Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Alamy Stock Photo

Opinion 'The shift coming in Irish agriculture must be transformational - but it will be positive too'

Minister of State for Agriculture Pippa Hackett writes that the future for farming in Ireland should see increased incomes and decreased emissions.

IT’S A TRICKY space, agriculture.  

Most of us accept that the way we farm is changing, and indeed must change.  But with a vociferous few harbingers of doom banging drums and bemoaning the supposed death of rural Ireland at the hands of the dreaded Greens, there may be a suspicion that the price of climate and biodiversity action could be too high – that our farm families could be forced off the land, and that our green fields could be left bereft of cattle.

Well, my message is that nothing could be further from the truth.  

Yes, there is a shift coming in Irish agriculture which will and must be, transformational.  But it will also be hugely positive. And I see it resulting in new generations of farmers and foresters working the land in a sustainable way, with nature being restored, water quality improving, and premium prices being delivered to those who produce premium Origin Green produce.

To my mind, that is a future worth fighting for. And it is why I am so pleased that in the past week we have seen just two more developments which demonstrate how environmental thinking is permeating agriculture in a very real way.

The developments were the publication today of a key strategy document for the food sector, Food Vision 2030, and the launch of an initial public consultation on the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) strategic plan. 

In both instances, the influence of the increased climate ambition of this Government was clear. It’s an ambition which I believe has led to outcomes which, while perhaps not perfect, show clearly that Green thinking is at the heart of a shift in agriculture.  

To explain:  Food Vision 2030 is a stakeholder strategy which was produced with Department of Agriculture support.  The stakeholders included farm organisations, industry representatives, State agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency and the Environmental Pillar, though the Pillar left shortly before the end, believing the strategy was not sufficiently ambitious. 

But the strategy has now been published, with its chair Tom Arnold, highlighting how it will employ a ‘Food Systems’ approach to ensure Ireland’s agri-food sector meets the highest standards of economic, environmental and social sustainability.  For the Green Party, this placing of the environment as central is both crucial and welcome.

The other element of the strategy, which is equally welcome and also vital, is the acknowledgement that the targets set in it are fluid and will change with increased climate ambition. This is essential, as the Climate Action Plan, when it is published later in the year, will almost certainly increase the ambition and demands on the sector, as will other environmental measures which are being rolled out.  

These include the Clean Air Strategy and the revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directive in 2022; the Third River Basin Management Plan under the EU water framework directive which will greatly improve water quality; and the reduction of carbon emissions under our own Climate Action Bill and the EU’s ‘Fit for 55’ emissions reduction package. It is really positive therefore, that the strategy specifically acknowledges that it will adjust its targets to meet the requirements of the Climate Action Plan. 

The consultation on the CAP Strategic Plan also demonstrates just how seriously we are taking the need to shift to ‘farming for nature’ and focus on the needs of the land.  

The CAP is the method through which the EU supports farmers with direct and incentive payments. It is due to be renewed in 2023 and the form of the new CAP is currently the subject of discussion throughout Europe, with the basic premise, accepted by all, that this CAP will have environmental concerns at its heart, and will make payments based on results achieved.  This is what the citizens of Europe have demanded.

Here in Ireland, the CAP Consultative Committee is responding to that call with a plan which again is not perfect, but which is setting us along the right path. The plan is due to go for an initial four-week public consultation immediately, while a subsequently amended version will then go for major consultation in the Autumn.  We will be keen to see submissions, and as a party, we will certainly support calls for even greater ambition, which will help us meet the sectoral emissions ceilings set out for the agricultural sector.

As members of the Green Party, we have been aware for many years of the need for climate and environmental action.  Others have been less aware, but I think everyone has been shaken by the recent examples from Canada to Germany of how climate change is taking hold.  We have read the reports which show our water is polluted and we can see the horrifying footage which shows our world is burning.

We can only address those issues by working together.  And the acceptance on the part of farmers, industry, agencies and the Department of Agriculture that we must work together, that we must change, that we will step up, and that the measures such as the new CAP and Food Vision will align with the targets to be set by the upcoming Climate Action Plan, is very welcome.  

We want a future for farming in Ireland in which incomes are up and emissions are down.  We believe such a clean, green, profitable future is possible.  It is achievable.  And the Green Party is proud of the part it is playing in making it a reality.

