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The planned expansion in the dairy sector is to include those expanding to take responsibility for their carbon footprint and not counties such as Leitrim being planted with trees, Gerry Loftus of the INHFA has said.
Loftus, the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association’s spokesperson on forestry, was speaking at a conference on the impacts of forestry on rural communities in the Bush Hotel, Carrick-on-Shannon, on Friday evening.
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“Rather than looking at plantations to offset their emissions, we would suggest their holdings are complemented with agroforestry to achieve the offset [in emissions].
“We are all part of the problem; we must be part of the solution.”
Greenhouse gases from the dairy herd
Loftus said that expanding the dairy herd will increase the greenhouse gas emissions. 2016 and 2017 already saw a 3.5% annual increase, as well as increasing the carbon footprint due to the need to import more grain for feed and straw for bedding and to cross-reference this with the decrease in the tillage sector.
“This is unsustainable even before we factor in climate change affecting our own silage fodder, or the countries from which we import grains.
“Our reputation for prime Irish grass-fed beef risks ruin.”
People that are creating greenhouse gases must be made responsible.
“We are all in this together. We all create, less or more, greenhouse gases. So we must be responsible for how we deal with them.
“We will not accept certain sectors of Irish agriculture to take advantage of any other sector by figuring out ways that they don’t have to take on their own responsibility.”
Loftus said that INHFA will not stand by and see this country destroyed “because we have a sector in agriculture who are, as they see themselves, the elite in Ireland when it comes to agriculture and that they should get 80% of everything and the rest of us have nothing, or little to nothing”.
“We are sick and tired being classified as second class citizens in this country. They pay us nothing, we do everything, mind the environment for them and now they want our land.
“They want it to use it to take up the carbon emissions of this state and that is not acceptable.”
What the INHFA wants on forestry
Loftus said the INHFA has called for a moratorium on the planting of Sitka Spruce and for the tax-free incentive scheme for investment in forestry to be abolished.
“Any carbon credits arising from carbon sequestration off our land, soil, grasslands, bogs or trees belongs to us, the farmers. Should the Government want these credits, they must be paid for.”
Rather than looking at plantations to offset dairy emissions, Loftus said the INHFA would suggest that dairying holdings are complemented with agroforesty to achieve the offset in emissions.
“We want a proper planning process, and rights for the citizens of this country. We have a situation in Leitrim where homes are valueless. This is a matter of urgency.
“Clear-felling to be banned and replaced with continuous cover forestry practices.
“In all forests, Coillte-owned and private forests, we want a 20m fire belt between plantation and private property.”
‘Sitka spruce is just tall green desert’
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