I’m a political nerd, obsessed with how the corridors of power operate. For this reason, the opportunity to travel to Washington DC with the IFA’s chairmans’ forum was a bucket list moment.
My expectations were more than met. I got to see the Capitol building from the inside. We entered by the door, rather than the window like the insurrectionists did on 6 January in 2021. I got to sit in on a meeting between the IFA and Tom Vilsack, the US Secretary of Agriculture. I sat in the senate’s agriculture committee room, one of the oldest unchanged parts of the Capitol complex.
I got to meet with (deep breath) the National Cattleman’s Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Milk Producers Federation, Ireland’s US ambassador, and Ornua’s US team leaders.
We also squeezed a visit to a farm in Virginia. It was an intense schedule in only three days, designed to give maximum impact to the IFA trip.
Takeaways
What are the overall takeaways? For me, there are a few.
Firstly, it's incredibly obvious that the things that once divided farmers from the US and Europe have been overtaken by issues that are shared in common by food producers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Trade and standards matter, of course they do, and always will. And it's unlikely that there will ever be full uniformity between the EU and the US on either of these matters.
However, the differences between farmers here and their representatives across the Atlantic pale in comparison with the shared challenge for sustainability.
There is a recognition that we need to share this journey, with a pooling of research and a common approach to tackling issues that will help to protect and maintain family farms. Every time we met a group, the IFA president Tim Cullinan spoke of the Dublin Declaration. Signed by over 1,000 scientists now, it recognises the importance of animal production to human health and wellbeing, and their compatibility with a healthy environment, indeed their importance to it in many parts of the world. Every single time Cullinan mentioned it, our hosts nodded in agreement.
Similarly, the issue of methane from livestock and how that is being accounted for is recognised in the US as an issue to be pursued as the science evolves.
Attitude
The main difference that is palpable is the attitude of US farmers. There is no fear of climate targets, indeed there is confidence that they can beat the 2040 timeline for carbon neutrality from farming.
There are a couple of reasons for that, as far as I could glean. The first is the method of enactment. Sign-up for schemes is utterly voluntary. I know that Irish farmers are being told that cow culls and rewetting will be voluntary and optional, but there is a feeling that farmers are being forced.
It's also obvious that the Biden administration reflect their president's deep affection for Ireland.
For a group of foreign farmers, particularly a group more than 40-strong, to get almost an hour with Tom Vilsack is simply extraordinary.
For a group of foreign farmers to get almost an hour with Tom Vilsack is simply extraordinary
For the same group to then find themselves in the Senate's agriculture committee meeting room in an engagement with senior staffers from both sides of the house just compounded the sense that Irish farmers and Irish farming have significant standing within the corridors of power in Washington DC.
Farming matters to the USA, as evidenced by the fact that it has a full department devoted to it, the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) . Vilsack is the Secretary for Agriculture, the senate committee is titled Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. Contrast that with the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) .
Food production matters economically, it matters politically, it matters strategically. The US will not allow itself to be dependent on food imports. Tom Vilsack made that clear. This is the second reason why there is a different dynamic to the debate around how food production evolves toward carbon neutrality.
Farmers are being encouraged into voluntary schemes, with $40bn available to help them adapt. But the goal is to deliver new income streams where farmers are rewarded in the market for low-carbon production, for enhancing biodiversity, for enhancing water quality, and for soil improvement. Commercial interests are in at ground-level where pilot schemes are being rolled out.
And environmental groups like the World Wildlife Fund are in there too. There isn't the same narky, sometimes toxic dialogue between environmental groups and farm representatives. Perhaps this is due to Agriculture only accounting for 10% of total emissions. It's a sector less central to meeting overall reduction targets than in Ireland, where Agriculture accounts for one-third of all emissions.
Perhaps it's also due to the two-party system, there is no Green Party representative among the 100 senators or the 450 congress members. The Democrats and the Republicans need the rural vote in a lot of states.
The IFA's chairman's forum met with US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in the USDA headquartes in Washington DC
The ratio between dairy and beef surprised me. There are almost 40 million cows in the US, but less than one-quarter of those are dairy cows. The vastness of the USA means there is plenty of room out there for livestock. Much of that land is not very hospitable; we often forget just how unusual Ireland is in terms of the high proportion of land that is capable of growing food.
The total farmland area of the continental USA (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), is about 893 million acres (361m ha). There’s been a fairly sharp decline in farmland over the last 20 years; the comparative figure in 2000 was 945m acres (382 m ha). That's a drop of over 20m hectares in 20 years. I'm unsure as to the reason for such a loss. Some online sources say a lot of land is being lost to development, but it seems unlikely that a million hectares is being developed every year.
The scale of US farming can be seen when we compare those 893m acres against Ireland's 10m (four million hectares).
