Food Matters

What would make a conventional tillage farmer walk away from the type of farming he had always practised and start all over again? For Kevin Scully, founder of The Merry Mill organic farm & mill in County Laois, the turning point came in the cab of a tractor. After becoming unwell while spraying crops, he began questioning not only the chemicals he was using, but the economics of modern farmin...

During an extended trip through South America, Damien Regan's eyes were opened to the vulnerabilities of our global food system and the risks they pose to food security. He returned home determined to better understand these challenges and to help build practical solutions. In this episode of Food Matters, Damien talks to Mick Kelly of GIY about food security, global supply chains, and why Ir...

Brendan Dunford grew up on a farm in County Waterford, but it was the landscape of the Burren that shaped his life’s work. Over the past two decades, he has worked closely with farmers and local communities to show how farming and biodiversity can work together, not against each other. In this episode of Food Matters, Brendan talks to Mick Kelly of GIY about the pioneering BurrenLIFE project, why...

Jim Power is one of Ireland's best-known economists.  Having grown up on a farm in County Waterford, he has always had a particular passion for the economics of food production and farming. Jim recently crunched 20 years of consumer data that tell an alarming story about the viability of our food production sector, and in this episode, he joins Mick Kelly of GIY to reveal the real-world impac...

What if the modern food system is one of the biggest drivers of disease in our society? Dr. Rupa Marya is an author and physician and a passionate advocate for deep medicine - a way of understanding health that connects our bodies to the land, our food systems and our communities. In conversation with Mick Kelly of GIY, Rupa talks about the dysfunctional nature of our global food system and the de...

Having spent over 15 years cooking in professional kitchens across Ireland and Canada, Eimear Brazil hung up her chef's apron to dedicate herself to inspiring a generation of home cooks. After training at Waterford IT and working in prestigious restaurants including Waterford Castle, Emer moved to Canada where she rose to become head chef and later food and beverage manager at a private ski c...

Sarah Richards always thought she would make her living as an artist. To support her painting, she began baking real sourdough bread, selling loaves from the boot of her car around Tramore, Co. Waterford. What started as a side project quickly took on a life of its own. Today, Seagull Bakery is an established part of Waterford’s food scene, with three bakeries, a growing team, and a strong reputat...

David Currid grows almost 50,000 tomato plants every year at Grantstown Nurseries — the family business his parents started after moving from Dundalk to Waterford in the late 1970s. What began as a single glasshouse is now a major supplier to Ireland’s leading retailers.   But it’s a tough time to be a commercial grower. With only a handful of Irish tomato producers left, rising costs, cheap impor...

Aoife Nic Giolla Coda’s love of beekeeping was passed down from her father, Micheál, who founded Galtee Honey Farm in 1970. When her father neared retirement, Aoife returned home to take over Galtee Honey Farm, determined to continue her family’s work protecting Ireland’s native black bee.  Today, Aoife carries on that family legacy, managing more than 170 colonies of Native Irish Black Honey Bees...

Madeline McKeever is on a mission to protect biodiversity and secure our food future—one seed at a time. A former dairy farmer in West Cork, Madeline started Brown Envelope Seeds after realising just how vulnerable Ireland is to global seed supply chains and shocks.    Today, she’s a leading voice for seed saving in Ireland promoting local seeds that grow well in Irish conditions. Her work helps g...

The GIY team and I are taking a short summer break from recordings, but in the meantime, we’ll be bringing you a selection of our favourite episodes from the series so far. So whether you’re hearing them for the first time, or coming back for second helpings, I hope you enjoy!  -        Mick Kelly If you’ve ever bought a head of broccoli in an Irish supermarket, Paul Brophy probably grew it. Paul...

The GIY team and I are taking a short summer break from recordings, but in the meantime, we’ll be bringing you a selection of our favourite episodes from the series so far. So whether you’re hearing them for the first time, or coming back for second helpings, I hope you enjoy!  -        Mick Kelly Mark Diacono found his life’s purpose and direction through food and he has dedicated his life to gro...

Vincent Cleary is one of Ireland’s original champions of food sustainability. Having taken over the family yoghurt business from his father in the mid 1990s, Vincent knew that organics was the way forward and within a year, Glenisk was a fully organic milk and yoghurt brand that quickly rose to dominate its market in Ireland.  When a fire destroyed Glenisk’s production facility in 2021, Vincent wa...

