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Any new environmental policy could easily wipe out family farmers overnight, Sinn Féin MEP Chris MacManus has said.
“Rural Ireland has already been the victim of ‘greenwashing style’ policies in the past. Small- to medium-sized family farms are the backbone of rural communities.
“Any new environmental policy could easily wipe out these farmers overnight, whilst the more intensive factory farming models and large-scale industrial feed-lots would continue to expand, which would be counter-productive in terms of reducing carbon emissions,” he said in response to growing concern in the farm community regarding government formation talks.
On the farmers side
McManus said the two traditional parties are working hard “to look like they are on the side of farmers” as they attempt to form a government with the Greens.
“They know that many people throughout Ireland fear the overly austere environmental policies that will be brought in by such a government.
“Rural Ireland more than anywhere needs change. And that includes environmental change. But tacking on box-ticking environmental targets to the failed policies of the traditional parties is a recipe for disaster.
“We are in a situation where we need to quite quickly reduce our emissions. Any future government will have to reduce emissions and meet internationally agreed targets. The question is how.
“The 7% target is on produced emissions rather than consumed emissions. As we have a service-based economy with little heavy industry, our exports of beef and dairy loom large in our produced emissions,” he said.
Sustainable production
Ireland represents one of the most sustainable places to produce beef, he said.
“If European markets shift to less environmental sources for their beef and dairy because Irish farmers were forced to reduce their output that would be no great achievement for the environment and would economically damage rural Ireland.
“So why would any government pursue such a course of action? The answer is because reducing emission from agriculture requires far less public investment than a similar reduction in transport or energy production.
“Make no mistake, the real cost of going after agriculture would be huge, but it would not show up on the government's balance sheet.”
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