by Ella McSweeney Produced by Anne-Marie Bullock.
bbc #bbcradio4 #ellamcsweeney #wendellberry #farming #food #louisville #america #foodpolitics #foodpolicy #kentucky
Ella hears from the Irish who are involved in the food business in New York - Pat Coleman who runs Food Ireland near the Bronnx. #rtecountrywide #rteradio1 #rte #radio #newyork #irishfood #ireland #irish #farming #food #butter #foodireland #ellamcsweeney #damienoreilly
ireland #irish #pigs #pig #food #farming #irishfarming #irishfarmers #carlow #irishpigsociety #irishpigs #breed #pig #pork #rte #rteradio #rteradio1 #countrywide #rtecountrywide #damienoreilly #ellamcsweeney
Ella meets dairy farmer & cheese producer Keeley Mc Garr of Keeley's Cheese Company in New York (www.keeleyscheeseco.com) and hears how Ireland inspired her, and how @cornell university is helping her develop her products. (For RTE Radio 1's Countrywide)
With rising levels of obesity in Ireland, particularly among younger people, should a fast food restaurant be allowed to be built beside a school? That's the question that residents of Navan are facing with the news that a fast food outlet has been given planning permission beside a secondary and primary school in the town, despite objections by both schools and the HSE, among others. The principal of St Joseph's school has now appealed to An Bord Pleanala.
The development will bring with it 40 jobs and there are people who support it. Ella McSweeney travelled to Navan to hear from all sides…
RTE Radio 1's Countrywide
rte #rteradio #radio #obesity #schools #fastfood
Charles Smith set up 'Farmers to Market' - a collective of 12 commercial free-range chicken farmers in Monaghan and Cavan. But in
Kildare farmer Paul Brophy is a commercial broccoli grower. Here he shows Ella McSweeney how his broccoli is grown, harvested and packaged, and explains why the future of vegetable growing in Ireland is about scale.
Report for BBC Farming Today with contributions from Teagasc head, Prof Gerry Boyle, and Roscommon farmer Brian Costello
bbcradio4 #farmingtoday #bbcradio #bbc #ellamcsweeney #farming #food #dairy #cows #milk #farm #uk #ireland #roscommon #land #teagasc #farmers #milkquotas #capreform #cap
Presented by Ella McSweeney. By 2050 the population of the world is expected to grow to over 9 billion and proponents of "vertical farming" believe growing food in cities would use less land and resources than traditional outdoor methods, reduce transport costs and fossil-fuel emissions.
As vertical farms start to spring up in Sweden, Vancouver and the Netherlands, Ella McSweeney investigates whether they could provide a cost-effective solution that will increase yields or if it is just another example of head in the clouds utopian thinking.
Prod: Clare Walker.
bbcradio4 #bbc #farming #food #verticalfarming #manchester #netherlands #cornell #columbia #newyork #bbcradio #ellamcsweeney
Bacteria aren’t always fussy about where to settle down and multiply; the gut of a human, a pig or a cow will do nicely. But they’re not the only thing we share with farm animals. When the bacteria turn nasty, we use many of the same antibiotics to treat our infections.
We know that antibiotic resistance is a problem. “One of the most serious public health challenges we face”, says the head of the European Centre for Disease Prevention & Control, Dr Marc Sprenger. Hardly a surprise, given that it kills 25,000 Europeans each year.
The European Commission wants to do something about this. They published a plan in 2011. Half of the actions address use of antibiotics on farms.
But it turns out that we know little about antibiotic use on Irish farms, because the Department of Agriculture does not collect the information.
Ella McSweeney has written on this issue for the Irish Times (below) and she joined RTE Radio 1's Pat Kenny to discuss...
Irish Times article - http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2013/0225/1224330475957.html
rte #rteradio #rteradio1 #ellamcsweeney #antibiotics #farming #food #farmers #pigs #poultry
Ex-Department vet, Paddy Kirwan, says that Veterinary Ireland (the representative body for vets) called on Department of Agriculture to set up a centralised database of horses in Ireland back in 2010.
