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Sustainability is a funny word. It can mean many things depending on what context you use it in. It is most often used in connection with the sustainability of our environment or climate.
It can also be used in reference to the sustainability of our society or rural communities.
Far too little is sustainability used when discussing the incomes and future prospects of Europe’s food producers and farmers. In Ireland, sustainability is a word we’ve become all too familiar with over the last decade, particularly in the agri-food industry.
In 2012, Bord Bia launched its pioneering Origin Green sustainability programme, which was rightly seen by many as the global forerunner in terms of setting out an ambitious, co-ordinated plan to achieve sustainability within the food supply chain.
Yet Origin Green’s momentum has stalled and all the positivity that surrounded the programme’s early years has since been overtaken by a climate and biodiversity crisis that is asking hard questions of the global food system.
Government
Ireland’s food industry is not immune. Over the last month, we’ve watched on as Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have sought to persuade the Green Party into Government formation talks. Ireland badly needs a stable Government to guide the country through the current COVID-19 pandemic and the severe economic crisis it will leave in its wake.
However, the Green Party has stuck to its principles and made reducing Ireland’s emissions by 7% every year a red-line issue for entering Government. The 7% emissions reduction target triggered a wave of commentary and analysis of how this could be achieved.
Unsurprisingly, agriculture featured strongly in this debate. With agriculture accounting for more than one-third of Ireland’s total emissions, culling our national cattle herd is seen by many as the simplest way to achieve our climate goals.
Listening to the media coverage over the past month, one could easily be forgiven for thinking that Ireland’s agri-food sector had its head in the sand and was refusing to change or adapt to the climate crisis. But you could not be more wrong.
As you will read in this report, enormous change is taking place within Ireland’s agri-food industry from the farm right up to the supermarket shelf.
Farm level
At farm level, Teagasc has developed the Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) as a roadmap for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. At the same time, Prof Donagh Berry, one of the world’s leading livestock geneticists, continues to carry out groundbreaking research on how farmers can breed low-carbon livestocke.
At Wageningen University in the Netherlands, Prof Rogier Schulte has identified 11 Lighthouse Farms around the world that he believes are already meeting the UN’s 2050 sustainability goals of food production but, most importantly, the farmers have found a way to make sustainability a profit driver for their business.
It’s hugely encouraging to see Prof Schulte has identified an Irish suckler beef farm as one of his Lighthouse Farms.
Carbon-neutral beef and dairy farming is possible in Ireland. We just need to invest in measuring sequestration as well as emissions to show policymakers the positives that farming delivers to the earth’s climate and not just the negative.
The other major charge levelled against European farmers over recent years is the decline in biodiversity. Addressing this issue is perhaps an even greater challenge than reducing carbon emissions.
Yet, there is hope. As you will read here, west Cork dairy processor Carbery has developed a hugely successful sustainability programme known as its Greener Dairy programme.
As part of this pilot programme, Carbery mapped the amount of biodiversity on 12 dairy farms in its catchment and found that about 8% of the area on each farm is an area of biodiversity or natural habitat, which is significantly ahead of international standards.
However, the co-op is not trumpeting this as a success. Instead, Carbery is helping its farmers to stop any further biodiversity losses and maintain these levels on farms. Once this is achieved, farmers can start to rebuild biodiversity even more.
One of the major roadblocks to rebuilding biodiversity on farms is European agricultural policy. Under the current CAP, farmers will receive a reduced basic payment if they take some of their land out of production to install an area of biodiversity. This makes no sense and needs to change fast.
Food industry
Outside the farmgate, the agribusiness industry is not idle either when it comes to lowering emissions and meeting 2050 sustainability goals.
We speak to Danone’s head of sustainability for the UK and Ireland about the company’s ambition to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
Danone is one of the largest brand holders in the global food industry and it has a lot to lose if it cannot scientifically verify its low-carbon credentials to its consumers.
The company has two infant nutrition plants here in Ireland that must meet carbon-neutral targets by 2025.
The global food industry could feed 10bn people in the morning if it wanted to, but our planet would soon be exhausted
When a company such as Danone, which is a major buyer of Irish dairy ingredients, starts pulling its supply chain along in the journey towards carbon neutrality it will mean huge top-down changes. Already, Irish suppliers to Danone are adapting to its new sustainability goals.
However, one of the biggest challenges facing Danone Ireland is its ability to source a renewable alternative to natural gas.
The company believes biomethane produced from anaerobic digesters (AD) on Irish farms is the only way its Irish plants can become carbon-neutral.
Again, this is where Government policy is out of line.
There is a clear market for biomethane, the technology is there and the raw material is readily available.
All that is missing to get a biomethane industry off the ground is a Government-supported feed-in tariff.
On the renewable electricity side, Ireland has been relatively successful in leveraging its natural wind resources.
However, more is needed to bring stability to the national power grid during times when the wind is not blowing.
We profile the enormous changes taking place at Bord na Móna as it transforms itself from a company that harvested and burned a finite fossil fuel in the midlands to one that aims to be 100% renewable by 2023.
Once again, policy changes are needed to allow for the final phase of this transition. Without this State support, the sustainability of the midland’s economy looks increasingly jeopardised.
Nobody in the Irish agri-food industry is denying the seriousness of the climate crisis we face or the challenge of transforming our food production system into one that is truly sustainable, both for our planet and for the financial viability of the farmer.
As you read this report, you will get a small flavour of the enormous energy and capital that is being invested into adapting how we produce and process food in this country.
For some, the pace of this change is not enough. They want overnight solutions using drastic measures. But that would not solve our long-term challenge where we need to feed 10bn people in a sustainable manner by 2050.
True sustainability cannot be achieved overnight
The global food industry could feed 10bn people in the morning if it wanted to but our planet would soon be exhausted. The goal is to be able to produce food for a global population of 10bn over and over again.
Farmers and food companies know better than anyone that our planet has finite natural resources. And that is why they have been on the sustainability journey longer than most. But sustained and lasting change takes time.
True sustainability cannot be achieved overnight.
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