The fragility of food supply chains is becoming increasingly clear. Panic set in for the pig and poultry sectors this week as the risk of running out of CO2 gas became very real. It is a by-product of fertiliser manufacture, which ceased at a number of major producers recently due to the rapidly increasing cost of natural gas. In the UK, where two major fertiliser manufacturers operate, the cost has increased more than five times in the past year and the owners made the decision to suspend production. An agreement to resume production was reached this week after an intervention by the UK government, suggesting a financial incentive was put in place to offset higher costs.

Anne Finnegan explores the increased cost of gas in this week's edition and Siobhán Walsh examines the impact on escalating fertiliser costs. Surging fertiliser costs over the past year have attracted little attention outside farming circles but when the prospect of even more empty shelves in the UK emerged with no fizzy drinks, poultry and pigmeat products, the issue quickly became real.

Energy costs and gas supplies join labour scarcity in factories and a shortage of drivers for the transport sector as crises in food supply. The backup of pigs on farms across Ireland and Britain had reached a critical animal welfare point. The food supply chain has reached breaking point and any arrangement by the UK government with the industry will be only a temporary measure.

Food systems summit

Meanwhile in New York, the United Nations (UN) assembles on Thursday for a food systems summit. Ahead of the summit, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN published its “multibillion dollar opportunity” report in which it proposes to redirect the $540bn of agricultural subsidy that is paid around the world each year.

Phelim O’Neill goes into detail in this week's edition. It is clear that the EU and Ireland are on the road the FAO wants the world to travel.

There is no disputing the need for agriculture to work to reduce its emissions. However, there is no point in one country or region going on a solo run. Emissions are a global problem – not a national problem – and must be tackled on that basis. For global agriculture to deliver, the UN needs to get high-emitting parts of the world to work to the same standard as Ireland and the EU. Otherwise it will be a case of shutting farming down in Ireland and the EU and transferring the production elsewhere, leaving Irish farmers looking on as bystanders.

While agriculture has a job to do, there has been remarkably little attention given to the rapidly expanding sources of increasing emissions in energy and transport. Hyperinflation in gas prices risks leaving people cold this winter and with far less choice on supermarket shelves.

Focusing on agriculture is the easy road for policymakers and the media. Farmers and the food chain are too easily cast as villains in the climate debate despite being part of a fragile supply chain on which we all depend.

This week's cartoon

\ Jim Cogan

Sexed semen showing promise

The establishment of a semen sorting lab in Moorepark will see farmers being able to access sexed semen from high genetic merit bulls next spring.

A rollout of the technology will increase the number of beef-bred calves coming from the dairy herd. If we are to develop a sustainable dairy-beef model, the quality of beef sires used within the dairy herd must improve.

The IFA is proposing a slaughter premium in the next CAP. Only progeny from the dairy herd with known sire details and of high genetic beef merit should be eligible for payment. Meanwhile, the role of sexed semen within suckling should not be ignored. Allowing farmers increase the number of male progeny from the herd has the potential to significantly increase output and profitability.