I have been following the demonisation of dairy farming with a certain amount of alarm.
The recent call by the EPA to halt all dairy expansion emphasised this trend. These calls are broadly based on the implications for national water quality.
In discussing water quality, official comparisons are usually made with New Zealand, a country the size of Italy with a population much the same as Ireland – five million.
It is extraordinary that comparisons are almost never made with Europe or the UK.
Figure 1 is a chart showing the relative amounts of nitrates in ground water for every country in Europe.
Frequency diagram of annual average nitrate concentrations in groundwater in EU28. Results are presented for all groundwater stations at different depths.
On both counts, Ireland scores among the highest in Europe according to these latest European Commission reports, with no samples over 50mg/l of nitrate.
In this category, there are only two countries in Europe – the other being Finland, an enormous sparsely populated country.
Our water quality is extremely high by any standard and of course, we should keep it that way, but maintaining that all expansion should be banned in by far our most profitable and internationally competitive mainland use sector is not rational.
I have been following the demonisation of dairy farming with a certain amount of alarm.
The recent call by the EPA to halt all dairy expansion emphasised this trend. These calls are broadly based on the implications for national water quality.
In discussing water quality, official comparisons are usually made with New Zealand, a country the size of Italy with a population much the same as Ireland – five million.
It is extraordinary that comparisons are almost never made with Europe or the UK.
Figure 1 is a chart showing the relative amounts of nitrates in ground water for every country in Europe.
Frequency diagram of annual average nitrate concentrations in groundwater in EU28. Results are presented for all groundwater stations at different depths.
On both counts, Ireland scores among the highest in Europe according to these latest European Commission reports, with no samples over 50mg/l of nitrate.
In this category, there are only two countries in Europe – the other being Finland, an enormous sparsely populated country.
Our water quality is extremely high by any standard and of course, we should keep it that way, but maintaining that all expansion should be banned in by far our most profitable and internationally competitive mainland use sector is not rational.
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