The Manx National Farmers’ Union put a blunt question to election candidates last night: who will feed us?
Around 40 prospective MHKs attended the MNFU event, joined by the Chief Minister and the DEFA Minister, for a discussion centred on food security and the future of local production.
President Murray Cringle set out the Union’s position before candidates questioned commodity chairs across meat and livestock, crops, dairy, marketing and education.
Issues raised included animal welfare, the future of the Meat Plant, export costs, routes to market, government use of Manx produce, agricultural loans, tree‑planting pressures and the growing instability of global food supplies.
Kirree Kermode, Vice President of the MNFU, said these concerns reach far beyond farming: they are political, economic and food‑security issues that affect every household on the island.
The Union’s message was direct: farmers want to grow food and leave the land in good condition for the next generation, but they must be able to make a living.
If they cannot, the MNFU warned, younger farmers will not take over, and the island will become increasingly dependent on an already unstable global supply chain.
Candidates were urged to back local production, support viable farming businesses, improve routes to market, use Manx produce in government procurement, help farmers invest and modernise, and create conditions that allow the next generation to take over.
Food security, the Union said, is not something that can be switched on only when a crisis arrives.
