American senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts.” Opinions are subjective, subject to change. Facts are objective, immovable objects. But Trumpism is conquering all that. I take great exception to the term “fake news”. To me, news is fact and opinion can be fake. They’re mutually exclusive. What would senator Moynihan make of the world today?

President Donald Trump is the antithesis of the very notion that news is a record of fact. I really don’t care whether or not you are a Trump fan. After all, everyone is entitled to their opinion. No doubt there are plenty of facts people cite to back up supporting him. Just as there are plenty of facts regarding his presidency and personal life, people point to as reason to dislike him. But here’s the thing, we no longer live in an era where I respect your opinion if I disagree and vice versa.

No we live in disruptive and somewhat dangerous times whereby if you’re not with me, you’re against me, you’re the sworn enemy and you need to be stopped and gagged regardless if what you say is based on “fact”. Social media, all its wonderful attributes aside, possesses such an underbelly facilitating this Orwellian brand of manipulative recruitment brainwashing of ordinary citizens.

Facts no longer matter and the term “fake news” is now the default response to any quote or policy which doesn’t chime with your ideological campaign or your view of the world. At least with spin and propaganda, the spinners and propagandists are coming at you with an open book of opinion mixed with select fact to back up their pitch. It’s old-fashioned door-to-door salesmanship. Make your pitch and leave. You’re respectively left to make up your mind. Or am I naïve to think such honesty ever existed because yes, democratic politics has always been about gamesmanship? But now it’s unquestionably about fudging facts to achieve goals.

The two most glaring examples are either side of us, in the UK and the USA. Ask Dominic Cummings or Steve Bannon. Facts are redundant. The impending Trump impeachment and Brexit crash-out serve to underline this. But whatever about such unseemly chaos in Washington and London, the biggest issue facing us all is climate change. Forget about the trope of deniers and sceptics, we’re past that. The challenges which lie ahead are well documented and based on fact and targets agreed by the IPCC. And in Ireland, the results are clear and accepted when it comes to agriculture. Farmers and the knock-on sectors know this and seem ready to engage with the support of Government and EU policy which is essential.

So I presume the imminent launch of a long-overdue campaign called “Meat and Dairy facts” supported by the broad agri food church is aimed at being part of this process. As consumers, we need all the facts about the beef and milk we buy and how it’s produced. Then we can make more rounded informed decisions.

Irish agriculture has been way behind the curve when fighting its corner regarding any effort it may be making to meet targets thus leaving voiceless small farmers taking one for the team in the process. Therefore it’ll be interesting to hear what the vociferous anti-livestock lobby have to say about the facts this campaign will present to coexist alongside the facts about bovine methane. Or will they dismiss the “Meat and Dairy facts” campaign as “opinion”?