"Green" policies are destroying this country

Im not sure how reducing the farms we have in ireland to a sustainable number equates to genocide.

But great hyperbole all the same.

What is a "right sized farm " in your opinion?

Farming has less of an impact on the environment than a lot of industries and its the one sector that's not optional but essential.

How exactly are we " over farmed" in this country?

I would think that we have the capacity to produce a lot more in Ireland as a lot of the land is under farmed at the moment.

So what you are saying is that you really have no idea what you are talking about but farming is bad,ag subs are bad ,exporting stuff is bad and climate and emissions targets are the most important thing .

providing the food we NEED is very important.

Reducing our emissions is very important and Agri is the largest contributor to our emissions.

I take it you dont agree with either statement?

The right sizing is coming. Like it or not. Starting with the herd reduction.

Well considering we're listening about certain countries due to climate change that cant grow their own crops. Wheres the food aid going to come from then if we dont over produce.

I said it once and I'll say it again. The greens are muppets.

If that logic were to continue vegans would have to accept more pickled or fermented cabbage in their diet. This was once a country were most of the population depended on subsistence farming for survival and as well as shortages due to adverse weather, experienced seasonal shortages, hence fasting during Advent so that foodstocks could be conserved during the lean season. Bad Russian wheat harvests contributed to the Arab Spring back in 2012, the Arabian peninsula populations depends on agriculture production elsewhere int he globe, without oil & gas to trade these regions are mostly desert with sparse and impoverished populations. A major contributing reasons to high emigration from Ireland starting in the 19th century was the end of the corn laws, growing urban populations in the UK needed affordable food, and the opening up of the American prairies combined with industrialisation allowed that to happen. Under the corn laws scheme, the landlords needed cheap seasonal labour, the population in Ireland boomed on the back of that and the potato as their staple, ideal superfood, can grow it on marginal land, and can store it for the lean season.

Vegans and food miles aside, much of the food we eat is imported, we can get fruit year round, including products that cannot be grown commercially here. There is also the unfashionable balance of trade, used to be an obsession with economists years ago, before finanancialisation and services industries became dominant. That is still important, you have to produce goods that other people want, in exchange for the stuff you want. Put simply less trade means less meat exports and fewer banana imports, but people still have to eat. Much of Western agriculture has specialised to concentrate on products that can be grown commercially, there is much more automation and industrialisation that has bought down the price of food and increased food security to the point where food waste due to non consumption is a problem. Food waste was an issue prior to current modern techniques, mainly due to spoilage, since refrigeration or irradiation did not exist, the shelf life of products was reduced and the quality of the food produce at the end of the distribution chain was not as good, plus the food prices as a percentage of income were much higher. Many more people became more vulnerable to earlier death through diseases bought about by malnutrition. The Greens lunatic ideas that food can only be produced in accordance with their ideology are the stuff of real year 0 nightmares.

Ireland has to do its bit proportionately, because if big Countries and small alike don't demonstrate the same commitment then the common purpose falls apart.

Personally I think divestment from foreign sourced (and priced) energy is a very good thing for our people and economy, but I do have big concerns about cuts to emissions in other sectors, especially agri, because I don't think that Ireland is getting enough credit in kind for the amount of food we produce that feeds overseas populations.

For instance, Irish milk protein goes into formula products that feed half a billion infants every year. That comes from our belching livestock and is actually over one third of all dairy produce. To my mind, for producing such a quality product for so many across the globe our tiny dairy herd methane emissions should be fully exempt.

If Ireland can produce food with a lower environmental cost than other countries can, then we should produce as much as we can and export it.

The global climate doesn't care which country the emissions came from

Milk etc we all know comes from Tesco and lidl by magic.it doesn’t need a farmer to get up in the morning and work to produce it.another green ideology fantasy.go off and eat a tree instead or your air to heat system.that will sustain us all

I hear what you are saying, but there isnt much Ireland can do about population growth in other continents.

I appreciate that the approach of dishing out climate targets to each individual country seems a blunt tool, but it is the tool that international govts have chosen.

I guess one of the pertinent questions is, what happens to those countries that dont hit their targets?

Lol. Sounds like a post from a 6 yr old.

I hadnt realised Ireland alone enables the entire food supply to the continent of Africa.

Irish farms will have no choice but to reduce in scale to meet our climate targets.

Immature deflection tactics wont change that.

You just have to accept that change is coming.

Financial penalties from whom and and to who?

Where are the Chinese going to pay fines too? Themselves?

What about the USA, India or Brazil?

This isn't like the EU and those countries answer to nobody.