Agriculture rarely gets the credit it deserves from armchair generals on climate change who lash out from the comfort of their suburban existence on the issue of climate change, Minister Creed has said.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, he said that such armchair generals are often blindly unfamiliar with everything that is happening in rural Ireland in terms of this agenda.

“Farmers are going to deliver on their share of the bargain, but we need a fair crack of the whip.

“I think the industry here rarely gets the credit it deserves, while acknowledging we need to do more, in the context for example of the carbon footprint of our dairy sector, we’re the most carbon efficient along with New Zealand on the planet, and the fifth most efficient in beef production in Europe.

“I do sense that the agricultural community in its broadest context acknowledges that we can’t sit on our laurels either.

“There’s a need to do more in that space. Things like [the Beef Data and Genomics Programme] BDGP, GLAS, the whole range of initiatives that the Department has sponsored over many years, are all contributing to driving down our carbon footprint.

“But what we’re doing needs to be acknowledged as well, and I think in certain quarters there is a continuing refusal to acknowledge what Irish agriculture is achieving in that space.”

CAP changes

Minister Creed said that farmers can expect a very significant aspect in the next Common Agricultural Policy to be about the climate change agenda.

Given our obligations under the Paris Accord, the Minister said it talks about reducing our carbon footprint, but it also talks about obligation to produce food.

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