Milk from grass could help address climate change challenges

Teagasc economist Trevor Donnellan suggests climate change could be an opportunity for dairy farming – especially if other countries are forced to reduce milk produced.

Speaking to over 100 guests at an event in Teagasc Ashtown this week, he suggested the extra rainfall and slightly warmer temperatures could actually benefit the Irish dairy industry, as it would allow for more grass.

The opportunity Donnellan talked about was balanced by a host of threats, as described by Katrina Campbell from Queens University. She suggested there will be more diseases of cereals, more diseases in stock and more chemicals used to control these bugs, which also pose a threat. A Department of Agriculture spokesperson at the event suggested Ireland has good control methods on a lot of these issues.

The conference included details of a Safefood-sponsored research project that surveyed 20 dairy industry stakeholders to determine their level of awareness of the potential impacts that climate change could create.

Principal researcher on the project, Professor Thia Hennessy of University College Cork’s department of food business said: “This is the first such survey of dairy industry stakeholders on the island, and we found that stakeholders from right across the dairy supply chain demonstrated a high level of awareness of climate change as well as a commitment to collective action to avail of any opportunities climate change may bring.”

Teagasc researcher Trevor Donnellan said: “The study confirmed that climate change presents both an opportunity and a threat for the Irish dairy sector. The threats identified in the survey included, extreme weather events, the emergence of new diseases and pests.

“By contrast, the development of unfavourable climate conditions in some of the world’s key milk producing countries could offer an advantage to the Irish dairy sector, since the Irish climate is likely to be less adversely affected. One of the major recommendations of this research was that more planning is required to consider how to deal with extreme weather events.”

At the start of the conference, Dr James McIntosh of Safefood said: “Our work to improve public health on the island of Ireland is evolving to meet the ever-changing needs of consumers and the food environment.

“Climate change has the potential to impact on almost every aspect of food production and supply on the island and it’s important for us to understand how the provision of safe food and the promotion of good food safety practices across the food chain will be affected, particularly in larger agri-food sectors such as the dairy industry,” said Dr McIntosh.

Those attending the conference heard that there was a general view that science and technology can play a major role in mitigating climate change, but that there are obstacles to getting technology from the lab to the farm.

Not all farmers were eager to adopt technological developments, and these concerns needed to be addressed. Stakeholders felt that technologies being developed to address greenhouse gas emissions should be discussed with farmers in the developmental stage to establish their practicality.

Threats

Katrina Campbell of Queen’s University Belfast suggested: “Climate change may also pose a threat for food safety, as one of the most prevalent food safety hazards within the dairy industry is mycotoxins, which emerge in animal feed.

“Warmer and wetter climates, as projected for Ireland under climate change, would contribute to a proliferation in fungal growth and thereby increase in mycotoxin contamination.”

“To counter the potential impact of climate change on food safety, new innovative technology and monitoring systems must be invested in to help ensure climate change consequences do not become a threat from the beginning point of the dairy food chain.

“New testing methods to detect contaminants may need to be investigated in order to prevent transmission through the food chain and human consumption”, she added.

Safefood

Some readers might wonder why Safefood is sponsoring research on climate change or what the link with food is.

They suggest that dairy farmers in both the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and Northern Ireland (NI) can produce milk at relatively low cost, making them particularly competitive within Europe and even globally.

The international competitiveness of the sector, together with the ambitions of the dairy processing industry, suggests that milk and dairy product production can grow for the foreseeable future.

They want to examine some the issues that could challenge this ambition. One such issue is that of climate change. “Climate change” generally means long-term changes in typical weather patterns for an area, such as changes in air pressure, sea temperatures, average rainfall and the frequency of extreme weather events.

This project set out to establish what is known about the potential impact of climate change on the dairy sector, by firstly conducting an examination of the available research on the possible impact of climate change. It then sought to establish what stakeholders know about climate change and the possible effects that it could have on the dairy sector.

This research also established levels of awareness regarding mitigation strategies – ways to reduce or offset the effects of climate change on the sector. It was achieved through a series of 20 semi-structured interviews.

This in turn produced a set of questions leading to open discussion, with a range of stakeholders in both ROI and NI. Stakeholders included policy makers, researchers, dairy farmers and dairy processing industry representatives, suppliers of “agri-inputs” (agricultural inputs, such as animal feed, fertiliser, farm equipment, and so on), environmental interests and the retail sector.

Safefood concluded it is clear that the dairy sector has good foundations from which to address climate change concerns.

Various committees, working groups and peer learning environments are in place at both the processing and farm level. If these were not already in existence, they would have been at the top of the list of recommendations.