 Pippa Hackett is a Green Party Senator and Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

View 53 comments
Close
53 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kevin Fahey
    Favourite Kevin Fahey
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 1:40 PM

    Looney greens if you don’t stop your attacks on country people you’ll provoke a terrible reaction ITS SIMMERING

    121
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan Cooney
    Favourite Brendan Cooney
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 2:16 PM

    @Kevin Fahey: you are aware most people who live in the countryside are not farmers or even working in agribusiness?

    51
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kevin Fahey
    Favourite Kevin Fahey
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 2:41 PM

    @Brendan Cooney: oh I’m well aware of the make up of the rural population just leave us alone and for f..k sake stop telling us what’s best for us .Nobody loves and cares for the countryside more than the people who live there. It has to stop.

    101
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Will
    Favourite Will
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 2:44 PM

    @Brendan Cooney: I live in rural Ireland and like most people around me I’m not a farmer. However, the backbone of the local economy is farming. Anything that negatively affects farmers will also negatively affect their neighbours. Farmers are the biggest local employers and their produce accounts for the lions share of local output.

    74
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gavin Tobin
    Favourite Gavin Tobin
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 7:35 PM

    @Kevin Fahey: the greens have done nothing attacks or otherwise. Think any attacks are in your imagination. Only thing greens have done in power is sleep and voted how they were ordered.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute thesaltyurchin
    Favourite thesaltyurchin
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 1:09 PM

    Maybe they can all farm bike’s.

    103
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute DB
    Favourite DB
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 1:44 PM

    @thesaltyurchin: brilliant

    18
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Mc Donagh
    Favourite John Mc Donagh
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 1:57 PM

    Well, maybe when we get the frog census completed when the wolves are re-introduced, when we get all turf cutting blocked and oil becomes too expensive for the ordinary people, and when growers learn how to perform the impossible task of growing veg. without using peat products and everyone becomes a vegan, then we’ll be on our way to Utopia—–If we’re not dead from cold and hunger first.

    97
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute David Bourke
    Favourite David Bourke
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 2:04 PM

    @John Mc Donagh:

    “the impossible task of growing veg”???

    What’s impossible about it, genuinely curious, I’m not a farmer.

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute mmz
    Favourite mmz
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 2:21 PM

    @John Mc Donagh: Oh you will be dead from cold, hunger or the heat long before that John….. have you looked at the jet stream weather pattern disruption issue lately? The arctic is warming so quickly that the barriers between the temperate and arctic air masses has broken down so we may expect more extreme weather more quickly. Hope you don’t live on the coast John. Believe the climate scientists not the climate science deniers…..because denying science works so well especially with the covid 19 mess we are all in dosen’t it? NOT.

    27
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Murphy
    Favourite John Murphy
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 3:15 PM

    @David Bourke: I think he is referring to how is quite difficult but not impossible to grow veg in the wetter more exposed parts of the west coast.
    But there must be more productive ways to farm the land in these areas. Maybe biomass or new vegetable types could be an option.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Diarmuid O'Braonáin
    Favourite Diarmuid O'Braonáin
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 2:24 PM

    Pity she wouldn’t sort the issues regarding forestry licenses. Building costs are spiraling out of control to the point where builders are not quoting people on materials. Timber is up 50% and increasing further with imports from Scotland making up the shortfall because the dept of agriculture cannot gets its act together.

    80
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute thesaltyurchin
    Favourite thesaltyurchin
    Report
    Aug 4th 2021, 10:00 AM

    @Diarmuid O’Braonáin: It’s like the place is in constant auto pilot, no one ever sees these situations on the horizon and thinks ‘you know we should probs do something to offset this’… we’ve become reliant on public outrage. Politicians just hang about on their phones until someone makes enough noise.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan Cooney
    Favourite Brendan Cooney
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 1:15 PM

    While Agriculture needs to clean up its act with regard to nutrients (Phosphorus and Nitrogen) and reduce its GHG emissions which are rather large, it is only one part of the answer to clean waters and Climate Change mitigation. Large changes are required of septic tank emissions and municipal sewage discharges regarding nutrients, and as for our GHG emissions, and the general public needs to have along hard look at itself regarding its propensity to drive, drive, drive, fly, fly, fly and do something with its poorly insulated McMansions

    69
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Anthony Guinnessy
    Favourite Anthony Guinnessy
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 3:49 PM

    @Brendan Cooney: why don’t we have a mass extermination in ireland and produce no emissions. Would this fix the climate problem? No I didn’t think so, what the greens need to do is go to China, India, Pakistan, Russia, brazil and USA and go to work on getting them to sort out their emissions. Once they have agreement from them and we can see them making improvements then we can match them. Until this happens even a mass extermination here will have zero impact on climate change.

