Your contribution will help us continue to provide stories that are important to you
Last week, the government finally announced its long-awaited climate action plan, explaining how it intends to achieve strict climate goals in the next nine years.
The challenges ahead are great: this plan is the key to achieving 51% reductions in the state by 2030.
The proposed reductions will affect all aspects of Irish society, and experts say these goals are "extremely challenging and not ambitious enough."
Marie Donnelly, head of the independent advisory group's climate change advisory committee, pointed to various challenges in achieving goals in different sectors of the Irish economy.
One area of concern for environmentalists is Ireland’s agricultural sector, especially those related to the number of Irish dairy cows.
"Our herd is very large-more than our population. This will be a challenge. This is something we must take very seriously," Donnelly told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
The number of dairy cows in Ireland and the corresponding greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector is a hotly debated topic. Environmental experts and activists call for reductions. Agricultural lobby groups and many politicians disagree.
According to the latest data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the agricultural sector is Ireland’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 37% of all emissions.
This is in sharp contrast to the rest of the European Union, where agricultural emissions account for an average of 11% of emissions (most of the emissions in other EU countries come from energy).
Last year, although Ireland’s overall emissions decreased by 3.6%, agricultural emissions increased by 1.4%, mainly due to the increase in the number of cows and other livestock and the increase in fertilizer use.
CSO data shows that as of June this year, there were 7,358,900 dairy cows in Ireland, an increase of 0.6% year-on-year, again driven by the increase in the number of dairy cows.
In the past ten years, the number of dairy cows has increased by more than 45%, and milk production has also increased by 60%. This is due to the EU's cancellation of milk quotas in 2015.
These cows have made a huge contribution to Ireland’s emissions. More than half of agricultural emissions come from cow hiccups, or more specifically, from enteric fermentation processes, which release methane into the atmosphere.
In addition, other chemicals, such as nitrous oxide-which has a global warming potential of 298 times that of carbon dioxide-are used in agricultural production, mainly from fertilizers
In addition to greenhouse gas emissions, intensive cattle farming has also caused other problems. Studies have found that due to land being occupied by monoculture, biodiversity (diversity of flora and fauna), soil fertility and the quality of Irish waterways have declined. Grass and grazing cattle.
Cases of reducing the herd
For these reasons, environmental experts have long called for reducing the number of cattle in Ireland in order to reduce the country’s emissions, prevent pollution of waterways and increase biodiversity.
Sadhbh O'Neill said that a more “balanced agricultural profile” in Ireland would involve more farming, gardening and organic farming space, and less land dominated by cows.
"But the reality is that the business model adopted by the Irish agricultural sector is very suitable for exports," said O'Neill, an assistant professor at the DCU School of Law and Government and lecturer on climate policy and politics.
"The reality is that the industry has been facing the pressure of globalization to produce more and more products to meet the expanding market demand around the world."
Over 80% of Ireland’s agricultural products are exported in the form of powdered milk, cheese, beef and live cattle and other products.
Earlier this year, three environmental alliances representing more than 70 organizations—Environmental Pillar, Stop Climate Disturbance and Sustainable Water Network (SWAN)—published the "New Irish Agriculture and Food Policy."
The position paper puts forward key policy recommendations that the government should follow to "reduce agricultural emissions while restoring our depleted biodiversity and water bodies."
These include phasing out subsidies that are harmful to the environment, supporting the expansion of local, nature-friendly food production, and adopting different measures to reduce methane and nitrous oxide emissions and reverse the expansion of dairy products.
It was released after the government released its draft agri-food strategy for 2030, and environmental organizations criticized the draft for being insufficient from a climate and environmental perspective.
Despite these appeals, the past ministers of agriculture and many governments TD, Taoiseach and Tánaiste have not expressed any plans to culling or reduce the number of cows.
Last month, at a post-budget briefing for 2022, Agriculture Secretary Charlie McConalogue answered questions about whether Ireland will cut its cattle population:
"No. I hope to continue producing the food we produce," he said.
McConalogue said that although food production will face challenges in the next few years, Ireland must still produce food and "the world must eat."
"As far as our current model is concerned, we are very successful and very sustainable," he said.
Michael Martin stated in September that the government's plan is to "stabilize the national cattle herd."
"I think it is important that we continue to invest in research to ensure that we can add value while also contributing to the climate change agenda. This is important and all sectors of society must do this, including the agricultural sector," he said.
Related reading 11.11.21 Explainer: Why is there so much discussion about Irish dairy cows now?
Recently, after announcing the carbon budget, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan stated that the number of dairy cows is likely to decrease "naturally" in the next few years, without the need for slaughter.
According to the most recent census, there were approximately 137,500 farms in Ireland in 2016. CSO data shows that 265,400 people are employed in this industry, and more than 90% of the employees are farmers or family members.
The agri-food sector (commercial production of agri-food) provided approximately 8.5% of national employment in 2016 and created 13.9 billion euros for the Irish economy.
The agricultural lobby representing a large number of Irish farmers rejected calls to reduce the number of dairy cows, saying that farmers are facing pressure from all sides and are worried about the future.
The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) National Environment Chairman Paul O'Brien told The Wall Street Journal that for an industry dominated by small family farms, it will be very difficult to achieve the proposed emission reduction targets.
"When you look at the departmental goals...then you will have to say, look, this is a personal family with all personal problems," he said.
