Greater efficiency in nitrogen use is essential

By Damien Enright

I would dearly love, on this fine autumn morning, to write about the glory of the trees in their mantles of gold leaves, of the sun piercing through the branches and making silver dollars of the ivy on their trunks, of the carpets of crisp brown leaves beneath our beech trees, of the vivid green grass in the field beyond.

But having read the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report on global warming last week, the very lushness of the grass and the fine, svelte cattle grazing it preoccupies me, and I wonder how long this can go on.

We are celestially blessed by our climate, the rain that falls, the rich earth beneath it. The gods of nature have endowed this island. The meat and dairy products we grow and export so successfully should ensure the future of our children, but the animals that produce them threaten the Earth.

Beef to the heels like Mullingar heifers or with udders heavy with milk, they are their owners’ pride. If there is one thing we Irish know, it is how to rear cattle. Our first histories were told in tales of cattle and the famous animal that heroes fought and died for in the saga of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, where provinces warred for possession of the brown stud bull, Donn Cuailnge.

Fine cattle are synonymous with our race as evidenced in the present day by producers like the Carbery Group in West Cork whose markets worldwide demonstrate that the animals that graze our pastures are unrivalled for the quality of their product.

However, like cattle everywhere, they contribute to the methane emissions that feed 16% of global warming which, we all know from the IPCC report will, if not stopped, lead to displacement of millions of humans and extinction of millions of plant species, insects and animals before a child born today reaches 30.

It seems likely that we are the last generation that can, by radical changes in energy production, energy consumption and lifestyle, save the planet from devastation.

On a personal level, we can only become the scourge of dithering governments and change our lifestyles and diets to produce less greenhouse gases. In my last week’s column I suggested that we must eat more food “that doesn’t fart”.

However, cattle are not the only methane contributors: marshes, swamps and rice paddies also produce methane and, ironically, the more the planet warms, the greater the input from these sources.

In fact, our Irish ungulates are miniscule contributors to rising temperatures. Ireland has 6.6m cattle, India 3.3bn, Brazil 8.5bn and US and China 9.5bn each. To reduce cattle-methane input would be a giant step towards stabilising warming. Obviously, research into finding a cattle food less belch-inducing than grass must be a priority. Laboratory-grown meat is currently economically unaffordable.

Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel, industrial processes, forestry and other land use cause 75% of global warming. However, kilo for kilo methane traps 30 times more heat than CO2.

The third offender, contributing 6% to overheating, is nitrous oxide, N2O, mainly from agricultural fertiliser. Extraordinarily, it traps 300 times the heat of CO2: one tonne of escaped nitrous oxide equals 298 tonnes of carbon dioxide. N2O, also dangerously depletes the ozone layer.

Globally, about 1% of all the nitrogen fertiliser applied to the soil reaches the atmosphere as nitrous oxide. According to Teagasc slurry spreading by splashplate, trailing shoe and band spreading has a major effect on nitrogen losses here in Ireland. As growing worldwide populations demand more food crops, greater efficiency in nitrogen use is, obviously, essential.

What are the cattle farmers of Ireland to do? What are the cattle farmers internationally to do? Obviously, most are tied to the land: cattle farming didn’t arrive yesterday, as did the machines that consume the fossil fuel that is the greatest driver of the warming. CO2 emissions must be tackled as a priority. Yet, most EU nations have not met their targets for reductions.

Here, our government ignores the problem. No carbon tax whatsoever in the last budget! Where is the Duty of Care for its citizens?

In Holland, a citizens-group case charging the government with failure to protect them from climate change was upheld in the courts. In Ireland, the Climate Case Ireland group will mount a legal challenge in the Four Courts in January. It is a group to which we should all subscribe. Such groups are forming worldwide

If we do not act, those autumn trees in their mantles of gold will be the least of concerns for our children.