The founder of the worldwide Slow Food movement, Mr Carlo Petrini, has asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, to prevent the further closure of small abattoirs and slaughterhouses here.
Mr Petrini, who is in Ireland for a four-day visit, said he was very impressed by the development of small food industries here and it was vital they receive as much support as possible.
"In my country, small slaughterhouses are being closed down to the detriment of the small producers and I understand the same thing is happening here," he said.
"I asked the Minister to ensure that this does not happen in the interests of not only fresh locally produced food, but also in the interests of animal welfare as local abattoirs prevented long journeys for animals," he said.
He told the Minister how impressed he had been with the development of soft cheeses in Ireland in recent years. "I told him that there is no health difficulties from unpasteurised milk and these fine, soft cheeses cannot be made from processed milk," he said.
Mr Petrini set up the Slow Food movement in 1989 to protect the pleasures of the table from the homogenization of modern fast food and fast life.
"Our movement was set up to offset the damage being done to proper food production by fast food," he said.
"You have a two-tier system in Europe of food production. You have mass produced food being produced badly for poor people and high quality food being produced, mainly by poor farmers, for rich people," Mr Petrini said.
"My aim is to change that because everyone, rich or poor, is entitled to quality food," he said.
He said a classic example of the "madness" of modern production was that he can no longer buy the very tasty locally-grown peppers which used to be on the market.
"The peppers that are available in my area are now grown in The Netherlands. They have no taste. The glasshouses in my area where the local peppers used to grow, are now used for tulip bulb production for the Dutch market," he said.
Mr Petrini described his organisation as an "eco-gastronomic movement" for the protection of unique foods and farming practices. However, he said the organisation, with 100,000 members worldwide - 500 in Ireland - is not an organic farming movement.
"We believe in sustainable and common sense production which sustains the land and the farmer and brings pleasure to the table.
"There is a huge swing to organic production in California but it is being carried out with Mexican slave labour and that cannot be allowed," he said.
Mr Petrini said he was sure the Irish stew he had eaten in Bord Bia the previous day was a legacy of our Famine and it was as good a meal as he had ever eaten.