Oh don’t get me wrong, given the history of famine I am certain farm magic is very respected in addition to being of utmost importance. Within Iceland, it is probably almost always more likely that some people will starve than that some people will be attacked (at least by grosslings, and Iceland doesn’t have land animals, by humans, I don’t know). But the self-important style and belittling of others (especially evidenced by the info pages about other nationalities) is what makes them irritating.
I’m sure not all of the Icelandic mages are like this, but what little we saw of the Academy, it seemed the Seiđ there appeared to have a bit of a holier than thou thinking.