Irish agriculture and its food industry has been under constant attack over the last 30 months or so; much of it unfortunately hysterical and just downright misinformed. So what should the response be?
It can be hard at times to separate the signal from the noise in Irish politics and economics, particularly if the noise is equal parts ridiculous and relentless, as with the current mainstream media characterisation of Irish agriculture.
Globally, difficult but intelligent, grown-up conversations are being had about the urgent need to decarbonise modern and developing economies, and the huge economic and social costs associated with this very real imperative.
However, the noise of political discourse here in Ireland quite frankly does not even touch on the challenge of the removal of embedded fossil fuel usage.
It is instead focused on a non-scientific set of ‘woke’ beliefs about food and agriculture that bear no resemblance to reality, from either a consumer or environmental perspective.
Irish agriculture and Covid-19
A further barometer of the bias fuelling much of the anti-agri commentary surrounding the issue of climate challenges, has been the mainstream media dismissal throughout 2020 and this year, of the huge business continuity success that was the management of the Covid-19 pandemic by the broad agri-food sector .
While in the UK, the EU and US, processing facilities had to close and supplies had to be dumped, Irish agriculture had no such disruption, despite needing to export 90% of its output.
According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), agri-food exports were €13.3 billion in 2020, down only 3% in value terms despite the closure of food service / restaurant outlets across 130 global markets, as well as at home.
Unfortunately and reprehensibly, not only has the reality of the positive contribution of Irish agri-food been ignored, there has been ongoing mischaracterisation, including attempts to describe the dairy sector as an oil extraction equivalent, and beef as the new coal, which are not just offensive, but plainly daft.
Environmental challenges for agriculture
Nevertheless, within this noise, there are signals including the Government’s Climate Action Bill, with its specific legal requirement for sectoral budgets and binding targets, and the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) report.
So, while in the face of such extreme prejudice it can be comforting perhaps to be dismissive, there is a hardcore common sense requirement for the whole of the agri sector to work to reduce its negative environmental and climate impacts.
This is in order to be able to continue to provide its unique economic and social impact into the future.
And this improvement in climate and environmental impact will involve some limitation in livestock numbers, at least in the immediate or short-term.
Carbon budgets and negotiation
It is impossible to see how the legally enforceable carbon budgets for the agri sector, which require a reduction of 10% in methane emissions at the very least, can be managed without a livestock number limit.
While ‘AG Climatise‘ perhaps did not spell this out clearly and succinctly, the Climate Action Bill surely has removed all doubt.
So, while it is extremely galling to listen to a voice from those ‘who know best’ announce on the national airwaves that they are prepared to volunteer to reduce, if not eliminate, Irish farmers’ output and livelihood, the best and only chance for a balanced outcome seems to me to require, farmers and processors to engage in a detailed negotiation.
Such negotiation, as I said in January of this year, establishes a national approach, on a fair and equitable basis.
Fair and balanced approach
The key parameters of fairness and balance must address where numbers have changed and evolved over recent times, and the particular challenges for those with heavy investments.
It must involve an analysis of the dairy / beef balance, while also dealing with the reality of global food demand trends and carbon leakage issues.
To be clear, this is not the infamous ‘just transition’ route to close down – which seems to me to involve a reckless commitment to an unknown and unlikely pot of ‘other people’s’ money.
This is merely a distraction from the stupidity of proposing the closing down of a key pillar of the Irish economy that has very strong current and future endorsements from global consumers.
Easier said than done perhaps, but certainly better if agreed than imposed.
It is one of the perversions of Ireland’s mainstream media and its small island ‘wokeness’, that it is very incestuous, circular, group thinking-based and closed.
In contrast Irish agriculture has excelled at being global consumer driven.
We should embrace the next phase of that global evolution and get inside the tent rather than staying outside.