At one level, it is understandable that Irish agriculture attracts a lot of interest given that 34% of Irish emissions comes from the agricultural sector.
Yet, at another level, if we were to lift Irish agriculture, lock, stock and barrel, and put it into any other developed country, it would be far more efficient than the production system of any of those jurisdictions. Due to the historical industrial heritage other countries have, the Irish emissions profile would be in single digits. Therefore, this 34% needs to be seen in this broader context.
However, it is important that we have a calm and rational debate on what is the challenge of our generation: climate change. The agricultural sector needs to embrace this change and be at the forefront. I can honestly say that in my time as Minister for Agriculture this was clearly understood by both farmers and the food processing industry.
As a sector that exports 90% of what we produce we need to be always aware that the international marketplaces are increasingly cognisant of consumer asks in terms of sustainability. The future of Irish agriculture is inextricably linked with its economic efficiency and also efficiency from a climate change and sustainability point of view. Much of the latter also improves economic efficiency.
Farm leaders, whom I have the greatest of respect for, need to step out front, lead in this debate, and spread the positive message of sustainable Irish agriculture.
Populist positioning by both farm leaders and some politicians who use the clarion call of “rural Ireland” are doing a huge disservice to farmers.
This ill-informed commentary by some has contributed to the polarisation of the debate, and to a situation where the farming community is now seen as fair game for unfair criticism from both within the political arena and beyond. It seems that everybody is now an expert on agriculture.
In this caldron that passes for public debate, but which in truth is more akin to an echo chamber, there appears to be a willingness to turn a blind eye to a fundamental fact: whether people are vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian or are meat and two veg people, in the production of food, greenhouse gases are produced. This is an inescapable scientific fact.
What we should be aspiring to is an acceleration of what is already under way, which is a global shift in food production to those who are the most economically and environmentally efficient. In essence, the question that has to be answered, not just here but globally, is who should produce our food?
In the context of the climate change debate, it is inescapably the answer that those who should produce it are first and foremost those who do it efficiently from a climate and sustainability point of view.
Why would we sacrifice our dairy industry on an altar of expediency when the opportunity would then be taken up by others? Would we prefer a shedload of 10,000 cows in the deserts of north Africa or 1,000 cows across a parish in rural Ireland that are grass fed, outdoors for nine or ten months of the year, and whose sustainability credentials, by any stretch of the imagination, are far better than anybody else producing dairy?
It begs the question as to whether some of the criticism is ideologically driven by a resistance and objection to meat and dairy by people who would prefer that we drink almond juice.
With regard to the climate legislation currently being considered by the Oireachtas, I am pleased to note the acknowledgment that methane is different to other greenhouse gas emissions.
Methane has a 12-year life cycle. By contrast, CO2, for example, remains in the atmosphere for several hundred years. This is why the ask of the agricultural sector need to be very different from the ask of other sectors of the economy.
This should not be read as a free pass for farming and the food industry. Far from it. There is much, much more that farming can and must do. Our ambition must be nothing short of being global leaders in sustainable food production.
Nobody in this country is more aware of the consequences of climate change than the farming community, who make their living from the land and who are out there every day witnessing more extreme weather events, such as droughts and flooding.
I believe if they are treated appropriately, and with respect, and if we can step back from our individual prejudices and ideology, we can collectively meet this challenge, which is imperative for our children and grandchildren's sake.
Michael Creed is the former Minister for Agriculture and a Fine Gael TD for Cork North West