    58
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nick Beirne
    Favourite Nick Beirne
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 5:07 PM

    @Anthony Guinnessy:
    Average carbon footprint per person in
    Brazil : 2.2 tonnes
    China : 8 tonnes
    Ireland : 17 tonnes

    31
    See 3 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Anthony Guinnessy
    Favourite Anthony Guinnessy
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 6:08 PM

    @Nick Beirne: have these figures any relevance? Things have to be produced somewhere. It’s better for the world if they are produced in the most efficient way possible from a carbon footprint point of view.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gavin Tobin
    Favourite Gavin Tobin
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 7:38 PM

    @Anthony Guinnessy: You genuinely don’t understand the relevance???

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Terry Larkin
    Favourite Terry Larkin
    Report
    Aug 6th 2021, 2:53 PM

    @Gavin Tobin: And you genuinely don’t appear to understand what those figures mean from the global perspective! 5 million Irish people producing 17 tonnes each (and I’d like to know where that 17 figure comes from, because I can only find 7.6 tonnes per head when I look it up) is a tiny drop in the ocean compared to 1,450 million Chinese people producing 8 tonnes each!

    You can prove almost anything by manipulating statistics. But the simple fact is that if Ireland was wiped off the face of the earth tomorrow, the overall global average carbon footprint would change only microscopically. In short, there’s literally nothing that we can do that can significantly affect the global position – and our policy makers (not forgetting the hysterical Greta Thunderburger lovers) need to acknowledge this a lot more more than they do. That said, it’s self-evident that we should make every reasonable attempt possible to reduce our carbon footprint, both nationally and individually.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute mmz
    Favourite mmz
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 2:09 PM

    @kevin fahey….threatening green politicians and activists will not change the science on the subject of global warming nor will it change the fact that you are condemning your children and grandchildren to life on an unliveable planet if we do not at least reduce CO2 emissions by a half in the next 29 years. Ireland’s insanely expanded agricultural export sector creates about a third of our CO2 emissions and and good bit more of our methane emissions. Strange that farmers are concerned about extreme weather events caused by climate change when it affects their planting/harvesting cycle, but dismissive of their responsibility to be part of the solution…..

    40
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Diarmuid O'Braonáin
    Favourite Diarmuid O'Braonáin
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 2:40 PM

    @mmz: Have you any figures on how much carbon is absorbed by grasslands and tillage every year? I know for a fact the transport sector produces carbon only. When you see lush grass growing in the Irish fields you are seeing carbon being absorbed from other sectors that only produce it. All those cars, trucks and planes.

    I’m not saying Agriculture doesn’t needs to improve, I’m saying the information needs to be proportionate and balanced. Most of Ireland is covered in grasslands and grasslands hold the most amount of carbon of all soils. The more grass is grown and grazed the more carbon that gets absorbed. A by product of this process is beef and milk which Ireland is well suited due to our wet climate. We have people who will buy avocados, eat rice and drink wine all imported from other countries which is far more damaging to the planet than what we are doing here in Ireland. Rice accounts for 20% of methane produced globally. Avocados are grown in a monoculture and are causing massive problems to the environment in South America. California is being pumped dry because of the vineyards thirst for water.

    The funny thing is that people keeping going on about carbon but the biggest crisis our planet is going to face in the coming years is water for growing crops as most of the agriculture grown has to be irrigated with water. We are extremely lucky to be living in Ireland in regards food security.

    59
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kevin Fahey
    Favourite Kevin Fahey
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 2:49 PM

    @mmz: all the threats are coming from the posh greens . Most country folk don’t interfere with anyone and if you think destroying rural life in little Ireland is going to save the world I worry for you

    53
    See 16 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Anthony Guinnessy
    Favourite Anthony Guinnessy
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 3:58 PM

    @mmz: let’s just cut emissions from farming by 100% and import all our produce. What will that do for emissions World wide? Foods which are produced in third world countries much cheaper for us but with higher emissions and then transported to us with more emissions and more waste but sure our emissions will be reduced so we’ll meet our targets and sure isn’t that all that matters?

    21
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Em Gee
    Favourite Em Gee
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 4:11 PM

    @Kevin Fahey: You’re right. Posh avocado eating Greens who don’t care about the carbon footprint of their trendy fruit and vegetables but don’t like farmers ruining their weekend retreats / theme parks by taking up space on the road with their farm machinery and putting livestock on the nice green grass. Where do they think all the stuff they buy at farmers markets comes from?

