The GIY founder has been on a mission to get Irish people growing their own produce, but now he’s taken on his biggest challenge to date – transforming an abandoned site into a commercially viable vegetable farm. Here, he talks about the rise of UPFs, the hot school meals controversy and why a future where supermarkets stock no Irish vegetables is closer than we think
Mick Kelly. Photo: Dylan Vaughan
In 2000, there were 600 commercial vegetable growers in Ireland. Today, there are only 60, and according to Michael Kelly of Grow It Yourself Ireland, at the rate things are going, in just three years, there could be none at all.
The result will be poorer quality vegetables in supermarkets that have to travel longer distances to get there, with lower nutritional value and higher prices. ‘Whose interest is that in?’ is the question Kelly poses to me over coffee in a Dublin city-centre hotel.