GLOBAL STRIFE AND climate change have yet again put the focus on food production and its vulnerabilities, and many Irish farms have struggled this year. While much of the narrative has been dominated by larger scale producers at the commodity end of the supply chain, there has been a quieter revolution from farmers across the country who have not struggled in the same way. Change is afoot.

Ireland is a small country. And despite all the ‘feeding-the-world’ claims, it produces food for less than 0.5% of the world’s population… at the continued expense of our natural resources.

We import vast quantities of fossil fuel-based fertiliser (we are the EU’s highest user per hectare according to Eurostat) to support exports from our grass-based livestock system, leaving behind the excessive pollutants. Consequently, we’ve been unable to decouple pollution from this business-as-usual model of agriculture in any significant way.

And for decades, we’ve been told there is no other way, because:

We are a small, open economy which is completely dependent on the export market to survive.

Agriculture is the “backbone” of the [rural] economy.

Under this model, the economy always wins out… at the expense of the environment.

Surrendering ourselves to the highly competitive global commodity market has put us at a distinct disadvantage as a small country. We are simply too small to compete on volume, and so we must therefore compete on quality – something we are struggling to achieve of late. Our milk prices have been under significant pressure due to global overproduction, and Irish beef seems to be under constant threat from imports into the EU. Remember Mercosur, anyone?

Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Are there any solutions to this agricultural model which sees farmers vulnerable to volatile markets, input costs and weather, a model which continues to extract from our natural resources, polluting and degenerating as it goes?

Honest question: Why not Organic? 

Going Organic is one such solution. A suggestion which will send a chill down the spine of every fertiliser and agrochemical company CEO in Ireland. And maybe not such a crazy idea as people........

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