Bord Bia is launching a new consumer campaign to showcase farmers and growers who are taking action to help the environment.
Beginning today, Monday, November 16, the campaign will run for four weeks incorporating targeted advertising across social media, print, video and online.
Under the tag line, Irish farmers – innovating through nature, four Bord Bia Quality Assured Irish farmers have been chosen to front the promotion: dairy farmer, Bruce Thompson; organic beef farmer, Jane Shackleton; sheep farmer, Brian Nicholson; and farm manager at Finnegan’s Farm, John Smith.
Director of Origin Green and Quality Assurance at Bord Bia Deirdre Ryan said: “Individual farmers who are making additional efforts to protect the environment are often overlooked in the debate about agriculture emissions.
Through this campaign, Bord Bia wants to highlight positive stories to the public – targeted at the non-farming public – who may be unaware of the practices and initiatives Irish farmers undertake to benefit the environment.
The four-week campaign will be targeted at urban adults with an interest in green living; the outdoors; animal welfare; and food.
The campaign aims to provide accessible information on the farming practices adopted by each farmer that contribute to the environment and animal health.
Meet the farmers
Bruce Thompson runs a 230-herd dairy farm, along with his father, near Portlaoise, Co. Laois.
Bruce Thompson
Bruce has been able to significantly reduce the need to dose his herd by repopulating his soil with dung beetles, who help to reduce harmful parasites.
Dung beetles offer a host of other environmental benefits: they aerate the soil helping to reduce run-off; they help to decompose dung pats; and they have increased biodiversity on Bruce’s farm by providing a food source for birds and other wildlife.
Jane Shackleton
Jane Shackleton is an organic beef farmer from Mullagh near the Cavan / Meath border. She runs a 100% grass-fed, suckler-to-beef herd of Angus and Belted Galloways.
Cattle are finished at 18 to 24 months off grass typically with just one housing period. The shelter provided by the trees allows Jane to extend the grazing season and offers protection from drought in the summer.
Brian Nicholson
Sheep farmer Brian Nicholson runs a 100ha farm of approximately 1,000 ewes near Johnstown, Co. Kilkenny.
As a member of the Green, Low-Carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS), each year Brian plants 2.5ac of wild bird cover – a spring-sown crop mixture that is left unharvested over winter. In addition to this, he has also added in a wild flower mixture for pollinators to encourage bees around the farm, and has invested in maintaining hedgerows to provide shelter for lambs and habitat for wildlife.
John Smith
John Smith from Thurstianstown Co. Meath, manages Finnegan’s Farms, which is owned by Finnegan brothers Paul and Joe in Balrath.
Finnegan’s supplies potatoes and Brussels sprouts direct to retail and run an on-farm kitchen producing side dishes using vegetables that don’t make the grade for retail.
As part of their Origin Green sustainability plan, they have installed an on-site digester that processes food waste from their kitchen into organic compost.