"So it really brings it back to a very, very micro level."
"We can use terms like'fundamental change' or'earthquake change', but the reality is how we continue and continue the type of agriculture we have been doing for years, producing food for our export markets... Such a high goal?
"For us, it will be very, very difficult to keep this agricultural model moving forward. But it may be the problems and concerns that I will encounter to replace this agricultural model."
O'Brien said that many different measures are currently converging, which makes farmers very worried. These include the upcoming emission reduction targets and major changes in the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
He also cited a recent economic impact assessment report commissioned by Irish Farmers Magazine, which stated that a 30% reduction in emissions would result in the loss of 56,000 jobs and a significant drop in farmers’ income.
O'Brien and IFA resisted calls to reduce the number of dairy cows, stating that more attention and research should be devoted to mitigation measures, such as improving the efficiency of agricultural practices, and increasing research investment in carbon sequestration (carbon storage) technology.
Another argument against reducing cattle breeding is that if Ireland cuts agricultural production, other countries with a worse record of sustainable agriculture will adopt this approach.
IFA frequently quotes research showing that Ireland is the most efficient dairy producer and the fifth most efficient beef producer in the EU (although An Taisce and others have disputes over the use of this research).
"So the question is, if we reduce production in Ireland, will those countries whose agricultural models are more unsustainable than ours will accept it?" O'Brien said.
Sadhbh O'Neill disputed this description, saying that the entire world has a responsibility to shift from animal husbandry to a more sustainable form of food production.
"The reality is that despite the increasing global demand for dairy and beef products, this is not a sustainable diet consistent with our temperature targets under the Paris [Climate] Agreement.
#Open News No news is bad news Support the journal Your contribution will help us continue to provide stories that are important to you Support us now
Your contribution will help us continue to provide stories that are important to you
"And there are a lot of scientific reports telling us that if we want to feed the world's population, especially considering that the population is still growing...we will have to switch to a plant-based diet to use the land more efficiently."
Despite strong disagreements in many areas, environmental experts and farmer lobby groups have stated that the government needs to communicate more strongly about what farmers need to do.
Paul O'Brien strongly criticized the government for failing to provide farmers with clear directions.
"I don't think anyone currently shows us a clear model of where they think [we should] go," he said.
"The reality is that if you try to come up with an alternative plan for farmers to follow a certain path, if this path will be a dead end, then there is no choice. What is actually happening is that there is currently no clear definition. The peasant way."
"We have 72,000 members and their families. The vast majority of people live mainly on agriculture. I don't see anything in the proposal of the CAP or the government's just transition fund to attract farmers [together].
"So a farmer will ask himself a question: If I am expected to reduce, how can I maintain income by reducing my number?"
Sadhbh O'Neill criticized the agricultural lobby and the government for failing to provide farmers with clear advice on the future of agricultural production in Ireland.
She said she firmly believes that it is impossible to implement the emission reductions required by the carbon budget without reducing the number of cows in the country, and this needs to be communicated to farmers.
"I personally believe that no matter how the agricultural sector declines, it is impossible to achieve a carbon budget without reducing the number of herds," she said.
"I think we need to communicate more directly with farmers because if we continue to talk about it in these vague ways, we will not send them a clear message on how the policy will be implemented in the future.
"They need to know this, and they have the right to know this."
This work was jointly funded by Journal Media and a grant program of the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work belong to the author himself. The European Parliament does not participate in and is not responsible for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
To embed this post, please copy the following code on your website
600px wide<iframe width="600" height="460" frameborder="0" style="border:0px;" src="https://www.thejournal.ie/https://www.thejournal.ie/ reducing-number-of-cows-ireland-5592667-Nov2021/?embedpost=5592667&width=600&height=460" ></iframe>
400px wide<iframe width="600" height="460" frameborder="0" style="border:0px;" src="https://www.thejournal.ie/https://www.thejournal.ie/ reducing-number-of-cows-ireland-5592667-Nov2021/?embedpost=5592667&width=400&height=460" ></iframe>
300px wide<iframe width="600" height="460" frameborder="0" style="border:0px;" src="https://www.thejournal.ie/https://www.thejournal.ie/ reducing-number-of-cows-ireland-5592667-Nov2021/?embedpost=5592667&width=300&height=460" ></iframe>
The user has been banned from the comment function
Notify me of followup comments via e-mail
TheJournal.ie supports the work of the Irish Press Council and the Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our employees operate within the scope of the Code of Conduct. You can obtain a copy of this code at www.presscouncil.ie, or contact the committee at (01) 6489130, local phone 1890 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie
Please note that TheJournal.ie uses cookies to improve your experience and provide services and advertising. For more information about cookies, please refer to our cookie policy.
Unless otherwise stated, news images are provided by the Press Association and Photocall Ireland. Unless otherwise stated, Irish sports images provided by Inpho Photography. Wire transfer service provided by the Associated Press.
Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for user-created content, posts, comments, submissions, or preferences. Users are reminded that they are fully responsible for the content they create and their own posts, comments and submissions, and they fully and effectively guarantee and compensate Journal Media for such content and their ability to provide such content, posts, comments and submissions. Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for the content of external websites.
Website: TheJournal.ie | Notable | 42 | Boards.ie | AdWords.ie | Daft
TheJournal.ie latest news
How do you solve the problem of Irish dairy cows? Annotation
Create an email alert based on the current article