Can’t for the life of me figure out the logic of curtailing it
The same farmers will cry about climate-related damage to their farm and demand government support. They’re either stupid or evil.
Indeed, the failure to engage intellectually with climate change and it’s effect on land and production is striking. Farmers are the great weather watchers, they have to be. Yet as measurable change occurs too many among their leadership tell farmers it’s not important it’s someone else’s business to worry about and fix or a plot by urban lefties (some of whom do have a tin ear it should be said).
For me it’s the legacy of decades of encouraging production above literally everything else notably water quality and biodiversity plus a balanced agri sector which provides more food for Ireland rather than wealthy export markets.
It’s in the agri-business and food sector interest to push back on any attempt to reduce production of dairy, beef and lamb. They are making huge profits, the majority of which come from exports. The dairy sector in particular makes so much money from milk products like butter, whey protein and infant formula. **All while continually trying to cut what they pay to farmers**. By shit stirring, and pushing the narrative that it’s the green party against the small family farm, they can keep making those profits.
In reality, subsidies keep a lot of small farmers going, the only ones making a profit are big conglomerates. Sheep farming would collapse overnight if those subsidies were removed. They should be switched to increasing bio-diversity on marginal mountainous land. Remove the sheep, goats and non-native sika deer. Cull the native deer to manageable levels, and we would have beautiful native forests in 20-30 years. It would be a huge carbon sink, encourage lots of wildlife and be a resource for us all to enjoy nature. [https://www.farmingfornature.ie/nominees/eoghan-daltun/](https://www.farmingfornature.ie/nominees/eoghan-daltun/)
If we were doing it properly we would be bringing farmers with us, guaranteeing them an income while encouraging low carbon and biodiversity aware farming. So this nefarious bullshit is so toxic, creating an urban versus rural divide that we don’t have time for if we want a livable country.
This article comes across so condescending. There is no doubt climate change is happening – the article seems to think that farmers can flick a switch and solve it themselves.
The article’s main source of information seems to be a 10 year old survey – hardly a convincing bit of evidence.
These kinds of columns server little more than to inflate the authors ego – thinking they have achieved something – and to further turn this into a them vs us argument.
Well in fairness if Ireland cannot provide beef to a local and global demand then others will step in, like Brazil, Argentina or others who might not have as such labour, environmental laws etc… the demand will shift elsewhere. Ireland will lose on exports, the planet climate will not be improved since more countries will buy from other places and ship further, cut down rainforests to host more cattle etc
All the city/swamp dwellers criticising the very people who produce the food that they need to survive.
Happy enough to see the farmers have their herds reduced to save the planet and import that food source from Brazil 👏
Well done guys. Uppa teslas
It is targeting them! The system needs more land to build houses for the slaves, and factory made meat is cheaper and easier for the system to make more money off
8 comments
Food needs producing if not here somewhere else.
Can’t for the life of me figure out the logic of curtailing it
The same farmers will cry about climate-related damage to their farm and demand government support. They’re either stupid or evil.
Indeed, the failure to engage intellectually with climate change and it’s effect on land and production is striking. Farmers are the great weather watchers, they have to be. Yet as measurable change occurs too many among their leadership tell farmers it’s not important it’s someone else’s business to worry about and fix or a plot by urban lefties (some of whom do have a tin ear it should be said).
For me it’s the legacy of decades of encouraging production above literally everything else notably water quality and biodiversity plus a balanced agri sector which provides more food for Ireland rather than wealthy export markets.
It’s in the agri-business and food sector interest to push back on any attempt to reduce production of dairy, beef and lamb. They are making huge profits, the majority of which come from exports. The dairy sector in particular makes so much money from milk products like butter, whey protein and infant formula. **All while continually trying to cut what they pay to farmers**. By shit stirring, and pushing the narrative that it’s the green party against the small family farm, they can keep making those profits.
In reality, subsidies keep a lot of small farmers going, the only ones making a profit are big conglomerates. Sheep farming would collapse overnight if those subsidies were removed. They should be switched to increasing bio-diversity on marginal mountainous land. Remove the sheep, goats and non-native sika deer. Cull the native deer to manageable levels, and we would have beautiful native forests in 20-30 years. It would be a huge carbon sink, encourage lots of wildlife and be a resource for us all to enjoy nature. [https://www.farmingfornature.ie/nominees/eoghan-daltun/](https://www.farmingfornature.ie/nominees/eoghan-daltun/)
If we were doing it properly we would be bringing farmers with us, guaranteeing them an income while encouraging low carbon and biodiversity aware farming. So this nefarious bullshit is so toxic, creating an urban versus rural divide that we don’t have time for if we want a livable country.
This article comes across so condescending. There is no doubt climate change is happening – the article seems to think that farmers can flick a switch and solve it themselves.
The article’s main source of information seems to be a 10 year old survey – hardly a convincing bit of evidence.
These kinds of columns server little more than to inflate the authors ego – thinking they have achieved something – and to further turn this into a them vs us argument.
Well in fairness if Ireland cannot provide beef to a local and global demand then others will step in, like Brazil, Argentina or others who might not have as such labour, environmental laws etc… the demand will shift elsewhere. Ireland will lose on exports, the planet climate will not be improved since more countries will buy from other places and ship further, cut down rainforests to host more cattle etc
All the city/swamp dwellers criticising the very people who produce the food that they need to survive.
Happy enough to see the farmers have their herds reduced to save the planet and import that food source from Brazil 👏
Well done guys. Uppa teslas
It is targeting them! The system needs more land to build houses for the slaves, and factory made meat is cheaper and easier for the system to make more money off