GARRINGREEN HOTSPOT -- Thousands of tractors converged on Dublin last week. While I feel for the crunch farmers must survive in their incomes, I don't think they need a Nanny Net to keep them solvent -- they need to get down off the mountain of handouts and become more sustainable. As Professor Alan Matthews notes, "There will always be an important role for subsidies in farming, to remunerate farmers for environmental services and to assist farming in particularly marginal areas. There is also a role for payments to safeguard incomines. But the core of production agriculture must be encouraged to stand on its own two feet, competing at world market prices. Farmers then have an incentive to maximise their returns from the marketplace by meeting consumer demands." This is the only path to sustainability. [Professor Alan Matthews at Trinity College Dublin] 8:11:25 PM