I don’t like saying ‘I told you so’ but the COP 26 event will go down in the history books, truly, as a milk-curdling exercise for Irish agriculture.
Front and centre in this regard, is the global commitment now in place to have methane emissions slashed by 30% come 2030.
That just eight years hence! The clock is ticking…and big time.
And how is this going to shake down for Irish agriculture? Very badly, methinks!
The likes of Russia, the US and China have more than significant natural gas industries. It’s thought these countries need only tweak emissions from this – and other fossil fuel-related sectors – and this gets them over the line.
Meanwhile, Ireland has a farming industry…and that’s about it.
Front and centre here will be the well-practised arguments from the environmentalists, vegans and vegetarians to the effect that that the only show in town is to substantially cut cattle numbers.
Agriculture minister, Charlie McConalogue, has previously stated that he does not foresee the need to reduce ruminant animal numbers as part of Ireland’s response to climate change.
So, it will be interesting to see how he squares the circle given the news that came out of Glasgow last week.
I am not that good with figures. But I sense that if were to remove all the old ladies – dairy and suckler – with bad feet, high cell counts and fertility problems (and we don’t replace them) we may still be short of the target, or least agriculture’s role in that target.
And what happens then? Are we really looking down the barrel of a significant cattle cull in this country?
Of course, our farming leaders should have seen this coming.
Up to this point, they have played a very bad hand at reacting to events, rather than taking the issue by the scruff of the neck and pushing forward with a narrative that tells the real story of what’s happening within Irish agriculture.
The fact is that Ireland is home to the most efficient dairy, beef and sheep industries in the world.
All of this is driven on the back of a tremendous ability on the part of our farmers to secure real animal performance from grazed grass.
No other country in the world can match us in this regard – not even the much vaunted New Zealand, where farmers there increasingly rely on irrigation to deliver, so called, ‘pasture growth.”
Ireland’s best kept secret must now be unveiled to the world – in a more than meaningful way!
And at the risk of repeating myself: the clock is ticking!