The president of Macra has said that she is “astounded” at the prospect of reducing the number of dairy cows in the country, as a consultation with stakeholders on a scheme to do just that gets underway.
It emerged earlier on the weekend that stakeholders in the Food Vision Dairy Group have now received a consultation template document allowing them to provide their views on a cow reduction scheme for the sector.
Of all stakeholders in that group – which includes farm organisations, bodies representing the dairy processing sector, environmental bodies, and state agencies, as well as the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine – Macra have been the most critical of a cow reduction scheme.
Speaking this morning (Sunday, June 25), Macra president Elaine Houlihan said that a cow reduction scheme – which she said would reduce the number of cows in the county by 10%, or 180,000 head, over three years – was inconsistent with both growth in cow numbers elsewhere in the world, and the construction of energy intensive data centres here in Ireland.
“I am astounded that we are looking to reduce our national herd of dairy cows by 180,000 head in the next three years, while Brazil is planning to increase its herd by 30 million head by 2030,” Houlihan said.
She added: “The emissions all go into the same atmosphere, with the difference that Ireland is not cutting down a rain forest to meet the global demand for the products that we produce.”
According to Macra, milk production in Ireland produces less greenhouse gas emissions and uses less water “than any other country”.
“While farmers are portrayed in some media outlets as the destroyers of our environment with no care about our future, nothing could be further from the truth. Farmers receive the land in trust and hold it in trust for the next generation.”
Macra also said (citing data from the Central Statistics Office), that data centres in Ireland consume more electricity in Ireland than the total electricity consumption of all rural households, and a similar amount to the total consumption for all urban households.
Houlihan commented: “Instead of vilifying sectors, we must look at the whole story before making up our minds.
She added: “Our agricultural sector produces enough food for 35 million people… It makes little to no sense to reduce production of food of the quality that we have consistently produced.
“Removing 180,000 dairy cows from production in Ireland is like removing 180,000 electric cars in one country and introducing 1,000,000 old diesel cars that belch black smoke to another country at the same time.”
The Macra president commented: “We call on the government parties to support rural Ireland and to remember where they come from and who they represent.”