DEAR SIR: I was delighted to see Damien O’Reilly’s article on 9 July in the Irish Farmers Journal where he called for environmentalists and farmers to work together to face the problems of climate change and biodiversity preservation.

Too often and very unhelpfully, the debate is polarised in the media and presented in ‘them versus us’ terms, when in fact there is much more common ground and collaboration.

Indeed, you only have to read the profiles of the more than 60 champion Irish farmers on farmingfornature.ie to see the many ways farmers are leading the way in innovative nature friendly and sustainable farming.

Recently, the sustainablefoodtrust.org published a brilliant study on how true sustainable farming would look in Britain.

The report is evidence-based and not ideological, considering a whole country approach to produce high-quality food, protect nature, combat climate change and also to be more food secure while improving public health.

For example, an exclusively vegan diet is not practical for everyone and grass-fed sheep and cattle are seen as an important way to manage grassland and a central part of a largely organic, mixed farming system.

Specifically they recommend a large increase in vegetable production and agroforestry, maintaining levels of beef and lamb production on grass-fed diets, a phasing out of intensive livestock production (resulting in a 75% reduction in pig and poultry) and a doubling of pulse (peas and beans) production.

While the exact conditions for Ireland are, of course, different than those for Britain, there are a lot of lessons to be learned from the Sustainable Food Trust’s report.

It would be great if Irish farmers, environmentalists, academics and State bodies such as Teagasc and the Department of Agriculture could work together to envision a sustainable and mutually agreed future for Irish farming.