On the second day of the Alltech ONE Ideas Conference, economist and professor at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) David McWilliams, spoke about the carbon debate, the green deal and the possible future of Irish agriculture.
During his presentation, David stated: ”We all inherited the planet from our ancestors, people we can no longer see – we are just custodians, we are only passing through, and we will be passing it on to our descendants, people we cannot yet see.
“It is our job to leave this amazing planet in better shape than when we got it; mother earth is in danger, eight billion consumers are using the earth’s finite resources, so without changing – we all know where it ends.
”We are all in this together, with just one planet to share and the goal in the three H’s: Healthy people, Healthy society, Healthy planet.”
Carbon debate
Speaking about the carbon debate and how agriculture is part of the solution, he said: ”I described it as a bath overflowing and that the water is the carbon we are emitting.
”Once the bath reaches a certain level, it causes global warming, so there are only two ways to prevent the water (carbon) from causing damage.
“These options are to turn if off at source and stop the water from flowing, so stop the production of greenhouse gases [GHG].
”The second option is the opening of the plug in the bath, or to capture the carbon… agriculture is the only sector that can do this.”
This is where David believes agriculture plays a role. Agriculture is the only industry that takes in carbon and he said this could offer farmers a new green deal and he also believes that this is what the US government has planned.
Image source: Alltech One
Irish agriculture
Speaking about Ireland’s role in this, McWilliams said: ”Irish people curse our damp, warm climate swept over the Atlantic by the Gulf Stream, yet it makes Ireland ‘ground zero’ for grass growing.
“If a country like Ireland cannot produce energy-efficient, sustainable food who can? Yet Brussels is pushing a new green deal.
”Although member states must buy the Covid-19 vaccines together, each member state is responsible for their own carbon targets.
“Faced with the balancing of the emission books, politicians ponder how Ireland can reduce the amount of food we produce, not increase.
”The production of Ireland’s €13 billion food exports elsewhere would cost the world a lot more.”
Tech sector
McWilliams added: ”Irish agriculture could respond like the Irish tech sector, which is home to all the big tech companies – generating over $25 billion in exports.
”An ultra-modern Irish agriculture sector, mirroring the tech sector needs to be the focus of the country.
”Ireland could be the cultivator of the new agricultural breakthroughs, making Ireland the most resource-efficient, carbon neutral, sustainable food producer on earth, which in turn could produce a new export – an incredibly valuable Ag-tech sector.”
Green deal
”The weather every Irish person complains about gives us a competitive advantage over the rest of Europe; we can produce food much cheaper,” McWilliams told the conference.
“It does not make sense to put us in the same boat as many other European countries, it makes more sense for the European Union to allow us produce more food.
”Our input to output ratio is far better than many other parts of Europe and the world; producing here [in Ireland] where it’s more efficient makes sense.
”We have been slightly hijacked by generic ideology, that is not sensitive to the local characteristics, that make Ireland a very good place to produce food.”