If Ireland were a US state, it would be the 40th in size, between Maine and South Carolina. So, when the National Milk Producers Federation tell us there is scope to increase the dairy herd from the current 9.4m cows, I believe them.
The IFA's chairman's forum met with US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in the USDA headquartes in Washington DC
After the last meeting, Tim Cullinan addressed the group. It's the last of his four years as president, a term nearly halved in terms of public engagement by COVID-19 lockdowns. His plate has been full, and all the key issues have been incredibly challenging for the IFA. Sectoral reduction targets for carbon emissions, CAP reform, Nitrates, Food Vision, Nature Restoration, Forestry planning have all combined to constrict farming. That's something that farmers instinctively rail against. Farmers want to be unfettered, but those days are over.
As with any leadership role, it's only in the fullness of time that Tim Cullinan's leadership of the IFA can be fully evaluated. But no-one should doubt the Tipperary man's commitment.
Addressing the county chairs and his fellow national officers, he made a request of them. "I met with Juliet Greene (the wife of the first IFA president Juan Greene) recently," said Cullinan.
“’Look after my IFA’, she said to me".
In a suddenly emotionally-charged room, the normally phlegmatic Cullinan continued: "I'm making the same request of you, please look after my IFA".
A cynic might say it isn’t his IFA, it's everyone's, but that’s actually the very point Cullinan was making. The IFA that belongs to every member. When his term ends, he will return to being a rank-and-file member.
I was lucky enough to get some time to visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
One exhibit was the table and chairs where General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses Grant at the end of the US Civil War. I was struck by the generous terms offered; soldiers from the vanquished Confederate Army could return home, just as soldiers of the Union Army led by Grant did. Many of the soldiers were homesteaders and farmers. They volunteered for the battle, played their part as best they could, and went home. Ploughshares were turned into swords, and back to ploughs again.
In a sense, the IFA and other farm organisations have a similar dynamic. Farmers volunteer, play their part in the political battles around farming, and return home to their farms again.
Travelling to Washington DC gave me a better understanding of the political dynamic of the United States. Going there with the county chairmen of the IFA gave me a better understanding of the strength, and the value, of an organisation that is often maligned. Its strength is its people, both the voluntary officers and staff, who give so much of their time to debate and lobby on national issues, but also are the point of contact for a farmer who has a problem, offering support, advice and expertise.
Read more
US farm climate actions are voluntary, market-based - Vilsack
I’m a political nerd, obsessed with how the corridors of power operate. For this reason, the opportunity to travel to Washington DC with the IFA’s chairmans’ forum was a bucket list moment.
My expectations were more than met. I got to see the Capitol building from the inside. We entered by the door, rather than the window like the insurrectionists did on 6 January in 2021. I got to sit in on a meeting between the IFA and Tom Vilsack, the US Secretary of Agriculture. I sat in the senate’s agriculture committee room, one of the oldest unchanged parts of the Capitol complex.
I got to meet with (deep breath) the National Cattleman’s Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Milk Producers Federation, Ireland’s US ambassador, and Ornua’s US team leaders.
We also squeezed a visit to a farm in Virginia. It was an intense schedule in only three days, designed to give maximum impact to the IFA trip.
Takeaways
What are the overall takeaways? For me, there are a few.
Firstly, it's incredibly obvious that the things that once divided farmers from the US and Europe have been overtaken by issues that are shared in common by food producers on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Trade and standards matter, of course they do, and always will. And it's unlikely that there will ever be full uniformity between the EU and the US on either of these matters.
However, the differences between farmers here and their representatives across the Atlantic pale in comparison with the shared challenge for sustainability.
There is a recognition that we need to share this journey, with a pooling of research and a common approach to tackling issues that will help to protect and maintain family farms. Every time we met a group, the IFA president Tim Cullinan spoke of the Dublin Declaration. Signed by over 1,000 scientists now, it recognises the importance of animal production to human health and wellbeing, and their compatibility with a healthy environment, indeed their importance to it in many parts of the world. Every single time Cullinan mentioned it, our hosts nodded in agreement.
Similarly, the issue of methane from livestock and how that is being accounted for is recognised in the US as an issue to be pursued as the science evolves.
Attitude
The main difference that is palpable is the attitude of US farmers. There is no fear of climate targets, indeed there is confidence that they can beat the 2040 timeline for carbon neutrality from farming.
There are a couple of reasons for that, as far as I could glean. The first is the method of enactment. Sign-up for schemes is utterly voluntary. I know that Irish farmers are being told that cow culls and rewetting will be voluntary and optional, but there is a feeling that farmers are being forced.
It's also obvious that the Biden administration reflect their president's deep affection for Ireland.
For a group of foreign farmers, particularly a group more than 40-strong, to get almost an hour with Tom Vilsack is simply extraordinary.
