The 17 recommendations to cut emissions from the dairy sector outlined in the Food Vision Dairy Group report are ambitious but also realistic, according to the chief executive of one of the country’s main dairy processors.
Conor Galvin, the chief executive of Dairygold, said that the processor is supportive of the dairy group initiative.
Speaking to Agriland recently, Galvin said: “I think it’s important that there is engagement across all stakeholders in the industry. The support, first of all, is key, and having all the right people in the room is important, and I think [the group] has assembled everybody who has and needs a voice”.
Dairygold and the other processors and co-ops are represented in the Food Vision Dairy Group by Dairy Industry Ireland (DII), the representative body for the dairy processing industry.
“I think it’s fair to say that the recommendations coming out of it are fairly comprehensive. They’re ambitious, in the sense that there are some things in there that will require things to be done differently or investments to be made,” Galvin noted.
“But I think they’re also realistic… There’s a short-term, medium-term and long-term view taken around what can be done immediately between here and 2025 and what’s going to require some change in behaviours or investment in the medium term of 2025-2030,” he added.
Galvin noted, however, that the “bigger question” of hitting carbon neutrality by 2050 “is going to require a fundamental change in how things are done, if that is to be achieved”.
“Overall, the discussions to date have been fairly open, frank and well-managed, and the challenge now will be what does a consensus look like that the industry can move forward with.
“It does require buy-in from all stakeholders. This cannot be done through a single part of the industry blazing a trail, because there’s such interconnectedness here around the climate impact of food production that it’s too important for us not to get right,” the Dairygold chief said.
He continued: “There’s a document there with 17 recommendations for discussion, and some of them make eminent sense today. There are things we should probably get on and do. The question is more around how.”
Galvin also pointed out that more long-term measures – such as a ‘cap-and-trade’ scheme – would require the assembly of information and the development of ways to incentivise farmers.
In terms of what the processing industry itself can do, the chief executive said industry “needs to play a leadership role here and take a step back and say ‘well look, lets make sure we bring our suppliers with us’, and also influence the wider agricultural agenda”.
“We also have a part to play in relation to the efficiency of plants; the efficiency of collecting milk; the management of water, which is a massive concern right across the supply base; and the processing capacity, where investments are already going in,” he highlighted.
“I would be confident that there are a number of measures that are already in force that can be amplified, but I think at the same time we also need to make sure that they are sequenced in the right way and that we’re moving at the right pace,” Galvin said.