Cultural shift challenges farm beliefs - Changing attitudes to meat

IN a society where The Land is cherished — and often coveted — with the same passion pagans once expressed when they venerated the older gods, in a society where farmland prices are among the highest in the world — only the Dutch pay more — in a society where selling the family farm is often regarded as transgenerational treason, it is not surprising that Mary Robinson’s recent remarks suggesting young people reduce meat consumption or cut it out altogether to try to slow climate change got a very hostile response.

Speaking to 1,300 young people in Canada last month she said: “We need each of us to think about our carbon footprint. Eat less meat, or no meat at all. Become vegetarian or vegan.” One farm leader, John Comer, of the ICMSA , accused Mrs Robinson of “facile sensationalism”. His remarks were reflective of how our farm sector responded. Whether fear or science is behind that reaction only time can tell. These positions are polarised and it would be unwise to invest entirely in one or the other. However, the arguments against meat are gathering a momentum that cannot be easily ignored, especially in a country where meat is such an important part of the economy and culturally so deeply ingrained.

Those who want to eradicate or, more realistically, reduce meat consumption point out that so doing would have a huge impact on obesity, consequentially saving overstretched national health systems. They argue that the dystopian prospect of antibiotic resistance could be ruled out. They also believe that ending meat consumption would eradicate world hunger as vast swathes of land now used for animals could be used to produce plant-based foods. Some of those opposed to how we use meat argue that humans use grains and pulses more efficiently when we eat them rather than feed them to battery-reared cows, pigs or chickens. Most importantly, they believe that by ending or significantly curtailing meat consumption the terrible fears around climate change would at least be eased, if not ended altogether. Counterintuitively, they also suggest that by imagining we might resolve the great ethical issues around how we treat animals by turning to organic farming, by switching to free-range meat, dairy or eggs, does not bear real-world scrutiny. They argue that the quantities of land needed for organic farming, because of the relatively low output-per-acre ratio, may be kinder to animals but less so to the rest of the natural world.

These are complex, divisive issues and in a country happy to endure considerable environmental degradation to allow the country’s 17,000 dairy farmers sell ever greater quantities of milk powder to Chinese mothers adverse to breastfeeding it may be some time, maybe too much, before we can respond with our heads rather than our hearts, hearts still so enthralled by the old gods’ ideas — ideas at the very core of Food Harvest 2020, the Government blueprint for developing Irish farming and food processing. Is it already outdated?

Despite huge subsidies — €1.2bn last year — Irish farming is in a tight corner, one that will get even tighter if meat consumption falls. These issues are already in play and will be more so in time. The farm sector ignores them at its peril.