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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
54 July 2021
of farms to ensure they are economically viable.
Approaches geared towards very large farms and
agri-businesses will only further the demise of
small farms and increase depopulation. Rural
communities and small producers will benefit
from schemes that reward diversification. The
current emergency has highlighted the
vulnerability of our food systems. As a net
importer of seafood, milk, fruit and vegetables
we need the Department of Agriculture to make
strategic investments to secure our food
sovereignty. Also, moving away from nitrogen
fertilisers and a rye-grass monoculture is
imperative to improve biodiversity and help reach
our afforestation goals, with their carbon
sequestration benefits.
Third, immediate action for a just transition.
Changes to the way we farm are complex but
necessary - and the fairness of the transition is
therefore of huge importance. We cannot allow
these changes to fall disproportionately on the
shoulders of small farmers and local communities.
The principles of just transition have to be
embedded in our agricultural and environmental
policies to ensure equity and encourage
sustainable new practices.
Action is required immediately. The five years,
since the signing of the Paris Agreement, have
been squandered on shallow gestures and
obsessions with efficiencies instead of
achievements. We are wasting time we do not
have. If we do not act, in the next 50 years areas
that are currently home to a third of the world’s
population will become uninhabitable. This will
ravage food production systems globally and
accelerate migration. We are morally and
pragmatically obliged to act, and act now.
Imagine an Ireland where we could make the
necessary changes. Where the government, agri-
food mega-businesses, agricultural
organisations, and rural communities could work
together with a unified purpose to achieve
environmentally and socially sustainable
agriculture. The type of farming we can all be
proud of. The type of farming that endures for the
next generation.
The narrative from government, that reducing
emissions will negatively reshape Irish agriculture
and undermine farmers’ livelihoods, results in a
resistance to climate action from the very
communities that will be most severely aected
by climate change. Continuing to pass the
problem to the next generation is no longer an
option. Change must start now.
Not only do their comments represent the
government’s inability to innovatively deal with
the issue, they also contribute to a false narrative
which gives rise to uncertainty and fear in rural
Ireland. Our argi-food sector is the result of policy
choices. CAP and other payments shape how I,
and other farmers, farm. Some of these schemes
require me to damage the landscape that the
future of the industry depends on. There is no
reason why all schemes and payments cannot be
meaningfully focused on promoting practices
that address the climate and biodiversity crises.
Second, diversifying the sector. Agricultural
policies need to support dierent sizes and types
S
hould farmers be more worried about
climate action or climate change?
The answer is obvious. Yet, when I
posed this question on Twitter
recently, I received messages from
farmers who are terrified of climate action. Why
is that? Why, in the face of a catastrophe in the
sector, are some more concerned with the
solution than the problem?
Too often climate policy in Ireland, especially
on agriculture, is reduced to glitzy announcements
and glossy plans that ultimately lack substance.
We have already failed to meet our 2020
emissions-reduction targets and are on course to
miss our 2030 goals too. Are we failing? Or, are
we being failed by government and vested
interests?
Any meaningful climate action in Ireland has to
include the agri-food sector. Unlike for many of
our European neighbours, agriculture is Ireland’s
largest contributor to emissions at 34%.
Current government approaches, supported by
large agri-business, focus on eciencies over
reductions, which do not work and will not work.
We need an organised system of eciencies and
reductions in emissions if we are to come
anywhere close to reaching our 2030 targets.
There are three considerations which need to
inform these changes.
First, clear leadership on coherent, science-
based policies. Instead of supporting farmers
through inevitable change, what we get from Irish
politics is damaging rhetoric - farmers pitted
against environmentalists and a disproportionate
focus on people’s personal responsibility.
Recently, the former Minister for Agriculture,
Michael Creed, described a seven-percent
emissions target as ‘the altar of political
expediency’. This came after Tánaiste Simon
Coveney said reducing emissions could
“decimate” Irish farms.
Irish politics peddles damaging rhetoric -
farmers pitted against environmentalists
and disproportionate focus on personal
responsibility.
OPINION
By Holly Cairns
Leadership, diversification, justice
cultural
change
Agri-
