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relationships and rapport established between both

themselves and their regular customers and with other
stallholders over the years. The following comments
were typical;
This kind of activity is denitely more social. I have
met a huge number of people through the likes of the
farmers market, its fun.
(Lindy OHara, Coopershill Venison, Co. Sligo)
I love the distribution part, calling to peoples houses,
meeting people.
(John Tait, Aberdeen Angus beef producer)
Finally, one of the most frequently cited benets of
participation in SFSCs is the increased sense of pride and
satisfaction usually associated with more direct sales;
Theres a great bit of pride and satisfaction too,
getting recognition for your work.
In 20 years of dairying, no one ever said that was a
nice glass of milk, but now I have people coming up to
me saying they were lovely eggs or I havent had a
chicken like that since I was a child.
Its brilliant to see your name on something or listed on
a restaurant menu.
3.2.2 Difculties Associated with SFSC
Activity
Although the participants in this research are broadly
positive about selling within SFSCs, most have also
encountered some difculties and setbacks which also
need to be brought to light. Our previous discussion
on individual types of outlet highlighted some of the
specic difculties (as well as advantages) experienced,
but in this section, we focus on the more general
difculties experienced by those operating within
this sector of the food industry. The issue which most
exercised the participants in this research is what is seen
by many as the over-regulation of small scale producers.
The following comments were typical;
Over-regulation of food is the biggest barrier to the
development of the sector. What we have to do and
in particular what is required by retailers even exceeds
legal requirements and a lot is down to interpretation.
There is such red tape and bureaucracy associated with
food processing...its totally over the top, people dont
realise the stringency. There is a huge industry in food
safety that is just creating jobs for themselves.
There is denitely over-regulation in some areas. I know
people who have walked away. It is a major barrier to
people seeking to sell directly and especially the smaller
operator.
Bureaucracy is just gone mad with regard to food
safety... the normal local trade that people always did is
not permitted, like you buy my milk and Ill buy your pig.
On the one hand you have all this talk about
developing a food culture and how great all these small
producers are...but on the other hand the regulations
operate as if theyd be happiest if there were only a
few companies all operating in factory-like conditions. I
guess that would make it easier to monitor.
One of the most frequently cited sources of frustration
is the blanket application of the same food safety and
hygiene regulations and practices to smaller operations
as to large scale processors. A number of participants
shared their experiences in this regard;
You are really limited in terms of what you can do
by regulation. For example, there are new labelling
requirements coming in where you have to give the
nutritional content. This will play havoc with small
businesses. We have always had lots of unique avours
and could meet requests, but we couldnt afford
nutritional analysis on 60 types of ice-cream. Also, we
are due new packaging but others who may have
recently invested will be at a loss. At no point should
food safety be taken lightly but you cannot expect the
same from a two-person operation as a Glanbia, there
has to be a difference. You need a exibility for smaller
businesses which is not reected in legislation.
The regulations are denitely overly onerous; for example
having to take samples from each part of the run when
making the likes of cheese or ice-cream. This makes
perfect sense in large processors but is farcical in small
processors. Also, I had built a bread oven with the idea of
having people come to visit the farm for pizza evenings,
but again the health and safety issues were enormous
and it just wouldnt have been worth my while.
A further source of dissatisfaction for some lies in the sheer
number of state bodies/authorities conducting inspections.
This appears to be particularly acute for those selling at
farmers markets or who have a strong public prole;