Duncan Stewart gets past the noise and unpacks the controversy around Ireland's agriculture and climate change ambitions.
The culture of livestock farming goes back to the beginnings of Irish civilisation. It has been the lifeblood of rural Ireland for generations and today there are over 150,000 families directly reliant on the family farm. As the debate around what should happen in farming has become fraught and polarised, there is genuine frustration and fear in rural communities about what farmers will be asked to do to help meet these climate change targets.
Ireland’s agricultural industry accounts for a particularly large proportion of our climate change impacts. Making up over a third of our greenhouse gas emissions footprint, and over 40% of our emissions if land use change emissions are included. Our scientists have made it clear that we have no hope of meeting our emissions targets without agriculture making a big contribution.
These impacts are often framed as the fault of Ireland’s farmers, but in fact it’s actually Ireland’s agri-food strategy and subsidy system that promotes and incentivises intensification at the expense of the environment.
Many argue that our farmers should diversify into less damaging, more economically viable farming practices such as tillage and horticulture, but is this really a viable solution? What are the challenges for farmers today and what is the science really saying about what should become of Ireland's green grass pastures?
30 июл 2024
