Food production from farm to fork is rightly being treated as an essential service, and is therefore spared the worst of the Covid-19 restrictions.

Changes that ensure farmers are no longer required to retain 10% of their eligible hectares in an agricultural activity for the purposes of retaining eligibility for the basic payment scheme have been welcomed by the Irish Farmers Association.

ACA members process almost 300,000 dead animals per year at their knackery yards.

Thursday, November 28, will be Ireland’s first-ever Animal Health Awareness Day.

The Irish government has committed to reduce losses of both ammonia and the potent greenhouse gas (GHG) nitrous oxide, while achieving good status for all waters.

An uneasy peace deal has allowed the beef and sheepmeat industries to resume, but it will be quite a challenge to keep hostilities from breaking out again.

However the ACA said that the gates of some 38 small/medium size knackeries will remain closed for the time being.

Veterinary Ireland has expressed concern over the Government’s lack of preparedness for the provision of veterinary inspection services at our ports and/or borders in the event of Brexit.

A two-year project in Kerry aims to get people of all ages out into the forests to observe, enjoy and participate.

As the fate of farmers is discussed more and more in the contexts of Brexit, Mercosur, and global warming, let’s not forget that farmers are the custodians of the countryside.

Let’s have a bit of craic, for the season that’s in it, and forget again for a restful while about all the pressures being imposed on all of us by this chaotic Brexit business, and the likely consequences.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has invited members of the public to contribute to a public consultation process on a draft Climate Change Adaptation Plan in the agriculture, forest and seafood sector.

Detectives involved in raiding seven premises connected with the suspected sale of contaminated horse meat say that they do not believe that any contaminated meat has been sold in Ireland.

Farms, houses and commercial premises were searched in Kilkenny, Sligo, Westmeath, Sligo and Leitrim this morning.

It’s not easy at first, but we can live a more sustainable life by simply forming a few new habits, writes Áilín Quinlan.

Drones are to be used by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to manage the risk of wildfires.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has teamed up with the State-owned forestry business Coillte to combat wildfires using drones.

A report from 2017 has revealed that Cork County Council was warned that pollution on Haulbowline had “the potential to cause risks to any users of a potential future park” on the site.

May 12 is the deadline for nominations to find Ireland’s Farming For Nature ambassadors for 2019.

Richard Halleron The board members of Lakeland Dairies and the other southern co-ops that draw milk across the border from Northern Ireland for processing will hope against hope that Theresa May gets her Brexit deal across the line.

Department outlines live animal import-export rules

An imminent resolution is expected between countries discussing scientific advice to reduce mackerel fishing in the north-east Atlantic by 61% in 2019. Representatives of 11 EU and non-EU fishing countries gathered at the National Seafood Centre in Clonakilty, Co Cork, for three days of talks on total allowable catch levels for the €1bn mackerel industry.

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys, has said the Brexit loan scheme launched last March is working, and people are applying for the funding.

The pressure is on for Irish farmers and dairy farmers in particular to help achieve good quality status in waters by 2021, or by 2027 at the latest.

The Climate Change Advisory Council will spend the next six months considering the economic effects on agriculture of measures needed to move the sector onto a sustainable path of dealing with climate change challenges.

The Ombudsman received more than 3,000 complaints about providers of public services last year, including an increase in complaints about local authorities linked to planning and housing and 115 complaints from asylum seekers.

Algae and duckweed could clean up fish-farm pollution and be used to feed the stock at the same time under a project being undertaken by scientists at UCC.

Scores of farmed salmon have been caught in five renowned rivers despite producers not reporting any escapes, fisheries chiefs have revealed.

One third of the 98 bee species in Ireland are threatened with extinction while three-quarters of the country’s wild plants require insect pollinators.