Food production in Ireland should not be curtailed to reduce green house gases, Fine Gael TD Andrew Doyle has said.
Mr Doyle is Chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. In a report published today, the committee points to the growing importance of afforestation and the use of agricultural soil as carbon sinks in Ireland’s land mix.
Policy choices at Government and farm level will now be crucial in ensuring Ireland can lead the EU-wide challenge to balance food security and climate change objectives in the coming decades, the committee has said,
“Demand for food has increased globally and if Ireland does not produce it more efficiently it will get done elsewhere,” he said.
“We hope that in the EU context, they will appreciate that food production in Ireland shouldn’t be curtailed simply to reduce the percentage of greenhouse gases in Ireland,” he said.
Mr Doyle said countries such as Germany have a lot of heavy industry unlike Ireland which reduces the impact of food production on their greenhouse emissions.
He said there is a case to be made for Irish farmers to allow for continued growth in milk and beef production.
“Ireland must be in a position to inform this process rather than respond to it in ten years’ time. The green, clean image of Ireland’s agricultural produce is key to how we market our produce and this report pulls together a variety of studies and strands of opinion on how we sustain this record into the future,” he said.
The report recommends the provision of grants for afforestation and bioenergy crops to be explored, the greater use of farmer discussion groups and the use of low carbon farming tools.
Referring to the recent dispute between farmers and factories over beef prices, Mr Doyle said some farmers had felt “taken advantage of”.
“In reality, the market sets the price. I think it was unfortunate that the consumer competition authority decided to send in a letter to the forum in advance saying prices couldn’t be discussed.”
“Every stakeholder needs to realise that everyone is entitled to get a fair margin. There’s a lot of angry farmers out there who feel like they have been taken advantage of.”
Mr Doyle said the lack of trust between beef farmers and the industry needs to be addressed in the long term “because the beef industry can’t be based on mistrust”.