The Taoiseach joined the Department of Agriculture's 100th birthday party in Dublin Castle yesterday, which was marked with a major international conference on the industry.
Mr Ahern praised the Department's work over the century and praised the farm organisations for extending their brief beyond the farm gate in negotiated national programmes.
In his opening address, the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, said Irish agriculture had to go further than being competitive.
"We can and we should strive for excellence. The objective should be to build Ireland's reputation as the `food island of excellence', comparable, for example, to the reputation Switzerland has for watches or the French reputation for fashion," he said.
The Irish EU Commissioner for Food Safety, Mr David Byrne, said the new "European model of agriculture" embraced "multifunctional farming". That included meeting consumer demands - starting with food safety and providing information, protecting the environment and maintaining a viable rural community.
Casting a long shadow over the day's proceedings was the collapse of the World Trade Organisation talks in Seattle, with the ensuing uncertainty over global food prices left its wake.
The WTO's deputy director-general, Mr Miguel Rodriguez Mendoza, said "agriculture - and related issues of food safety including GM foods - is not only the most controversial of all negotiating issues, it is also an issue on which many WTO members' expectations and sensitivities run very high."
Progress on agriculture, even if modest, could lead to progress in other areas, he noted, and he was quick to assure Irish farmers that prices would not be threatened in the new round of talks.
While others predicted that negotiations would not resume in earnest this year, he believed significant talks about talks had taken place in recent weeks, notwithstanding the failure to secure agreement on the key position of chairman of the WTO agriculture committee. The former secretary general of the Department of Agriculture, Mr Michael Dowling, has been nominated.
The EU Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, said the EU was willing to continue to negotiate further export subsidy reductions, but only on the supposition that all such export supports of were treated on a common footing.
The best glimpse of the future probably came from Kerry Group's managing director, Mr Denis Brosnan. The 21st century would be marked by food eaten in fast food restaurants, on the run or in the car, he said. US research indicated "15 per cent of all meals are eaten in the car".
Cooking was becoming a low priority so food had to be ready prepared, particularly in supermarkets. Yet such were the conflicts in consumer trends, demand was growing for natural, fresh, organic foods. Notwithstanding the penchant for fast food, "nutraceuticals" and health foods were in, Mr Brosnan noted. "A carefully balanced health bar will suffice your breakfast or daily needs."