Farmers for Action pays tribute to Eric Lindsay

Farmers for Action have paid tribute to Strabane man Eric Lindsay who passed away recently.

From Tullyard, Eric’s name only had to be mentioned in the Strabane area and everyone knew him, town and countryside alike.

In his early days he was up with the larks delivering milk around Strabane to his faithful customers on his milk round that he built up over many years.

On returning home from his milk round his farming day began.

In a statement FFA said that Eric joined the group in the early 2000’s to see if he could help influence fair play for farming families in Northern Ireland at the farm gate,

The statement continued: “Eric’s particular interest was beef, which was an enterprise he was very good at. However, he could not accept like FFA, imports of substandard Brazilian beef as recognised many times by the EU Food and Veterinary Office even prior to 2006, yet the EU Commission refused to act.

“Many protests were held across Northern Ireland in those early years by Farmers For Action every Thursday night at a different supermarket or distribution centre that were supplying sub-standard Brazilian beef, where Eric excelled when handing out leaflets or delivering the message to the general public and was brilliant at bringing other farmers along.

“This proved to be very successful as it lead on to the formation of Fairness for Farmers in Europe (FFE) - a federation of farm organisations from across these islands which in 2007 took the Brazilian beef cause all the way to the EU Ombudsman in Strasburg and was successful. It was in no small way that Eric played his part and supported and influenced all these moves so that by June 2008 the price of beef literally across Europe at the farm gate had risen by 20%,” the statement continued.

“Eric didn’t stop there, he backed FFA all the way in their battle for better farm gate prices across the board in the formation of NI Farm Groups of which FFA is a member and helped all the way to have the new ‘Northern Ireland Farm Welfare Bill’ currently with the Agriculture Committee in Stormont under scrutiny, whereby if enacted, whether in this remaining mandate or the next would return farmers a minimum of the cost of production inflation linked plus a margin for their produce at the farm gate. Eric’s support with this Bill was unwavering since its conception in 2013.

“The farming world and Farmers For Action has lost a good friend and loyal supporter of all things fair in the countryside and will be sadly missed. FFA would like to extend their sympathies to Eric’s family; wife Ann, his children Julie, Edward, Gordon, Richard and Norman, their spouses, grandchildren and the entire family circle.”