Mass Protest in the Netherlands by Farmers.

Their yield was the same as previous years I imagine. I don't really see your point.

The country is now effectively bankrupt, it cannot afford fertiliser. Why won't you acknowledge that rather important fact?

Let me put it to you this way, if you were a farmer in Sri Lanka with a family to feed right now would you rather be part of the 90% or the 10%?

Nope. In Sri Lanka, the chemical fertiliser was distributed as a subsidy. The government ran out of money and couldn't afford it anymore.

At some point you will have to acknowledge that reality.

But if you could answer the question below I assure you the penny will someway drop with you because you are just constantly repeating yourself without acknowledging the very bleak reality of the situation in Sri Lanka.

Let me put it to you this way, if you were a farmer in Sri Lanka with a family to feed right now would you rather be part of the 90% or the 10%?

In your own time, I hate to reduce debate to yes or no, but either will suffice in relation to that question.

You appear to believe that Sri Lanka`s government providing subsidies for growing food is somehow unique to Sri Lanka. Far from it. The EU have been doing it for eons under EAFDR as have the US and many others.

What is it you find so difficult to get that regardless of whether the government provides chemical fertilisers by way of subsidies or farmers buy them directly, the crop yields will be as low, if not lower, next year as they have been this year and while that may leave farmers with enough of a particular food to feed themselves, it will leave the rest of the population requiring importation of such staple foods as rice that they were self sufficient in until now. It will also leave farmers with no profit to buy any other necessities It will also reduce earnings from agricultural commodities they export such as tea which accounts for 17% of exports and was worth $1.27B in 2020. But then you had an alternative that they could produce themselves that would solve all that, so why the refusal to divulge it. Are you thinking of patenting it or something similar ?

Your 10% of organic growers is a complete irrelevance unless you are claiming that 10% somehow increased their crop yields and filled the shortage gap. They are even more of an irrelevance in that for the other 90% to fill that shortage gap farming like that 10% is going to require somewhere between 21.5% - 33% more acreage planted. Let the penny on that drop with all it`s implications, and then if it`s not under patent or a state secret, maybe let me know what this mysterious alternative they could produce themselves that would negate all that.

Again and for the last time, they can't afford fertiliser.

At the minute they are borrowing from China and India to buy back their fertiliser at hyper inflated prices.

It's the complete opposite of "self sufficient".

It's nothing to do with green ideology, it's basic maths. It is utterly amazing you keep ignoring that reality.

So if the current Dutch model is destroying their land, what is the solution? Producing less food? If they carry on as is maybe the land wont be able to produce anything eventually.

More f*cking nonsense...

But is it sustainable to import food from places where slash and burn is the policy?

I'm having a hard time believing that

Wouldn't drastically reducing the number of flights taken rank up there

Wouldn't educating women (and indeed men) in developing nations help reduce birth rates and population pressure

Wouldn't addressing the way countries are run with neverending growth (economically etc) being the goal...leading to increased consumption and waste be something to think about

If meat were cut out would that not result in land being repurposed and even more being taken for crops.....crops which will require pesticides to provide the kinds of yields required...........if we are talking about growing in a controlled environment/vertical farms etc...would that not consume huge amounts of electricity and water diverted from natural sources to provide the volume required

Like I said I'm finding it real hard to believe cutting out meat is the single best thing we can do......especially cutting production in the West, if we do that it will be supplied in a much more environmentally destructive way from Brazil........even if we do reduce demand won't that area being destroyed continue to be destroyed for palm oil plantations etc

All I can see is shooting ourselves in the foot even more and not solving the issue.

Veganism is not the answer. Many of the people telling us "we must do this, that and the third" are causing not just needless CO2 emissions and massive needless destruction of the natural world. By objecting to the use of nuclear energy (which has usually meant burning fossil fuels instead for electricity - 100% needlessly) and supporting the extermination of large birds (e.g. eagles) and bats to extinction by carpet bombing the countryside with windmills which are absolutely lethal to flying wildlife. Literally, windmills are more of an existential threat to bats than White Note Syndrome, which is itself an extinction-level threat.

Unless someone is willing to repudiate and oppose these insane policies, I don't care what else they favour or oppose.

