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Irish farmers will reflect on the surge of support for Green Party candidates in Ireland and across the EU with concern. The election results show that the electorate and consumers for agricultural produce are engaged with climate issues at least at political level.
Of course the easy part with climate is casting a vote or making a political declaration. It is when it comes to walking the walk through adapting lifestyle that the issue becomes much more difficult. People can be persuaded through effective campaigning to cast a vote, some may be persuaded to make a gesture like going without meat occasionally. These are symbolically strong gestures but not life changing and cause a minimum of inconvenience.
Lifestyle change
In Ireland if we are really serious about reducing our carbon emissions it is not going without a burger for a day that will make a difference. Agriculture is one of the major contributors to GHG emissions but its disproportionate share in Ireland is because we missed the first industrial revolution and don’t have any serious heavy industry unlike the UK and continental Europe. Their coal production and steel manufacturing are all major issues that we don’t have in Ireland.
In Ireland it is housing and transport that along with farming are the big contributors. To seriously address our emissions, it means transforming the way we travel and the end of the internal combustion engine as we know it. Even then if we succeed in mass conversion to electric powered transport, we have to consider how we generate the electricity for charging car batteries. It is the same with housing, a major refit is necessary if we want to move away from the use of fossil fuels as the method of heating.
Role of agriculture
Then comes farming. Through Origin Green, Irish farmers have been doing more to address the issue of GHG emissions that most other sectors of society. Of course there is no room for complacency and more will have to be done. The answer lies in ever greater efficiency which actually is a benefit for farm profitability as well as doing the right thing for the environment.
With a surge in support for green candidates across the EU, farmers can also expect that they implement their ideals when the EU engages in trade agreements with other areas of the world. For example it has been reported recently that the South American Mercosur group of countries are keen to conclude a free trade agreement with the EU and this would benefit much of European industry but not beef farmers. If the newly elected Green MEPs are serious about climate change, there is no way they can sign off on a trade deal that throws the EU market open to beef produced from clearing rain forests and in the process throwing Irish beef producers and Origin Green under the metaphorical bus.
Climate change
Everyone wants to tackle climate change, the question now is after the votes are counted is how much pain it will take to really make a difference. For farmers the challenge is to maintain improvements and communicate strongly what has been done and will continue to be done. Farmers have to do their bit and politicians have to take the tough decisions to make sure we don’t import agricultural produce from places that aren’t as committed as we are to doing what is necessary to reduce GHG emissions on farm.
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