Niall Sabongi is on a mission to change how we eat, and think about, seafood in Ireland. A chef and seafood entrepreneur, Niall was frustrated by stuffy restaurants and a broken fishing system, and he set out to do things differently. He opened a string of relaxed, seafood-focused eateries and later launched Sustainable Seafood Ireland, a wholesale business dedicated to sourcing the best wild Iris...

Tom Keogh has a great story to tell. Their family has been farming the land for over three generations, supplying the fresh produce market with potatoes grown on the farm in North County Dublin. Faced with falling demand for fresh spuds, Tom took a bold step, he began making crisps by hand in a shed on the farm.   That small experiment became Keogh’s Crisps, now one of Ireland’s best-loved food br...

John Gilliland is on a mission to transform how we think about food, farming, and the environment. At Brook Hall Estate, his family’s historic farm in Derry, John began by trying to lower his farm’s energy bills, but his changes grew into a model for climate-friendly farming that’s now guiding policy in Northern Ireland and beyond. An award-winning farmer and one of the world’s leading voices in a...

Having spent over a decade as an international pro surfer, Fergal Smith made the life-changing decision to return home to the west of Ireland and follow in his father’s footsteps as an organic farmer. Starting with just half an acre of land, Fergal has slowly grown his innovative food business, Moy Hill Farm, into a 120-acre certified organic farm, growing vegetables using the no dig system, the K...

Dr Ollie Moore is an expert in the sociology of farming and food, and one of Ireland’s leading experts on food systems and champions of food justice.  As a member of Talamh Beo, Ollie was invited by a farming development and advocacy organisation in Palestine to visit the West Bank and learn about what life is like for food producers in an area that is renowned for endless conflict and highly chal...

Mitch McCullough’s journey into the world of heirloom seeds and heritage vegetables is anything but ordinary. A former chef turned grower, Mitch explores the fascinating stories behind the plants we eat. His book, ‘The Seed Hunter: Discover the World's Most Unusual Heirloom Plants’, is more than a gardening guide - it’s a deep dive into rare and unusual varieties, culinary traditions, and the...

We talk a lot about the future of food on this podcast, but what about the past? Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire is on a mission to uncover and celebrate Ireland’s deep-rooted food history. From the earliest evidence of dairy farming over 5,000 years ago to trade networks that shaped our cuisine, he explores how food connects us to our past.  An award-winning chef, educator, food historian, and broadcaste...

Colman Power’s mission is a simple one – to help people become happier and healthier through good food, regular movement, and spending time in nature. Having studied horticulture at third level, Coleman became a skilled organic grower and a personal trainer. He has combined his twin passions into a career as an educator and author, self-publishing the no1 Amazon best-seller, The Power of Organic F...

Kevin Wallace had no farming background at all, yet he has become one of Ireland’s most successful small-scale producers, growing a range of produce including salad greens, summer crops and speciality products for hotels, restaurants and cafés.  Kevin is passionate about soil health and microbial balance, implementing practices such as the ‘no-dig’ and Korean Natural Farming methods to ensure that...

When Conor Spacey was working in his first kitchen he was shocked at the amount of perfectly good food being thrown away. He convinced his boss to let him save it, cook it, and use it to feed all of his colleagues. It was a small change that made a big difference to the kitchen’s sustainability and its bottom line. Ever since, Conor has dedicated his career to fighting food waste and creating a fa...

When Ciara O hArtghaile returned home to Co Antrim, after a year living in New Zealand, she and her husband had a clear mission: to build a community around love of good food, in their home town of Ballycastle. They started to bake high quality sourdough bread in the small domestic oven of their rented apartment, just three loaves at a time.  Today, they run the highly successful Ursa Minor Bakeho...

Brian McCarthy founded innovative urban farming project Cork Rooftop Farm during the first covid lockdown in March 2020. Situated on a rooftop in Cork city centre, the farm started off as a personal project to grow fruit and vegetables. But Brian started to see the potential for something much bigger and, today,  Cork Rooftop Farm is a thriving business and a poster child for how urban farming can...