Ireland was “not wrong” to support the expansion of the dairy sector, but the country is now moving into a new phase where it must “future proof” and consolidate the industry, Minister of State, Martin Heydon signalled to co-ops today (Friday, November 25).
Speaking at a bioeconomy workshop organised by the Irish Cooperative Organisation Society (ICOS) in Killenard, Co. Laois, the minister of state at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM) said “early action and take up by thousands of farmers” was needed to meet Ireland’s climate action ambitions.
“The 25% reduction in agriculture emissions by 2030 is extremely challenging and an ambitious target but I believe we have the capacity to deliver on those targets,” he said.
He also believes co-ops can play a key role in helping Ireland to meet its climate action and sustainability targets.
The minister outlined to ICOS members and workshop delegates that the agriculture sector must focus on reducing emissions, sequestering carbon and sustainable energy as part of the government’s objective to reduce emissions.
Minister Heydon said he was confident that if farmers could see it made “business sense” they would get behind action plans to reduce emissions and embrace new opportunities particularly those in the bioeconomy.
“This is a decade of change but it is also a decade of opportunity,” the minister told the audience today at the workshop.
Co-ops must embrace bioeconomy
ICOS, which represents 130 cooperative enterprises in Ireland, including dairy processing cooperatives and cooperative livestock marts, has brought industry leaders, agriculture and environmental experts to Laois to discuss what a roadmap to “sustainability and bioeconomy” could look like.
Laura Burke, director general of the Environmental Protection Agency, was one of the key speakers at the workshop event and she left no one in the audience with any doubt as to why she believes there must be a “transition” to a more sustainable food production system in Ireland.
Burke suggested that the expansion of the dairy sector had been “at the expense of the environment” and warned that the statistics backed up her claims.
“Agricultural emissions were 15% higher in 2021 than they were in 1990. We need urgent, effective action,” she said.
She pointed to the key drivers behind these emissions including the increases in the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers, dairy cow numbers, milk production and milk output/cow.
According to the president of ICOS James O’Donnell farmers and cooperatives recognise the “responsibility” to reduce emissions and that there will be a “very considerable transformation” in the agri-sector in Ireland over the next decade.
“There is still more to do in reducing emissions, improving water quality, in improving biodiversity and in making our businesses more resilient,” O’Donnell said.
“Through a more circular approach we can help decarbonise food production, help water quality and biodiversity, reduce our costs, and improve our profitability.
“We can produce a whole range of other goods and services from our land, from energy to new exciting nutrients and fibres,” the ICOS president added.
O’Donnell told the workshop in Killenard today that their forefathers had showed “enormous courage” in establishing co-ops to support the rural economy.
“We must now repeat this process and embrace the bioeconomy concept in addressing our challenges. Irish agriculture is part of the climate action solution,” he said.
ICOS launched a ‘cooperative framework’ for Irish cooperatives to share “information and best practice” on sustainability and the bioeconomy following today’s workshop.