For a group of foreign farmers to get almost an hour with Tom Vilsack is simply extraordinary
For the same group to then find themselves in the Senate's agriculture committee meeting room in an engagement with senior staffers from both sides of the house just compounded the sense that Irish farmers and Irish farming have significant standing within the corridors of power in Washington DC.
Farming matters to the USA, as evidenced by the fact that it has a full department devoted to it, the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) . Vilsack is the Secretary for Agriculture, the senate committee is titled Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. Contrast that with the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) .
Food production matters economically, it matters politically, it matters strategically. The US will not allow itself to be dependent on food imports. Tom Vilsack made that clear. This is the second reason why there is a different dynamic to the debate around how food production evolves toward carbon neutrality.
Farmers are being encouraged into voluntary schemes, with $40bn available to help them adapt. But the goal is to deliver new income streams where farmers are rewarded in the market for low-carbon production, for enhancing biodiversity, for enhancing water quality, and for soil improvement. Commercial interests are in at ground-level where pilot schemes are being rolled out.
And environmental groups like the World Wildlife Fund are in there too. There isn't the same narky, sometimes toxic dialogue between environmental groups and farm representatives. Perhaps this is due to Agriculture only accounting for 10% of total emissions. It's a sector less central to meeting overall reduction targets than in Ireland, where Agriculture accounts for one-third of all emissions.
Perhaps it's also due to the two-party system, there is no Green Party representative among the 100 senators or the 450 congress members. The Democrats and the Republicans need the rural vote in a lot of states.
The IFA's chairman's forum met with US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in the USDA headquartes in Washington DC
The ratio between dairy and beef surprised me. There are almost 40 million cows in the US, but less than one-quarter of those are dairy cows. The vastness of the USA means there is plenty of room out there for livestock. Much of that land is not very hospitable; we often forget just how unusual Ireland is in terms of the high proportion of land that is capable of growing food.
The total farmland area of the continental USA (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), is about 893 million acres (361m ha). There’s been a fairly sharp decline in farmland over the last 20 years; the comparative figure in 2000 was 945m acres (382 m ha). That's a drop of over 20m hectares in 20 years. I'm unsure as to the reason for such a loss. Some online sources say a lot of land is being lost to development, but it seems unlikely that a million hectares is being developed every year.
The scale of US farming can be seen when we compare those 893m acres against Ireland's 10m (four million hectares).
If Ireland were a US state, it would be the 40th in size, between Maine and South Carolina. So, when the National Milk Producers Federation tell us there is scope to increase the dairy herd from the current 9.4m cows, I believe them.
The IFA's chairman's forum met with US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in the USDA headquartes in Washington DC
After the last meeting, Tim Cullinan addressed the group. It's the last of his four years as president, a term nearly halved in terms of public engagement by COVID-19 lockdowns. His plate has been full, and all the key issues have been incredibly challenging for the IFA. Sectoral reduction targets for carbon emissions, CAP reform, Nitrates, Food Vision, Nature Restoration, Forestry planning have all combined to constrict farming. That's something that farmers instinctively rail against. Farmers want to be unfettered, but those days are over.
As with any leadership role, it's only in the fullness of time that Tim Cullinan's leadership of the IFA can be fully evaluated. But no-one should doubt the Tipperary man's commitment.
Addressing the county chairs and his fellow national officers, he made a request of them. "I met with Juliet Greene (the wife of the first IFA president Juan Greene) recently," said Cullinan.
“’Look after my IFA’, she said to me".
In a suddenly emotionally-charged room, the normally phlegmatic Cullinan continued: "I'm making the same request of you, please look after my IFA".
A cynic might say it isn’t his IFA, it's everyone's, but that’s actually the very point Cullinan was making. The IFA that belongs to every member. When his term ends, he will return to being a rank-and-file member.
I was lucky enough to get some time to visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
One exhibit was the table and chairs where General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses Grant at the end of the US Civil War. I was struck by the generous terms offered; soldiers from the vanquished Confederate Army could return home, just as soldiers of the Union Army led by Grant did. Many of the soldiers were homesteaders and farmers. They volunteered for the battle, played their part as best they could, and went home. Ploughshares were turned into swords, and back to ploughs again.
In a sense, the IFA and other farm organisations have a similar dynamic. Farmers volunteer, play their part in the political battles around farming, and return home to their farms again.
Travelling to Washington DC gave me a better understanding of the political dynamic of the United States. Going there with the county chairmen of the IFA gave me a better understanding of the strength, and the value, of an organisation that is often maligned. Its strength is its people, both the voluntary officers and staff, who give so much of their time to debate and lobby on national issues, but also are the point of contact for a farmer who has a problem, offering support, advice and expertise.
Read more
US farm climate actions are voluntary, market-based - Vilsack
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