Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) president, David Brown, addressed the 2023 Poultry Industry Education Trust annual conference in Co. Tyrone this week.
He used his presentation to highlight the challenge of sustainability that now confronts all sectors of agriculture.
“Poultry does not get always get the same level of public awareness as is the case with other sectors within agriculture, Brown said.
“But the industry still has challenges to confront, future sustainability being the most obvious one. And, again, this issue finds common cause across agriculture as a whole.”
Brown likened the challenge of sustainability to a three legged-stool within which the issues of food security, the environment and economic viability merge together.
Where food security is concerned, he confirmed the rise in the world’s population that has been witnessed over the past seven decades.
“The global population will reach 10 billion within the next two decades,” he continued.
“And it will be the job of farmers to meet this challenge.”
Poultry sustainability
Brown went on to criticise the UK government’s food security policy at two levels – a commitment to cheap food and a reliance on food imports.
“Indigenous food security levels within the UK currently sit at 60%. This is too low a figure, which could create strategic problems in the event of an international crisis developing,” he said.
“Northern Ireland is home to just short of two million people. Yet, our farming sectors produce enough high quality protein foods to meet the needs of 10 million people.”
Brown said that farmers will be in the front line when it comes to confronting climate change, air quality, water quality and the growing biodiversity challenge.
“But none of this will happen unless farm businesses are financially viable,” he said.
“If these circumstances are not allowed to prevail, farmers will be put out of businesses.
“This direction of travel will have a more than detrimental effect on the need to deliver improved food security and biosecurity levels for the benefit of all people.”
The coming months will see the UFU push ahead with other stakeholder bodies to develop a new, over-arching sustainability body for Northern Ireland.
The organisation will be developed on an organic basis. However, one of its key roles will be to facilitate the marketing of food and drink produced in Northern Ireland.
It will also play a key role in communicating the facts concerning the key role of production agriculture at the very heart of the overall response to the challenge of climate change.