Irish grassland farming is best, say protesters
Angered by Green Party attempts in radio interviews to play down the likely economic impacts of the new Climate Change Bill — which will not be formally debated now until the new Government comes into power — the Cork-based Irish Farmers Association members took their protest to the street last Saturday.
Anne Keohane, chairman Cork central IFA, led a group of IFA members in a protest outside Green Party senator Dan Boyle’s office on Douglas Street in Cork. The IFA’s stance against the proposed Bill has been aired repeatedly in local and national media for the past month. Nonetheless, the farm group’s members felt that several Green Party members had suggested that the IFA was broadly supportive of the Bill’s proposals in recent broadcasts.
Anne Keohane said: “The radio interviews said that we had no problem with the Climate Change Bill. We couldn’t let those comments pass, so we phoned Dan Boyle to suggest meeting at his office in Cork to discuss the issue. He didn’t bother to phone me back.
“The IFA’s issues with the Bill are clear. Ireland must not exceed the EU’s call to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2020. The Greens want Ireland to commit to reductions of 30%, and then 40%, 50% and more subsequently. The ambitions in Food Harvest 2020 cannot be achieved in that scenario.
“The UN is predicting global populations to grow by 80 million people a year from here to 2020. Who is going to feed those people? The food should be produced by a carbon-efficient country like Ireland, where the cattle graze outdoors on natural grassland.
“We are producing enough beef to feed 30 million people, with an environmentally friendly, grassland-based method of farming. In South America, the cattle are all fed indoors, which means that the land has to be tilled.
“Any new legislation should be based on a measurement of carbon emissions per kilo of beef. That would be the most useful measure of environmental impact. This Climate Change Bill is flawed because it gives no credit to Ireland’s grasslands, or ‘carbon sinks’ such as forestry.
“The legislation should calculate carbon output per kilo of beef. We need to go back to the drawing board and bring in a more sustainable method of measuring carbon emissions. We should definitely not rush through any flawed legislation which needlessly damages Irish agriculture, and even has a long term environmental impact which is the complete opposite of its stated goals.”
In reply, Green Party Senator Dan Boyle said: “I have had several meetings with the IFA, and the legislation will also have several inputs from Teagasc. There is a great deal of flexibility in the Bill. It won’t have anything like the impact on agriculture as is being suggested by the IFA.
“The bill is framed in such a way as to ensure that the economic interests of the country are not in any way compromised.
“The bill commits Ireland to reducing carbon emissions by 47 million tons, which is the exact level being sought by the EU.
“I regret that we were not able to get that message across to the IFA. In terms of its timetable, the bill remains alive, but it will now be for the next Dáil and Seanad to deliver on its passage.”