Ireland's Chief Veterinary Officer, Martin Blake, tells Damien O'Reilly on RTE's Countrywide that the Department of Agriculture does not know the number of horses in the country.
Tullamore beef farmer John Cleary expresses his shock and anger about the recent horseburger saga in Ireland
Stephen Philpott of the Ulster Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals talks about the illegal horse meat trade in Ireland & the UK.
Ella speaks with dairy farmer David Tiernan on his Co. Louth farm about why he sells raw milk; she also talks with the head of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Prof Alan Reilly, who believes the sale of it should be prohibited. (for BBC Radio 4's Farming Today).
bbcradio4 #farmingtoday #bbc #bbcradio #ellamcsweeney #milk #rawmilk #farmers #farming #food
Raw, unpasteurised milk is legal to sell in Ireland. For years, the Department of Agriculture & the Food Safety Authority of Ireland have insisted that they will ban the sale of raw milk. They now say they will introduce legislation for regulated sales. Prof Alan Reilly is head of FSAI.
Alo Mohan, a poultry farmer from Cavan, tells Ella why poultry farmers are in crisis. She also talks to poultry processor, Vincent Carton.
(RTE Radio 1's farming and food series, Countrywide, presented by Damien O'Reilly)
In the early 1990s, there were 1,000 abattoirs in Ireland. Today, that number is just 200. One farmer who is bucking the trend is Galway's Ronan Byrne, a poultry farmer, who will open his new abattoir next week.
Ronan's blog - http://thefriendlyfarmer.blogspot.ie
Galway poultry farmer Ronan Byrne has built a new on-farm abattoir. He will use it to finish 200 chickens a week, along with his pasture-reared turkeys, geese and ducks.
A tree packed full of gregarious starlings in the village of Tarbert, Co. Kerry. (image by the Irish artist Vincent Sheridan - http://www.print.ie/detail.php?category_id=3&id=192)
Irish farmers protesting in Portlaoise talk to Ella about the problems they are experiencing at the moment. For Farming Today @bbcradio4
Tom is a young full time dairy farmer in East Cork. He talks to Ella (for BBC Radio 4's Farming Today show) and tells her why the Irish Farmers Association should not be protesting on the streets of Dublin today.
Alo Mohan is a chicken farmer in Cavan. He tells Ella why he fears for the future of Irish poultry sector. (For RTE Radio 1's Countrywide programme - www.rte.ie/radio1/countrywide)
Pig paternity tests are being used to fight meat mislabelling in Ireland. After three years of work the Irish Farmers Association has set up a pig DNA database which will be used to spot check pork and bacon. Ella McSweeney travels to Tipperary to meet pig farmer Tim Cullinan who spearheaded the project.
It's been a dreadful year for many apple varieties. The cold spring and wet summer has resulted in a decimated eating crop across most of the country.
There are 40 commercial apple growers in Ireland - it’s a sector with a retail value of Euro 17 million - and their crop is set to be down by 50% on 2011.
So what is going on? Ella McSweeney travelled to Tipperary to visit Cornelius Traas’ commercial apple farm just outside of Cahir to see how his eating crop has faired and to find out why this year has been such an awful one for apples...
Cornelius Traas, a commercial apple farmer from Tipperary (http://www.theapplefarm.com), says Ireland's apple crop will be severely reduced this season.
Irish pig farmer Tim Cullinan talks to Ella about the pressures pig farmers are under because of rising feed costs. He says it's time a supermarket ombudsman be appointed in Ireland.
A 'mini-cow' breed that stands at just 4 feet in height and thrives on poor quality upland areas, is making a comeback in Ireland. The Dexter breed is native to the country but until recent years, numbers were very low. One of the farmers who's rejuvenating this breed is Dr. Steve Collins from Bedfordshire. He spent most of his life working on humanitarian projects in Africa .