Like Eamon Ryan who wants to simultaneously "re-wild" the countryside by introducing killer wolves while simultaneously carpet bombing it with windmills. Same for the vegan brigade. Your policies are contradictory, self-defeating and insane and I have no interest in changing my life according to them. Zero. Nada. Squat. Zip.

So that`s the alternative you have that they could produce themselves to solve the problem, malnutrition and starvation ?

Not at all. I have shown you what the alternatives are from Sri Lanka`s own agricultural research studies over 22 growing seasons, and this has been borne out from this years crop yields.

You have been on about some alternative they could use themselves to change that, but when repeatedly asked what this alternative is you just keep ignoring. Now you come up with yet another vague reply about published studies on how it can be achieved. So what are these alternatives, either your own, or from these published studies ?

It really is a simple question and I cannot see why the constant evasion attempts to not answer.

Obviously you chose to be a spa. 😉

The EU imports 540 million worth of beef with poor or none existing traceability from the slash and burn merchants in Brazil and have it shipped half way around the world. The EU imports 845 million worth of beef from Ireland a member state.

The EU Commissioner for Agriculture was in town a few weeks ago and said the EU had no interest in cutting herd number, that their concern was food security. Yet the Irish Green Party want to cut our herd by at least 30%.

Am I missing something, or is this the contradictory madness it appears ?

Here here well said, the vegan agenda is just astonishing people who know nothing about farming or food production making decisions and pushing agendas

I would love to know your opinion on the following.

Myself and my father are part time farmers in the west of Ireland, non intensive farmers or beef finnishing store cattle and sheep production.

We have roughly 60 acres grassland, 80 acres forestry and 120 acres bogland of which is rich in sphagnum moss.

We have not got our land surveyed for carbon sequestration, but due to us being in reps scheme for years we planted all our fields with hedgerows, use little fertiliser as clover swards established using tight grazing with sheep, I know we are sequestering way more carbon than we are emitting, by using rough estimates from field studies. The forestry and sphagnum moss especially are huge carbon sinks but why on earth are we not allowed to claim credits for them, this is a joke, yet big buisness like Google and meta can blaken ireland with data centres buy up forestry land in Lietrim using shell companies and offset the credits against them and Ireland has no problem as it helps our 'GDP'. Farmers like me feel we are being sold out because of this.

We run an extremely sustainable farm and as do most farmers in Ireland especially if the farmers own bogland, so why are some people condemning our farm and saying we are destroying the environment when it's quite the opposite.

I would like to here your thoughts from a person who is on the opposite side of the fence.

Respect that climate change is a huge issue, but what are your thoughts on Irish famers like myself who are clearly a net carbon absorber not being able to claim carbon credits and in turn sell them at market value to more intensive famers in the dairy sector, instead of big multinational companies. If this was done it would really help the marginalized farmer in the West of Ireland and also help intensive farmers in the East offset their carbon emissions.

My thoughts are any carbon sequestered in the farming/agriculture/land areas and privately owned bogland showed be used only in the agricultural sector, and should not be sold to multinational companies. Our farmers in Ireland are the biggest private owners of bogland, forestry and agricultural land this carbon being sequestered should be used only for this sector.

What do you think, should a pro active regenerative farmer like myself and my father, who are farming are land down through generations, should we be allowed to claim our excess carbon credits and sell them to a more intensive dairy farmer that is a net emitter of carbon?, or should we be made forfeit them to big Energy consuming Multinationals in order to keep money flowing into Ireland and keep the 'GPD' gravy train going.

Would you eat Beef and Lamb produced on my sustainable farm, and would you pay a premium for it?

I applaud your efforts and I too find it depressing that the one size fits all EU policies around emissions makes no differenciation between you (and many Irish producers) and the Dutch levels of intensive factory farming.

I don't know what the solution is to make sustainable farming more profitable, perhaps doing the added value part youself and processing the raw materials into high value products in house? A lot of farms have started their own cheese making businesses selling craft product. I hear it's actually hard to get cattle to slaughter locally but if it were possible selling your own cured meats or steaks locally would offer a substantial mark up on selling on the hoof.