    24
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Liam Mernagh
    Favourite Liam Mernagh
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 4:30 PM

    @mmz: would it be more acceptable for Ireland to become producers of steel and aluminium products to suit the world consumer market and leave some other country to supply life sustaining food for our population.
    It’s a pity, seeing as you’re so concerned about the situation that you couldn’t convince yourself to put your name to your contribution.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute john reynolds
    Favourite john reynolds
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 4:52 PM

    @mmz: perhaps government who signed up for climate change should not have had a increased production driven agenda put on farmers to recover from the 2008 crash I recall government asking us to up production regaurdless of consequences if pipa now wants this changed its going to cost big you can’t turn farming into something else overnight it takes several years

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan Cooney
    Favourite Brendan Cooney
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 6:08 PM

    @Diarmuid O’Braonáin: sorry to burst that bubble butmodern grassland most certainly does not sequester carbon, recycle possibly, but not sequester.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan Cooney
    Favourite Brendan Cooney
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 6:09 PM

    @Kevin Fahey: no, from people who see the environmental destruction modern farming is wrecking. #timetochange

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brendan Cooney
    Favourite Brendan Cooney
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 6:11 PM

    @Anthony Guinnessy: actually irish agriculture could cut production by 75%and it would still be an exporting country. Also don’t forget those exports also lock up air miles, lots of them so they are not very sustainable

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Anthony Guinnessy
    Favourite Anthony Guinnessy
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 6:46 PM

    @Brendan Cooney: better to produce in a less efficient country and export with more air miles instead? You have your head in the sand man

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Anthony Guinnessy
    Favourite Anthony Guinnessy
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 6:47 PM

    @Brendan Cooney: still be exporting the same amount and the same types of food stuffs or are you advocating different food stuffs?

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Diarmuid O'Braonáin
    Favourite Diarmuid O'Braonáin
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 7:39 PM

    @Brendan Cooney: please elaborate as to how modern grasslands don’t sequest carbon from the atmosphere. Your comment lacked alot of detail as it seems more an option than a fact.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kevin Fahey
    Favourite Kevin Fahey
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 11:42 PM

    @Brendan Cooney: you need to get more than your flimsy 5% support I have to hand it to you you’re not short of barefaced cheek

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute mmz
    Favourite mmz
    Report
    Aug 4th 2021, 1:47 AM

    @Anthony Guinnessy: Frankly Anthony, that’s all that does matter because if we all don’t cut greenhouse gas emissions to the point of near elimination there will be no life for your children or their children.

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute mmz
    Favourite mmz
    Report
    Aug 4th 2021, 1:58 AM

    @Diarmuid O’Braonáin: Most of Ireland’s beautiful grasslands seem to me to have become overpopulated with cattle in the last 10 years. In fact the dairy herd has doubled. So have we grown more “beautiful grass” to feed them all? No – we import 10′s of thousands of tonnes of soya beans from Brazil which feeds them during the winter months. We complain about the disappearing rain forest and farmers (along with the Greens) want to stop the Mercusor trade deal with Brazil because of the disappearing rain forest while at the same time covertly – as in slyly- importing the soya beans grown on rain forest cleared land.
    Apart from this the massive dairy herds are now causing massive pollution of our rivers and destruction of our beautiful green land.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute mmz
    Favourite mmz
    Report
    Aug 4th 2021, 2:08 AM

    @john reynolds: No, it takes only until the EU re designs the CAP before 2023. They could do the right thing in terms of the environment and climate change or they could do what the agri corporations want. The only way forward for the Irish family farm is to follow a green agenda subsidy pattern and hope the EU is scared enough about the climate change and bio diversity emergencies to back that plan.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute mmz
    Favourite mmz
    Report
    Aug 4th 2021, 2:10 AM

    @Kevin Fahey: Kevin – just read the science, please.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute mmz
    Favourite mmz
    Report
    Aug 4th 2021, 2:20 AM

    @Liam Mernagh: Ireland has no prospect of becoming a producer of steel or aluminium at present though if the government’s plan to produce 7 times our electricity needs using renewable energy from offshore wind farms goes through the country might be attractive for aluminium smelting – though most people might find this objectionable. At present Ireland exports about 90% of its agricultural production so there is no prospect of us “failing to supply life sustaining food for our population.” Are you a climate science denier Liam? Do you not accept that there is no future for our children if we do not cut CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions by at least half in the next 29 years? Agriculture here produces about a third of our emissions. Do you think it should be given a free pass on cutting CO2? Why so?

