Irish farmers are convinced that the longest road in Ireland is from the farm gate to the kitchen because what they get paid for their produce in no way reflects what the consumer pays for food.

The good news for both consumers and farmers is that, for the first time, the Department of Agriculture and Food is to fund a study to determine exactly who gets what percentage of what on the journey from farm to fork.

The department's Consumer Liaison Panel is to assess data on the price of food in Ireland and to recommend a model to monitor the price of key foods at different stages of the food chain.The panel has expressed concern that a lack of transparency in monitoring food prices makes it difficult to reach conclusions on the share of the final retail price going to each sector along the price chain.

Eurocrats argue that the setting up of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) by the EU's founding fathers was the ultimate consumer protection, ensuring that food would be available at all times by keeping farmers on the land. Despite claims over the last two decades that reform of the CAP would deliver cheaper food, and despite compensation paid to offset the drop in the price of the raw material, food prices have continued to rise.