Fighting the farmer’s corner

“It’s daunting and exciting at the same time,” says Adam Woods reflecting on his recent appointment as editor of the Irish Farmers Journal. The Ballyconnell man is only its fifth editor in the agricultural newspaper’s illustrious history spanning three quarters of a century.

The sentimental idea of ‘dream job’ is frequently cited in stories where a local person has secured a senior position. But such is Adam’s zeal for farming, it’s hard to imagine him dreaming up anything that could top this.

“I grew up on a small farm in Cavan and it’s moulded everything I do and my work ethic. I have genuine passion for the industry,” says Adam.

The Journal had safely hit the shelves last Thursday morning when Adam took the Celt’s phonecall. He painted a sepia toned picture for us of his teenage days heading to school in Belturbet.

“I needed to get the bus in to St Bricin’s, and we’d get off the bus at 8.10am. We weren’t supposed to go up town, but I used to tip up to Gilbride’s – it was at the top of the town. I used to buy the Farmers Journal, and stuff it into the bottom of my bag, because I didn’t want anybody in school knowing that I read The Farmers Journal! And I’d get home that evening and I’d read it from cover to cover,” he says laughing at the innocence of it all.

“It’s a dream to be where I am and hopefully do the job justice because there were great lads that went before me.”

Only four lads went before Adam as editor. Each contributed to the respected position the paper retains within the sector. Adam recently did much to burnish the Journal’s reputation when he, along with photographer Phil Doyle and IFA senior Policy Officer Tomás Bourke embarked on a 3,000km road trip across part of Brazil in October.

The reason for the trip was to try to cut through what was truth and what was myth in terms of farming in Brazil. He stresses the “unique” position of established media sources in providing accurate reporting.

“I have farmers every day going, ‘Did you not see that in Facebook? Why are you not writing about that?’

“As a publisher, and a paper of record we can’t do that. That’s the uniqueness of published journalism - you have to be right, every week you can’t afford not to be right.”

In Brazil the team documented on film the shocking ease with which they were able to obtain veterinary medicines for cattle without prescriptions, and without registering the purchases.

“I’m really happy we went to Brazil. It was to get the evidence and the proof and that resonated really well with farmers, and politicians who were wavering over - is this really going on in Brazil? Or is this just somebody campaigning because they feel that it’s not right? But genuinely we’ve seen the standards out there and the standards weren’t good.”

From a position where it looked almost certain the controversial Mercosur deal would be voted through, many would credit Adam’s work for swaying at least some of those votes in favour of referring the matter to the European Court of Justice.

“That went to over 700 MEPs,” he says of their documentary film and findings, “so you would hope, along with the Irish Farmers Association, we had a small role to play in terms of that going to the ECJ and the Parliament vote.”

While no-one knows if ultimately the deal will go through, Adam is happy they have played their part in providing the information.

“When we took the decision to go to Brazil last October, I said to myself: we don’t want to sit here in March or April 2026, and think I wonder should we have done that? That would have been an awful place to be, so I can hand on my heart say now, ‘We’ve laid the facts on the table and what happens from here on is up to Europe and up to MEPs.”

Adam attributes his work ethic to his farming background. Remarkably he’s still trying to keep his hand in at the farm.

“We have great support at home in fairness, my mother and father are there helping out a lot and neighbour William Foster over the road, he has been a great help to me the whole way through the career.

“So we mightn’t have just as many going forward, but we’ve a couple of young lads at home and they’re interested so I’d hate to not keep something for them, but it probably won’t be as heavy as it was.”

Recalling how old reporters used to talk of putting the Journal to bed on a Wednesday before skipping off for the rest of the week, it seems a world away from the current demands. “Everything has changed,” he observes.

As soon as the paper is done, he’s working on the following edition, while also keeping an eye on the website, the Journal’s app, podcasts, and video content. Demand never sleeps.

He notes the paper can come under pressure from various stakeholders, but he has a guiding principle - one he reads off a poster on the wall of his Dublin office: ‘Fearlessly on the farmer’s side’.

“That been the ethos in the Farmer’s Journal since its inception in 1948, and genuinely I’ve kept that in my head.

“So when you’re writing something and you’re not sure whether this is the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do if you keep that principle in your head - Fearlessly on the farmer’s side - that keeps me right.”