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Hammond
    Favourite Dave Hammond
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 1:28 PM

    wow the meaning of ‘The Shift’ has really changed since I was last on the farm….

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The world outside the M50
    Favourite The world outside the M50
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 1:17 PM

    Maybe at last stop the ongoing unnecessary Animal Cruelty.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5wabeFG9pM&t=3s

    33
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute DB
    Favourite DB
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 1:45 PM

    @The world outside the M50: grow up and get educated.

    53
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The world outside the M50
    Favourite The world outside the M50
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 3:46 PM

    @DB: If all else fails then attack the poster.
    If that video was not to your grown up and educated desire then maybe this one will.
    https://youtu.be/LQRAfJyEsko

    11
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Anthony Guinnessy
    Favourite Anthony Guinnessy
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 4:01 PM

    Emissions should be calculated where the goods are consumed not produced. Until this happens there is no point even talking about it as its just nonsense. We can cut all agricultural emissions by importing food from other countries but I would drive up global emissions as other countries aren’t as efficient as us at producing food.

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Sean O Toole
    Favourite Sean O Toole
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 2:53 PM

    First order is to break Dept of Agriculture into Agricultural improvement and
    Consumer foods and health
    More and more these two aims are becoming incompatible
    eg. Consumption of red meat.

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Em Gee
    Favourite Em Gee
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 4:13 PM

    @Sean O Toole: Let’s all consume Soylent Green instead of red meat or any meat for that matter.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The world outside the M50
    Favourite The world outside the M50
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 4:22 PM

    @Em Gee: You don’t need any animal meat in your diet.
    The strongest animals in the world are all plant eaters.
    Shift to a plant based diet and you will feel the difference straight away.

    15
    See 4 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Will
    Favourite Will
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 4:38 PM

    @The world outside the M50: “You don’t need any animal meat in your diet.”

    You don’t necessarily need it but it is a great source of protein and if eaten in moderation and from good sources it can be part of a perfectly healthy diet.

    “The strongest animals in the world are all plant eaters.”

    Don’t think that’s relevant and certainly not true. The largest mammal on earth (ever) is the blue whale and they are meat eaters.

    16
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The world outside the M50
    Favourite The world outside the M50
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 5:33 PM

    @Will: Technically the whale is in the sea, anyhow – our long intestines are long for the reason to digest plant material. Carnivorous animals have short intestines.
    Elephant, Rhino, Hippo etc. all plant eaters.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gary Kearney
    Favourite Gary Kearney
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 5:48 PM

    @The world outside the M50: Maybe I don’t need it, but I like it and I enjoy it and they day cus cus or humus can replace a medium rare steak I will try it.
    Meat substitutes taste nothing like they are supposed to. Unless they are meant to taste like cardboard.
    Besides what would we do with all the cattle cull them or just eat them until we run out of livestock?

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Diarmuid O'Braonáin
    Favourite Diarmuid O'Braonáin
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 7:53 PM

    @The world outside the M50: sorry to burst your bubble but things are not as simple as you say. Let’s look at American or Africa before the white man. There were millions of animals travelling in herds grazing grasslands. The American people would eat alot of buffalo. The world was in a pretty good shape despite all the animals.

    You theory or meat is bad and veg/fruit is good is wrong. Monoculture are killing the planet. Millions of acres of bananas or avocados covered in chemicals. We need a balance in farming as we do in diet. Grasslands are good for the planet because there is more carbon stored in the soil there than tillage farms. Everytime the land is ploughed the carbon gets released. If we all stopped eating meat in the morning the planet wouldn’t improve that much.

    Not everything is as black and white as you think.

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nick Beirne
    Favourite Nick Beirne
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 5:06 PM

    @Anthony Guinnessy: Average carbon footprint per person in
    Brazil : 2.2 tonnes
    China : 8 tonnes
    Ireland : 17 tonnes

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Gary Kearney
    Favourite Gary Kearney
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 5:51 PM

    @Nick Beirne: Population density is not been taken into consideration. Country size and population also.
    Using one set of figures to prove a complicated argument is weak. Especially with so many variables in the equation.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Mc Donagh
    Favourite John Mc Donagh
    Report
    Aug 3rd 2021, 10:38 PM

    Where are the 44 comments?

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds