Should Farmers Get Funding To Help The Environment?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
John Gibbons with us for our weekly last word on the environment.
Today there was a report published by what's known as the Just Transition Commission and it suggests a different way of using our agricultural land throughout the country. John, what is the Just Transition Commission? Who's in that? Who gives it its powers?
Well, this is a commission that is formed or has been formed by the government. And its chair is Ali Sheridan. And it's bringing together, I suppose, specialists from a wide range of interests. It doesn't represent any one sexual group, Matt. It's not a lobby for any particular interest. Are the farming groups represented? Of course they would, yeah. The object of the Just Transition Commission really is to present to the government different pathways that we can best use our agricultural land in the future because while it's privately owned, it's also a
What is the Just Transition Commission and why does it matter for land use?
critical national resource for all of us. And of course, we all contribute financially to that land. So it's a vital national interest. And I think land is often seen in Ireland as a sectoral interest. In other words, if you don't have land, it's got nothing to do with you. But the reality is that it's got everything to do with all of us, how land is used and how we work forward into the future. Among the recommendations, Matt, I suppose the first thing, and this is a statement of the obvious, we have a very unbalanced agricultural system right now. It's overwhelmingly dominated by livestock agriculture. Now, that's unfortunate for two reasons, particularly in the current environment. the first reason of course is that it is very very uh carbon intensive specifically it's a huge producer of of methane which is a an incredibly powerful greenhouse gas that's the reason why for example almost 40 percent of the emissions in ireland carbon emissions in ireland are just from agriculture across europe matt that's 11 so we have a most unusual uh
It isn't just that this is from agriculture, it's really from one part of agriculture, and that is the livestock sector that has been very successful commercially, by the way. Total food and drink exports last year, about 19 billion. So this is a successful sector. But there is a huge price to be paid by the general public and by the, I suppose, the wider community for that success. We're paying it, for example, in diminished water quality. We're paying it.
Who sits on the commission and which interests are represented?
And I think we're definitely going to be looking at colossal EU compliance fines. We know the range of between 8 billion and 26 billion within the next five to six years. And these really are coming down the line. I can see you looking at me skeptically. But these really are coming down the line. Other countries, Matt, who have achieved their compliance are already queuing up to say, hang on a second, we signed up for this, where's our compliance funding? And that funding will come from the non-compliers like Ireland. And unfortunately, Ireland in terms of compliance is almost the bottom of the list. And I'm sorry to say, but a huge part of that has been the fact that the agri sector, tied as it is to an expansionary model of livestock and particularly of intensive dairying,
is going in one direction, and that is the exact wrong direction. But it's feeding us, isn't it? But it's not. That's the thing, Matt, right?
Well, it is and it isn't, okay? In the sense that, okay, we need to import lots of other food and drink, but we do need the dairy and the livestock output that we get, the meat that we get, and then we also sell it overseas to get money to pay for all of the other food that we import. So don't we need it?
Well, let's divide it up into two things. First of all, we could, I'm not saying we should, we could reduce our beef and livestock sector by 80 to 85%. By how much? No, by 80 to 80. I'm just saying we could, and nobody in Ireland would be short of either a beefsteak or a pint of milk or a pound of butter, right? The rest, as you said, is very much for commodity exporting.
Now, what we've seen really is... And that's what pays the farmers and gives them a livelihood, right?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:07
2
What is the Just Transition Commission and why does it matter for land use?
1:07–2:37
3
Who sits on the commission and which interests are represented?
2:37–6:58
4
Why is Ireland’s agricultural system described as unbalanced and livestock‑dominated?
6:58–8:29
5
How much do agriculture emissions and EU compliance fines risk costing Ireland?
8:29–13:55
Speakers
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