The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has called on Irish MEPs to consider the environmental efforts already being made by farmers ahead of a vote on the proposed EU Nature Restoration Law.
IFA president Tim Cullinan urged the MEPs to “take on board the concerns of farmers” about the controversial proposal.
“Irish farmers are very much for nature, but they are not for the proposed EU Nature Restoration Law including proposals to rewet large parts of rural Ireland,” he said.
Cullinan said that some commentators have tried to paint farmers as being “anti-nature” because they oppose this “poorly thought out and rushed law”.
“This is disingenuous and divisive,” he said.
Nature Restoration Law
The IFA president was speaking ahead of a “crucial” vote on Nature Restoration Law in the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) on Thursday, June 15.
“Some campaigners have completely ignored the significant measures implemented by farmers in the last decade and the changes made in the new EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
“Some are behaving as if nothing is being done by farmers and that we need this new blunt force law to put manners on them,” he said.
Cullinan outlined “five facts” that demonstrate the efforts being made by Irish farm families to protect nature:
- Research from University College Dublin (UCD) states that 12-14% of area on Irish farms qualifies as ‘Space for Nature’;
- Ireland has almost 700,000km of hedgerows covering around 2.6% of its land area, which are protected by law. This landscape is unique to Ireland;
- Irish farmers planted approximately 20,000ha of wild bird cover under the Green Low-Carbon Assurance Scheme (GLAS);
- Every farmer must farm in line with the code of good agricultural and environmental practice in order to receive their EU basic payment. In addition, 25% of the farmers payment is ringfenced into an ‘Eco Scheme’ payment which includes allocating and maintaining ‘Space for Nature’;
- Over 46,000 farmers have applied to participate in the new Agri-Climate Rural Environmental Scheme (ACRES).
Cullinan met with EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness in Brussels last week to discuss the controversial EU proposal.
“I would call on her to intercede now to take the heat out of this issue and pull reasonable farmers and reasonable environmentalists together to find common ground that allows us to move forward and continue to protect nature while also protecting the future of farmers and their families,” he said.
“The proposed EU Nature Restoration Law needs to be paused with more time for reflection on the issues it has raised.
“It is something of a tumultuous time with the war in Ukraine and the effects of climate change impacting food production. We cannot make laws without understanding the full implications for our society,” Cullinan said.