According to the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), Irish tillage farmers are "furious" due to the lack of local barley used by animal feed merchants.

The association’s grain committee chairman Mark Brown said that import of feed ingredients leads to fewer stores remaining for domestic producers and added that if “even a small fraction” of current non-EU corn imports to Ireland would be reduced by benefit of irish barley, this will reduce the problem.

Irish farmers are unhappy that non-EU countries that do not have standards equivalent to Irish grain in terms of sustainability, environment, GMOs, etc., have replaced local barley from livestock with their supplies.

According to the Irish Farmers Association Grain Committee, it's time to “explore the features” of sustainable development schemes in the Irish agricultural sector.

In particular, it needs to be ascertained whether the practice of importing corn produced at lower environmental standards, instead of Irish, is consistent with the objectives of Origin Green, the Irish Food Resilience Program.