EU Biodiversity strategy 2030

Let me clarify if I may. As I said in follow-up posts, it is not only livestock farmers who are the cause of the degradation of our national environment, there are many stakeholders.

Relating to the issue in Athy, It's true that farmers are frequently cause in the middle of policy changes and market dynamics that forced them to adapt their practices. Just as farming has evolved throughout the past couple decades, so has out understanding of the environment and the impact our actions have on it. Yes farmers were going what the regulations asked and following best practice advice from the likes of Teagasc, but our knowledge of sustainable practices and the environment has increased over the past decade and continues to evolve and improve. Some practices that were considered to be 'good' years ago are not seen in the same light today.

Your concerns about the narrative that portrays farmers as the main culprits behind our environmental pollution and biodiversity degradation - I believe that it isn't about vilifying farmers, rather it's about understanding the impacts of all activities and working towards more sustainable practices. I can completely understand why you and many posters on this forum see it an attack. The reality is that all agriculture including livestock farming, contributes a significant amount of emissions and water pollution.

If you read the Crops 2030 plan/report, the aim is to balance economic and environment sustainability. It states that certain farming practices like cropping, produces lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to others. As for your point on overall increase of emissions despite static herd numbers, you have to consider other sources as well including Crops for animal feed, the transport of said animal feed crops and management of slurry, as well as other non-agri factors. The report details that specialist tillage farms in Ireland produce 1.18tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents per hectare (1.18t CO2 eq/ha). This is just 15% of that produced on Irish dairy farms (8.7t CO2 eq/ha) and is just 25% of that produced on Irish beef farms (4.4t CO2 eq/ha).

If you're dubious re the Crop 2030 report, ill refer you to a research paper supported by the US department of energy, which supports to some degree the Crops 2030 report, saying livestock farming causes far higher emissions than tillage.

Regarding the improvement of water quality in cork, while the report does say some places have improved, there are still a huge amount of areas over the safe threshold. It's important to note that average rainfall(mm) in cork airport region for example has decreased from the years 2020-2023, from 1407mm(2020)- 2021(1244mm) -1150mm(2022). So your argument does not necessarily indicate that farmers have improved their practices while herd size has increased, rather there wasn't the same amount of rainfall to push the pollutants into our rivers and estuary's. But that's not to say that next year won't be a higher in terms of rainfall which would see the pollutants soar.

Your point about the oversimplified blame on livestock farming is well taken. A more nuanced understanding of the multiple sources of environmental impact is important for our society to tackle going forward. However, while it's true that tillage ground can lose carbon and contribute to nitrogen runoff, you should note that different farming practices have varied impacts on the environment as I mentioned in the reports/research papers above. Crops for human only consumption have lower emissions compared to dairy or beef farming. This isn't meant to shift the blame to livestock farmers but to underline that improvements can be made across the sector.

Pointing to the impacts of one farming practice does not give a "free pass" to other. The aim is to reduce the impacts across all farming practices. Not vilifying one particular sector.

I hear what you're saying relating to earning a living wage on small farms but a lot has changed since the 80's-90's. At that time, Ireland was grappling with severe economic challenges. The unemployment rate hovered around 15-16%,, prompting a massive wave of emigration. And even when you could raise a family on a farm, many farming families were still entrenched in poverty.

Small farms back then were markedly inefficient which did not suit our expanding population or balance of trade. Rapid advancements in agri tech made it cheaper and quicker to produce various goods. Foreign direct investment boomed in the 90's which created more employment opportunities in factories and cities. This shift allowed many to work in less physically demanding work while earning better wages. The aim of CAP was to partly provide financial support during turbulent market conditions, thus helping to maintain their livelihoods and save families from delving further into poverty than they would have without the payments.

CAP included measures to promote sustainable agriculture by asking farmers to adopt more environmentally friendly practices in return for added supports. It helped to improve water quality and soil health. We all know that CAP, and by extension the EU, wasn't/isn't without it's flaws, such the unfair distribution of payments for larger farmers and agri-businesses. The we had rise of globalisation which amplified the demand for cheaper food, which further changed the sector. But today Ireland is one of the richest countries in the world even when you look at GNI. So you can't argue that farmers are worse off today when you look at their quality of life compared to yesteryear.

Seen as you know so much about farming and the environment from these 'peer reviewed' papers, could you answer me how to promote white and red clover through my grassland fields. I am using clover establishment this last few years in order to add nitrogen fixing fungi and beneficial bacteria to my soil in order to create a symbiotic relationship with the grass and hence reduce fertilizer use as well as minimize nitrate run off.

I suspect a simple google will get you there with plenty of 'peer reviewed' papers that will make you feel more knowledgeable and understanding of how simple this task is, but I'd love if you'd enlighten me on your practical experience and thoughts.

If you really want to go and see a proactive, progressive, environmental farmer that's extremely knowledgeable in soil biology and the micro biome then talk to Say My Name, the fact that your dismissing his thoughts tells me all I need to know.

Im curious what you would like to see proposed compared to the current draft of legislation? What is it about the current proposed legislation that angers you the most?

You seem to be more interested in the emissions of livestock related farming as opposed to the bio diversity aspect of it.

As regards emmisions our very own EU rewards multinational companies like Google, Microsoft and Eli Lilly for offsetting emmisions through renewables etc.

Our farm consists of vast areas of naturaly wetted bogland that was never drained. The carbon storage value of this is huge, we get nothing for this and the EU carbon farming proposal categorically states that carbon storage will not be linked to the land rather a flat payment for minding this area. If I was a Multinational company on the EU ETS between the carbon sequestration and renewable energy projects (ELi Lilly solar farm in cork) our farm would be Net Zero. This can also be said for SMEs, huge big corporations are facilitated by the EU with one set of rule books and are allowed a scam of carbon offsets yet everyone one else is condemned as problem childs for climate.

The whole emmisions stuff, net zero and offsetting is a scam designed to guilt and blame everybody else for emmisions as opposed to the real culprits. The term carbon footprint was invented by none other than BP in 2004 to create a mindset of people looking at themselves and how they can be better in terms of carbon emissions, good idea but is was purely to take the spotlight of big corporations and the destruction they are doing by guiltily the average joe

John “I hate farmers” gibbons on the last word this evening could justify the slashing/puncturing of tyres somewhere in Dublin cause these climate lovers are modern day suffragettes.Christ almighty this whole climate lunacy will soon eat itself alive.hope it’s soon.

Absolute railroading and narratives being forced. It still has to go through the MEP parliament so even more concessions may be added.

Funny thing about all this is that farming or SME sectors cannot offset or play with the same rule book as the big multinationals that are running the EU with their woke (scam) ESG agenda

Jesus I actually didn't see that comming, I thought it would be passed then more concessions made at the parliament level, anyway it dead in the water, just goes to show without consultation with the main stakeholders and landowners, pontificating and preaching down to people will get people nowhere.

Interesting to note, wait till you see the media and how the will portray this as a travesty and how agriculture is so bad - yet to see any big media outlet report that emmisions from peatland are over estimated by 60%.

So basically what we are saying is that in order for this to pass now, it has to go through the parliament and gain at least a 2/3 majority may not be an easy task.

I presume the more dumbed down Parliament targets for rewetting etc. are the ones that will be now dumbed down even more (concessions for agreement) in order to gain this 2/3 majority. Anyway its all up in the air, the way I see it is it will either not get a 2/3 and fail or will get a 2/3 due to substantial watering down of targets.