sustainability credentials, creating a demand stimulus and contributing to the circularity of the farming and food industries.


PUSH NOW ON TO EXPAND IRELAND’S GRAIN ACREAGE Commenting on the Ag Climatise report, Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Grain Chairman Mark Browne has acknowledged the emphasis on increasing the arable area in Ireland and promoting the use of native grain and protein crops in livestock rations. He said: “In order to achieve these goals, government actions and


policy must support the sector. Some of the current proposals under the next CAP in relation to convergence and the administration of eco schemes will impact negatively on the tillage sector. In addition, the coupled protein payment needs to be increased, to encourage increased plantings of these crops,” he said. According to Browne, Irish tillage farmers continue to be undermined


by substandard third-country grain imports. He concluded: “Government policy has to ensure a level playing field for local producers.”


AG CLIMATISE IS PREMISED ON A DELUSION — ICMSA Commenting on the publication of the Ag Climatise report, the president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA), Pat McCormack, said that the broad outlines of the ‘roadmap towards climate neutrality’ were well advertised, and farmers would have little difficulty accepting the scale of the challenges or the need for decisive measurable remedial actions. What farmers would have problems with, he explained, was a


‘roadmap’ that featured page after page of likely new duties, regulations and costs on farmer primary-producers without even once mentioning the reformation of margins in what he described as an economically broken and environmentally destructive supply-chain to the consumers. He added: “The ‘roadmap’ persists with the delusion that all the


necessary change to our farming and food production system could happen “from the supermarket loading-bay backwards to the farm. This is the fundamental mistake that ensured that this project could never have the total buy-in that would give it a chance of success.” Mr. McCormack said that the ICMSA was absolutely convinced


that any plan to push through the kinds of measures outlined in the Ag Climatise that did not start with a recognition of the current artificially low price of food to the consumer was both doomed to failure and was inherently unfair. He continued: “We have to get away from this fairy story that all the


necessary change is going to happen from the supermarkets’ fridges backwards and that the consumers — and their artificially low prices — will remain untouched. This myth that loads all the responsibility for the transition to low emission food production onto the farmers has just got to be exposed and challenged. So, let’s start with a commitment that the consumer is going to go back to paying the real price of food and


work backwards from that.” McCormack concluded: “As far as farmers are concerned, that is a


disqualifying defect and it means that, literally, on the day of it’s launched, the roadmap’s usefulness is already suspect.”


In my opinion … Richard Halleron CAN ORGANIC FARMING FEED THE WORLD? A recent report, produced on behalf of the World Health Organisation (WHO), suggests that organic farming practices can feed the world, provided that food waste levels are slashed to almost zero and — wait for it — we cut back on the level of meat products in our diet. I have no hesitation whatsoever in backing any initiative that will


deliver reduced levels of food waste. But, in my opinion, the reference to meat eating within the report is a sop to the vegetarian and vegan lobbies. This, in turn, will provide the aforementioned groups with an


opportunity to have yet another pop at modern livestock farming systems, claiming them to be totally unfit for purpose. I feel it is safe to conclude that vegans — and possibly vegetarians


— would not have survived had they been around a few thousand years ago when all of humankind led a hunter-gatherer existence. Back then, it was a case of kill, or be killed, with animal products representing the only source of food that could deliver all of the nutrients needed by our early ancestors to stay alive. But it’s all different now, of course. Vegans and vegetarians can


afford to criticise current farming systems on the back of the modern lifestyle, which they enjoy. But they should remember that all of the great industrial and technological breakthroughs achieved by humankind have their origins in the agricultural revolution that started some 10,000 years ago. Had it not been for the intensification in farming practices that did


take place, the opportunities to achieve all of these other wonderful breakthroughs would never have happened. Or, let me put it another way: our forefathers only got the chance to think about the bigger picture once they no longer had to spend all day hunting and foraging for food. In essence, farmers took over this responsibility on their behalf. No one can argue that modern farming practices are intensive.


But this does not stop farmers from caring for their animals in a totally meaningful way. For its part, Irish agriculture is one of the most regulated industries in the world. Farmers are subject to more inspections than any other business grouping, and this is the way it should be. The current EU support system for agriculture is based on the


premise that consumers should have total confidence in the way their food is produced. Farming is also a business. And on that basis alone, it is in every


producer’s interest to ensure that their animals remain healthy and are maintained under the highest possible welfare conditions. If this is not the case, the livestock will not thrive, and the businesses will be similarly affected.


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