Nestlé’s announcement this week that it plans to close down its Wyeth infant formula plant in Askeaton, Co Limerick has reverberations far beyond the more than 500 jobs directly at risk. The factory, licensed to process the equivalent of over 190 million litres of milk (out of nine billion litres produced annually in Ireland), has been the poster child of Ireland’s industrial policy through its past decade of ownership by the food multinational. Its proposed demise raises hard questions about national choices governing agriculture, foreign direct investment, tax and Ireland’s exposure to geopolitical risk. Nestlé acquired the Askeaton plant for…

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