The “significant pressures on the environment as a result of agriculture growth resulting from Food Wise 2025 need to be mitigated urgently”, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Today (Wednesday, November 25), the EPA launched its seventh State of the Environment Report.
Also Read: Overall quality of Ireland’s environment is ‘not what it should be’ – EPALooking at the agri-food sector and how it continues to play a “vital role in Ireland’s economy, as well as shaping its landscape and environment”, the EPA says “it is clear from this integrated environmental review of agriculture that change is now required in the sector to ensure its environmental sustainability”.
“Ireland has a reputation for natural food production and critical to this reputation is the appeal that food produced in Ireland has a low environmental footprint,” the EPA said.
“However, this reputation is at risk of being irreversibly damaged because of current growth trends in air pollutant emissions (most importantly ammonia) and greenhouse gas emissions, and the decline in water quality and biodiversity.
Business as usual will not reverse these trends; systemic change is required across the food system to address the challenges.
“The sector is responsible for approximately a third of national greenhouse gas emissions and over 99% of national ammonia emissions and has been identified as the largest significant pressure on our water resources.”
Food Wise 2025
Food Wise 2025 is a 10-year strategy agreed by a committee of 35 stakeholders from the agri-food sector. It identified “significant growth opportunities” across all sub-sectors of the Irish agri-food industry.
The EPA says:
“It predicted that growth would be driven largely by an expansion in dairy, beef, seafood and consumer food and drinks products and that, cumulatively, there was the potential for projected growth in gross value added of 70% for the sector by 2025.
“However, by early 2020 these growth projections were largely met. Such rapid expansion has presented a significant challenge for the sector as it seeks to realise opportunities without damaging the environment on which it depends.”
Halfway through the implementation of the strategy, the EPA says there is evidence of “significant environmental challenges arising from agricultural activities that must be addressed”.
Ireland has a reputation for high-quality natural food production and critical to this reputation is that food produced in Ireland has a low environmental footprint, in conjunction with adherence to strict traceability and animal welfare criteria.
“However, this reputation is now at risk as a result of current trends in air pollutant emissions (most importantly ammonia), greenhouse gas emissions, water quality and biodiversity decline.
“More fundamentally, these important issues, if not addressed, have the potential to undermine the ability of agriculture as we know it to continue to produce food and other products.
“A core principle of the Food Wise 2025 strategy was that ‘environmental protection and economic competitiveness are equal and complementary: one cannot be achieved at the expense of the other’.
The strategy also stated that ‘future food production systems must be as focused on managing and sustaining our natural resources as they are on increasing production’.
“However, the evidence shows that these two objectives have not been met and that the economic growth of the sector in recent years has occurred at the expense of the environment, as witnessed by the negative trends in water quality, greenhouse gas emissions, ammonia emissions and biodiversity.”
The EPA stressed that “further work is now urgently required” to address this “imbalance”, most importantly in the context of the new strategy for the sector to 2030 that is being developed.