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THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION has decided not to review its decision to cease Ireland’s nitrates derogation that allows farmers who meet more rigorous conditions, to farm at higher stocking rates.
The derogation is due to expire in January 2026 with the limit due to reduce from the current 250kg/ha to 220kg/ha on Jan 1, 2024, in certain areas. Currently, without the derogation, the limit is 170 kg/ha.
This means thousands of dairy farmers will have no option but to reduce their herd sizes over the next four months or acquire or rent additional land to adhere to the rules.
Pat McCormack, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) said that representatives from the ICMSA had told Agriculture Minister, Charlie McConalogue to go back to the European Commission to get the reduction changed. Tim Cullinan, president of the Irish Farmer’s Association (IFA) agrees. He suggested that Mr McConalogue agreeing to these changes without consultation with farmers has ‘shown total disrespect’ and ‘disregard for all farmers.’
Meanwhile, recent Eurostat figures showed that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the first quarter of 2023 fell in all but six EU countries compared with the same quarter in 2022. In contrast, Ireland remains an unprecedented outlier with emissions increasing by 9.1% next to Latvia at 7.5% followed by Slovakia (1.9%), Denmark (1.7%), Sweden (1.6%) and Finland (0.3%). Overall, the EU economy’s GHG emissions fell by 3%, with the largest reductions in Bulgaria (15.2%), Estonia (14.7%) and Slovenia (9.6%).
With agriculture responsible for 37% of total GHG emissions in Ireland, realistically Ireland is going to remain an EU outlier until we tackle the challenge of the ongoing issue of the size of the national herd.
The good news is that circumstances have now aligned to allow that to happen. The derogation decision if unchanged would mean a cut in production of 15% for dairy and livestock farmers according to Mr Cullinan. At the same time, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar addressed the crux of the matter recently when he suggested that a fund is needed to compensate farmers to meet targets in the proposed EU Nature Restoration Law ‘as it won’t happen otherwise quite frankly.’
Varadkar added that he will push the EU at the next European Council meeting in October, to establish a new fund for farmers to restore nature. He suggested that the fund would likely be worth billions but qualified this by saying that they must ‘listen to the science’ on environmental issues.
The EU Nature Restoration Law that plans to place recovery measures on a fifth of EU’s land and sea by 2030 scraped through by a knife-edge vote in July. The big question that was not addressed at all and is a major concern for farmers is how they will be adequately compensated.
‘I would be absolutely of the view that we need a fund separate and in addition to CAP (Common Agricultural Policy funding) to reward and compensate farmers and landowners for some of the things that have to happen,’ Mr Varadkar said. Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan said that farmers were on the front line of climate action and restoring nature and that to get that right ‘we will need to pay people.’
‘Part of ensuring there is confidence in farming communities that this transition is in their favour is getting certainty on the funding arrangements… But whether that is through the budget or through the European Union or through co-ops and food companies paying more money, there are various options.’
But the devil is in the detail and the amounts and mechanisms of payment are very, very short on detail. Is it any wonder that farmers are digging their heels in? Surely, all of this should have been thrashed out and made crystal clear to farmers before the EU Nature Restoration Law proposals were brought forward.
One country that has paved the way on how to get this exactly right is a tiny, quite poor country in Central America – Costa Rica. From 1986-1990 Avaro Umaña was the environment minister in the government under prime minister Óscar Arias. Until 1986, deforestation had been rampant and forest cover had fallen to 24.4% of the country. Now forests occupy over half (57%) of the country, close to the maximum. While a small amount of illegal timber felling continues, Costa Rica is the only tropical country to have reversed deforestation.
How did they do it?
Umaña set up a new Department of Energy and Environment with responsibility for protected areas. He recognised that the key to progress was to change financial incentives.
Cattle ranching was unproductive as the land supported one cow per hectare but it was fractionally more productive than allowing the forest to stand.
The opportunity cost of foregoing a cow was calculated at $64 per year. This was what was offered for protecting or restoring a hectare of forest. Landowners were offered grants or loans, with the promise that if the forest was still standing after five years, it could serve as the loan’s guarantee.
A key factor behind the success of the scheme was building a sense of national pride which in combination with generous economic incentives, allowed small farmers to take pride in what they were achieving for nature restoration and the global reputation of a small country that could achieve what many other larger wealthier countries have failed to accomplish.
What was achieved in Costa Rica is an example of what can be achieved with political will. When governments are committed, decisive things happen. That was evident in Ireland with the response to the Covid pandemic. Research published in the Lancet (2022) showed that Ireland recorded one of the lowest excess deaths in the world during the pandemic. The Republic’s excess mortality was estimated at 12.5/100,000, a fraction of the 131.8 recorded in Northern Ireland and 125.8 recorded in England. In Europe, only Iceland and Norway performed better than Ireland for excess mortality, regarded as a measure of the true death toll of the pandemic.
We can be global leaders when the political will is there. Ireland was one of the first countries in the world to declare a climate and biodiversity emergency in 2019. Farmers should have the option to receive equivalent farm subsidies for restoring nature to what they receive for farming, and for that activity to be considered as important as food production. The EU Nature Restoration Law was introduced before appropriate compensation for farmers was made clear. This is now being addressed at the EU as well as the national level.
Now is the time for our political leaders to make this happen.
What is absolutely clear is that unless financial incentives for farmers are unambiguous and competitive, the current demise of the Irish landscape will continue.
Dr Catherine Conlon is a public health doctor in Cork and former director of human health and nutrition, safefood.
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Greenhouse gas emissions increase in Ireland is also because of a significant increase in population caused by immigration.