Today, he lives on a remote 140 acre farm in West Cork. I travelled high up into the mountains to meet him and his herd of little Dexter cows.
GM crop trials have been given the go-ahead in Ireland. Ella McSweeney travels to Teagasc (Ireland's semi-state agricultural authority) where the trials will be conducted. She talks to scientist Dr John Spink http://www.agresearch.teagasc.ie/oakpark who shows her the site where the GM potatoes will be planted. She also talks to Gillian Westbrook @gillianiofga of http://iofga.org and Wicklow farmer Michael Keegan http://www.waterfallfarm.ie/ @waterfallfarm
Wicklow dairy farmer Aidan Harney @ballymorefarm opens the gates of his sheds and watches as his herd of cows run out to the fields for the first time in four months...
Aidan tells Ella about his week old Ayrshire calf and explains how farming is going for him at the moment
It's only the females who give goat milk; in commercial goat herds, the males are usually killed at birth because they are surplus to requirement.
Two years ago, Westmeath farmer Claudia Marl decided to test the market for goat meat: she kept the males and sold the meat to a Dublin butcher.
In tonight's Ear to the Ground, Ella meets Claudia to hear her story. According to Teagasc, the potential for goat meat for export is there.
Ella McSweeney goes deer stalking in Wicklow with Angus Lee, game keeper at Killruddery House, and Ed Hick, a master butcher from Dublin.
Connemara Hill Lamb has an EU PGI label - protected geographical indication. The farmers talk about how they got the label and how it has changed their business: www.rte.ie/tv/eartotheground
There is only one local abattoir left in Middleton. It's owned by Frank Murphy, who is the 8th generation butcher in his shop. He cycles too and from the abattoir which is located in a lane way parallel to his butcher shop on Middleton main street. When Frank was younger, there were 7 abattoirs in the town. He talks to Ella about his life as a butcher and abattoir owner, and his 94 year old father Dan remembers what meat his customers bought in the past.
Elizabeth Higgins and Sheila Morgan tell Ella McSweeney about their experiences working as 'Avon Ladies' in 1970s in Dublin...
Brendan Murphy once had a butcher shop on main street, Middleton in Co. Cork. His abattoir was in the back lane. 16 years ago he retired; the abattoir was sold to the county council who demolished it and built houses on the site and his butcher shop is gone.
“Gather up the pots and the old tin cans... the mash, the corn, the barley and the bran...run like the devil from the excise man...keep the smoke from rising barney...keep your eyes well peeled today, the excise men are on their way...”
And we all know what the ‘mountain tay’ the excise men were looking for in the hills of Connemara! Poitin.
It’s long associated with illegality: first outlawed back in 1661, it was relatively recently, in 1997, when the Revenue Commissioners permitted the licensed sale of it within Ireland.
Ella meets Mairtin MacConrai, a part time farmer from Leitir Moir, Connemara, who first made poitin with his father 50 years ago. She also visits Cooley Distillery in Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath where they are making 1,000 bottles of 65% proof poitin; she talks to head distiller Alex Chasko and manager, Brian Quinn.
Máirtín MacConrai tells Ella about his experiences making poitin with his father in rural Connemara 50 years ago...
Máirtín MacConrai lives in Connemara and here describes how he used to make poitín with his father 50 years ago.
Robbie Fitzsimmons - East Ferry Farm, Middleton.
"The price per kilo we need to get to be sustainable is becoming a huge issue with imports"
Feminist Hilda Tweedy founded the Irish Housewives Association in 1942. In this piece, from RTE Radio 1's History Show with Diarmuid Ferriter, her life is recollected by Sylvia Meehan, Aisling Farrell and her children Jean and Bob.
Anne O'Connor, who lives in Southhill, Limerick, on the issue of obesity and food poverty. Southhill is one of the most disadvantaged areas in Ireland.
Anne Connor of Southhill in Limerick explains the difficulty of accessing healthy food in her community, which is one of the most disadvantaged in Ireland.
