The president of Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has said that it was alarming to hear spokespersons continuing to use and stress the word ‘feasible’ when referring exclusively to emissions targets and environmental progress.

Pat McCormack said that the economic feasibility of Ireland outside the cities and largest towns is at stake as well as the social, cultural and demographic viability of those rural communities all of which depended on commercial farming.

McCormack added that the association is not denying the realities or the extent of the challenge, however he said that is “unfair, unworkable and itself unfeasible” to expect the thousands, who depended on commercial farming and food production for their living, to agree to fixed emissions reduction targets that will “inevitably fatally wound their prospects and their communities”.

ICMSA president, Pat McCormack

Emissions targets and impact on farm families

The ICMSA president said that farming communities were “not fooled by the ‘crocodile tears’ shed by some politicians and activists” on the threat to farming communities.

He added that farmers and their families are entitled to a more “considered and sophisticated view” of the challenge from elected representatives.

“It is premature for anyone to anticipate that the national herd will have to be reduced. The government itself does not believe that to be the case , as the Taoiseach confirmed in an exchange in the Dáil just last week,” McCormack said.

“It’s not the government’s position and just on practical grounds, this is precisely the kind of rigid, preordained solution that we should be avoiding.”

McCormack said that farmers already know to expect double digit falls in agri emissions.

“What we need is the flexibility and room to see where we can go harder or switch focus. That means a degree of elasticity that gives us the room to see what’s working and adjust accordingly,” he said.

“Farming and agri-food is already making the transition and we demand the right to check our progress before anyone announces that our farms and our communities are effectively finished.

“We have still not heard a single Irish politician of any seniority tell the Irish public that this transition is going to mean – and much faster than people think – the end of the ‘cheap food’ system that was operated in Ireland and across the EU for decades.

“That system was predicated on low prices for farmers that forced them into producing higher volumes. That will now work in reverse,” McCormack concluded.