@Damian Moylan: yeah Irish people are carbon neutral those foreigners coming over here with there c02 it’s a disgrace!!
@Damian Moylan: thanks for sharing your feelings. Anything to back them up?
@Damian Moylan: I have never commented on immigration on this site.. but that has to be one of the most stupid things I’ve ever read on the journal, andthatsayssomething. Not surprising that it’s gotten so many likes, we are not short of imbeciles. But I wanted to let you know that you have achieved something really special today.
@: I agree that @Damien Moylan’s comment is badly worded but are you saying that an increase in population will have no effect on us trying to meet the targets that are based on a much lower population baseline figure. Regardless of whether the increase is due to returning Irish, refugees, international protection applicants or people arriving through work/student visas it will have an effect. We all (regardless of where or how we live) use energy, consume food, create waste etc so naturally more people in the country will make it harder to reach the targets set.
Both extreemes, whether they are far right nutjobs or far left open border nut jobs, are disingenuous with the information they provide but an increase in population is going to have an effect on demand for housing, energy etc regardless of the reasons as to why the population has grown.
@Damian Moylan: fair point but it has no argument when you think of the cycle lanes being installed around the country that’ll offset even double the population and probably solve the housing crisis aswel thousands entering the country couldn’t possibly effect the likes of that
Farmers need to move on.Our lakes and rivers need to be cleaned up for future generations.Expensive nitrogen can be replaced by rewarding biodiversity projects.Placing pickets on FFG think ins wont gain any sympathy.And yes I am a farmer myself.
@Willie Marty: If only there were a network of biodigesters around the country to take in excess slurry – like they have in other juristictions including N.I. providing the country with additional power. Its such a pity there arent some forward thinking greens in power …..
@Mindful Muinteoir: biodigesters are not the solution from an environmental point of view.
@Mindful Muinteoir: that would wirk wonderfully if farmers kept the cows inside year in year out , and imported feed from other farms/ countries
But irish farmers tend to graze the cows , which is far better environmentally than chucking them in a shed year round ,
And bio-digesters arent always exactly great environmentally – They dobt run great on just ag waste ,so you need to grow crops. And the biggest issue is transporting feedstock to them , and waste away. A lot of fuel used
If farmers decrease production by 13% then other Eu countries will have to import that 13% from other countries like New Zealand which increases global emissions.
@Damian Moylan: so if Ireland stops making beef, the only other country to buy it from would be New Zealand would it?
@Damian Moylan: or people can reduce the amount of meat and dairy they consume.
@Damian Moylan: Then we might cut exports by 13%. We export a lot of beef and dairy products – you can get Kerrygold pretty much everywhere.
It’s going to be hard to expect Farmers to abide by Rules, when they won’t even put lights on their Tractor Trailers, and why do Farmers expect to get subsidies to do everything, if Rules and Standards are put in place or changed for normal Buisness be they big or small no compensation is given to meet those changes. For example Garages had to abide by new Rules for used Tyre, Oil and Paint disposal that cost Thousands to implement and run, yet no compensation was given by Government/EU.
Land is Ireland is highly suitable for farming given our climate / weather. Ireland produces food other countries cannot and exports most of it. The idea of not using the land optimally seems illogical.
@Damian Moylan: The idea of overusing the land and wrecking our biodiversity is even less logical.
I see the author highlights Irelands low excess death rate during the pandemic as a measure of success albeit the worlds longest and most restrictive lockdown can easily bring such results,surely the surge in excess deaths this year and last must be alarming to these same people who can use these stats as a measure of success,Waterford top of the list-the highest vaxxed on earth
@Shane Doyle: Ireland had neither the longest or the most restrictive ‘lockdown’. Please don’t tell fibs.
@Tom Dillon: Really? Summer 2021 when the majority of europe and UK allowed people dine indoors, we still made everyone stay outside and by the time we did allow indoor dining it was too late and the weather had changed and covid started increasing…..how many countries made people spend 9 euro to eat indoors, or told young people who didnt get vaccinated they could serve people in restaurants they worked in who had been vaccinated but couldnt sit down and eat themselves. The stupid train went off the tracks with some of the “measures” we had and the fact many want us to pretend it was all great and a success is like FF saying handing us over to the IMF to bailout the banks back in 2008 didnt cause any real pain
@Tom Dillon: ya got me Tom china beat us ..we must have dreamt it all up..did we even lockdown
If I were a farmer I think I’d be delighted to have the opportunity to restore the natural world around me. Of course I’d be worried about my family and livelihood too, so compensation would put that worry to bed. I don’t think anyone, farmers included, wants the biodiversity and climate crises to worsen. We need a pragmatic solution that addresses farmer worries, but that primarily ensure we are not destroying our island home for our children.
So we are gonna make the farmers in europe go green but ignore the fact that the EU is literally doing deals with south america to import beef and the rainforests are being cut down over there to make way for it…..Its like eamon ryan telling people to use cars less, while he posed for pics in china while flying business class for his annual paddys week juncket. Hypocrisy knows no bounds
Why does Ireland pick up the tab for bad business decisions, just coz it’s the farmers? What other sector gets so well compensated for its fk ups?
@Chutes: Banking, Insurance, Public Service, need we go on listing…
Hahahaha
Love it when people joke about the Irish being able to govern competently.
The Irish way is to drive the farmers into poverty, so that rest of the Irish hate them for being poor. And of course the Dubs hate them already, because they’re from not-Dublin.
@Chris O’Brien: You should try visiting Ireland sometime and meet the people.
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