For more info: http://www.healthyfoodforall.com/ & http://www.southillareacentre.ie/
“The cold gleam of silver wasn’t just irresistible to the people of the Viking Age, but to generations of the Irish ever since”.
So said the late UCD historian Francoise Henry who recognised that if there’s one metal that’s strongly associated with the Irish, it’s silver. From early Christian church chalices, to 18th century forks, to contemporary earrings and necklaces - the use of silver by craftsmen and women in Ireland has a long history.
But it has been difficult to keep the craft of silversmithing alive. It’s thought there are about 12 silversmiths left in the country. Ella McSweeney has visited two of them and she joined Richard this morning.
To the uninitiated, it’s simply a floury white bun - the kind of bread you’d pick up in a bakery without a second thought.
But for those in the know - and that’s all of you listening down in Waterford, for a start! - the Waterford Blaa is much more, because it’s through this saucer-shaped bap that 300 years of history of The Deise can be told...
Today, three bakeries in Waterford are making 12,000 blaas each morning - Walsh’s, Hickeys and Harneys and Ella McSweeney has visited one of them to find out more about this white doughy yeast roll.
Take soda, lime, silica, aluminum oxide and a few other substances, pour into a furnace at 1680 degrees Celsius and you’ve got yourself one of the most common materials around - glass.
When it comes to craft, glass has got Ireland on the world stage. Back in the 1700s, the Penrose brothers set up the Waterford Glass House; soon ships were exporting crystal throughout Europe and beyond. In 1901, An Túr Gloine ‘The Tower of Glass’ cooperative studio was set up, putting Ireland on the map as one of the best countries in the world for stained glass artistry.
No surprise, then, that the tradition of working with glass continues in Ireland...
It wasn’t too long ago when you could buy a blanket, scarf or jumper that was made from wool off an Irish sheep. Not any more. Today, nearly all of the wool used in these products comes from abroad - mainly Merino wool from New Zealand. But there is a small resurgence of interest in “Made in Ireland” wool, and Ella McSweeney has been to counties Donegal and Down to meet farmers and producers who are seeing the value of Irish wool once again.
Throw a few pieces of wood into the fire and you’ve got yourself a nice bit of heat. But do the same thing & restrict the airflow, and you’ve got yourself rocket-fuel - a substance that can heat to nearly 3,000 degrees Celsius, enough to melt iron.
Many of us know charcoal as the smokeless black fuel we use for our summer BBQ’s, but from 5,000 years ago until the 18th Century, charcoal was the fuel that played a vital role in the economy - and everyday lives - of people who lived not only in Ireland, but throughout the world. Put simply, charcoal was the oil or gas of its day.
Well charcoal has been made in Ireland for thousands of years and today, the practice of turning freshly cut wood into charcoal is having something of a comeback.
Ella McSweeney has been to Laois & Westmeath to hear from people who are passionate about charcoal.
There was a time in this country - not long ago - when raw animal hides were transformed into leather. The skins of cows, sheep and even goats were sold by meat factories to local tanneries where the labour-intensive job of turning skin into leather took place.
Not any more. Leather is no longer made in Ireland because all the tanneries have closed down. Like so much in manufacturing, tanning has moved eastwards to China where it can be made for less money.
In her continuing look at goods that are “Made in Ireland”, Ella McSweeney joined Pat on RTE Radio 1 this morning to take a look at Ireland last tannery, and the future for leatherwork in this country.
86 year old Eamon Madden, master blacksmith from Athenry, tells Ella McSweeney about life as a blacksmith. Ella also meets two other people who work with metal - one from Dublin, the other from Clare.
There's been something of a rejuvenation in hop growing in Ireland. While the last commercial hop grower, Simon Mosse in Kilkenny, tells Ella McSweeney why he stopped supplying Guinness a decade ago, Cuilan Loughnane of Tipperary explains why he started his own hop crop for his microbrewery, White Gypsy.