The government’s 10-year food and drinks strategy, Food Vision 2030, has been described as ‘another detrimental blueprint for agriculture‘ by the Environmental Pillar, the organisation that withdrew its cooperation from the 2030 Agri-Food Strategy Stakeholder Committee last February.
The environmental coalition cut ties with what it described as the ‘industry-dominated’ committee due to concerns it had about the strategy’s shortcomings on climate, biodiversity, water and air quality.
The coalition also stated that its suggestions were “largely disregarded, despite growing calls for climate and biodiversity action”.
Food strategy vision
Food Vision 2030 has been described by government as an ‘ambitious and innovative roadmap for the agri-food sector’ that will “further enhance Ireland’s position as global leader in safe, sustainable agri-food exports”.
The aim of the strategy is for Ireland to become a world leader in sustainable food systems over the next decade, based on a ‘climate-smart, environmentally sustainable agri-food sector’.
But, this does not cut it, according to the Environmental Pillar, which said that the strategy “regrettably takes its place among a series of failed policies for the sector”.
Environmental Pillar coordinator and former representative on the 2030 stakeholder committee, Karen Cielsielski, said the strategy relies on a “drastically insufficient Ag Climatise roadmap for the sector“, which the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has acknowledged needs to be updated, she said.
“We also know, thanks to the National Biodiversity Forum’s audit of the National Biodiversity Plan, that the ongoing conflict between sectoral policies and biodiversity policy is a predominant driver of devastating biodiversity loss.
“Yet, this strategy fails to take note of this and, instead, continues to pursue a destructive business-as-usual approach.”
She said Food Vision 2030 delays succinct climate, biodiversity, and water and air pollution measures that need to be delivered now and “flat-out ignores the ever-growing public demand for fast and fair climate action”.
Agriculture
With specific reference to agriculture, the Environmental Pillar coordinator said that methane produced from agriculture needs to be reduced swiftly and significantly; dairy expansion needs to be reversed; a cap on total nitrogen use should be introduced; and environmentally harmful subsidies should be phased out.
“The newly published strategy is littered with references to far-off action and yet-to-fully-be-materialised innovation, such as abatement technology. This is a gamble that we cannot afford to take, action is needed now not later.
“The sector, as a whole, needs to see aforementioned rapid declines in emissions and nitrogen nutrient inputs to meat and dairy in order to preserve the habitability of our environment.”
Additional shortcomings with the strategy, according to the Environmental Pillar are:
- The absence of any strategy to enforce limits on total nitrogen and phosphorus pollution nationally, and by water catchment;
- An inadequate target for reducing ammonia emissions, a greenhouse gas which poses serious risks to human health and sensitive ecosystems;
- A lack of any clearly defined targets or indicators for biodiversity or of any clear strategy for strong enforcement of biodiversity and water-quality protection measures;
- A wholly insufficient organic farm area target of just 7.5% by 2030;
- The continued reliance on afforestation targets despite the fact that the practice continues to decline year-on-year. There is also no mention of necessary harvesting limitations for our forestry sector to limit the projected reduction in forest carbon sink nor is there mention of increased felling of younger trees which has a number of negative consequences.
“Unfortunately, our initial assessment of this strategy was correct: this roadmap has not met this critical moment for our dual climate and biodiversity crises and it is imperative the government now steps up to enact the transformative change we need to see for our environment and our rural communities,” Karen said.
Withdrawal a ‘matter of regret’
In acknowledging the departure of the Environmental Pillar from the stakeholder consultation, in the strategy foreword Tom Arnold, chair, 2030 Agri-Food Strategy Stakeholder Committee, wrote that “the debate between agricultural and environmental interest groups has become excessively polarised in Ireland”.
“In February 2021, the Environmental Pillar representative withdrew from the 2030 Stakeholder Committee, stating their view that the Pillar’s recommendations were insufficiently reflected in the draft.
“This withdrawal was a matter of regret to the committee, all the more so given the valuable contribution the representative had made up to that point. The strategy in its final form has, in the view of the committee, recommended policies to achieve a balance between economic, environmental and social dimensions of sustainability.
“The Strategy takes a systematic and comprehensive approach to dealing with the range of environmental challenges facing the sector, spelling out a vision of how it can make an important contribution to Ireland achieving its climate and environmental targets, through a dynamic combination of urgent short-term action to tackle existing problems of emissions, water quality and biodiversity […].
“It includes many of the suggestions put forward by the Environmental Pillar,” the chair said.