Are we ‘green-washing’ the fact that half Ireland’s feed imports are GM varieties?

As we emerge from our long Covid-19 confinement, it’s hard to believe that midsummer’s day has already come and gone. With the return to a new form of normality, farming now finds itself facing into an era of growing uncertainty.

Many may feel a deep sense of foreboding as to what lies ahead. The recently announced €50m beef aid package does little to ease my concerns.

This type of handout has always been the default political response to farming difficulties. Forget about trying to get a proper longterm solution just throw the farmers a few euro and that will keep them quiet.

Considering the huge amount of data and income research available, I’m also perplexed by the Department’s decision to leave it up to farmers to decide among themselves as to how they would like this beef money distributed.

As you would expect, an unseemly scramble has begun, with the usual suspects rushing out with demands stating why their members are the most deserving.

The reality is that when this money eventually makes its way either directly or indirectly to all our cattle farmers (which the former Minister said he expects), each one of our approximately 80,000 beef farmers will, in theory, benefit to the tune of about €650. Call me ungrateful, but we need to put this sum this in perspective €650 will just about cover the cost of a plain loaf of bread each day for a year.

Strategy

I have often heard people say that the only certainty in life is uncertaintly and that means change. So with the EU’s ‘Farm to Fork’ strategy combining with our new green-tinted Programme for Government, it looks as though there are some radical changes coming down the line for Irish farmers.

Change is not always bad, and after decades of failed government policies I believe the ‘greening’ of Irish agriculture could provide a new dynamic, especially in the beef sector.

I have long maintained that farming should work in harmony with nature, not dominate it.

This would lead to greater efficiency in food production with higher-value markets opening up.

The added bonus would be a swift increase in the already very high level of biodiversity on our island.

Ireland’s amazing level of biodiversity is something much of central Europe can only dream of, with their never-ending treeless landscapes of corn fields stretching as far as the eye can see.

Another benefit of the increased ‘greening’ would be an end to the hypocrisy of the ‘greenwashing’ in Ireland’s food marketing campaigns.

These policies ignore the fact that over 20pc of our ‘grass-fed’ ruminants’ diet is meal ration, much of it imported. What’s more, in 2018 over half of the 5.1m tonnes of animal feed imports were of the GM variety.

As a nation producing natural sustainable food, Ireland would gain the respect and admiration of many concerned European consumers if we called a halt to these grain imports.

Our farm produce would gain global recognition as people become more aware of the serious damage overprocessed food is causing in both the developed and developing world.

Another interesting aspect of the new Programme for Government is where it reiterates the EU’s commitment to Article 39b of the Lisbon Treaty. This commits the EU to “ensure a fair standard of living for the agricultural community, in particular by increasing the individual earnings of persons engaged in agriculture”.

The Programme further states: “It is vital that this article is a guiding vision and encompassing objective of the next CAP.”

I feel that many Irish farmers will look at these fine words with a jaundiced eye.

The EU’s Lisbon Treaty was signed in 2007 and we all know what has been happening to beef incomes since then.

While all of this is going on, all we can do is to produce our farm products as safely and efficiently as possible.

Aftergrass

My eight-paddock system is working well and the cattle appeared to have plenty of grass all spring.

However, because of the dry spell I did eventually have to start supplementing their grazing area with some aftergrass.

The recent increase in growth after the long awaited rain, means that I now have a larger area available for second-cut silage than I had anticipated. This is most welcome as the volume of my first cut wasn’t that great.

My cattle appear to be thriving well and fat scores should not be a problem this year.

Green for go:

Ireland’s level of biodiversity is something which our central European counterparts can only dream of.

On conformation, the story is not so good as regrettably their maternal blood lines are becoming an increasingly dominant influence on their appearance.

I also have this year’s herd test successfully behind me and I have just completed my section of the online Bord Bia inspection process.

The way I approached the task was to first put all of the required photographs in a Dropbox file ready for uploading to the Bord Bia website. However, as it was my first attempt at filling this type of form I ran into some difficulties.

For instance, I would have preferred if I could have used the ‘copy and paste’ method to get the images onto the form as I found the ‘drag and drop’ method to be not that user-friendly.

Thankfully the job is complete and I now await the ‘phone-back’ part of the process.