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ALMOST HALF OF people in Ireland – 45% - believe the cattle population should be limited or reduced as part of climate measures.
Polling by The Good Information Project/Ireland Thinks found that 23% of people think the number of cows in Ireland should be limited to its current level and 22% feel it should be reduced.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/7607925/
However, people living outside of Dublin were far more likely to support farmers being allowed to decide their herd for themselves.
Overall, 39% of people think there should be no limit and farmers should be allowed to determine their herd.
That rises to 41% in Munster and 51% in Connacht and Ulster, compared to 29% in Dublin and 38% in Leinster.
Agriculture is the sector with the highest greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland, making up 35% of national emissions, followed by transport at 20%.
Of agriculture’s emissions, cattle account for almost all of them at around 85%.
The Climate Change Advisory Council, a panel of climate experts, has advised that reducing the number of cows in Ireland would have a substantial impact in reducing emissions.
The council’s proposed carbon budget that was published this week outlines actions that farmers can take to mitigate the negative effects of agriculture on emissions, but says that “changes in agricultural emissions over and above those delivered by mitigation measures are driven by changes in bovine agricultural activity levels” – that is, cattle.
Looking at potential scenarios for reducing Ireland’s emissions, under scenarios where agricultural emissions must fall by 30% or more, suckler cows would need to decline from one million in 2018 to around 200,000 by 2030, the council’s technical report said.
A 33% reduction would require dairy cow numbers to move from 1.4 million to 1.2 million and to achieve a 51% reduction in the sector, dairy cow numbers would need to fall from 1.4 million to 650,000.
Restrictions
Ireland Thinks polled a representative sample of 1,200 people on 16 October for their stance on reducing or limiting the number of cows in the country.
18 to 24-year-olds were the age group most likely to say that it should be reduced, with 35% in favour.
In contrast, 45 to 54-year-olds had the highest support for letting farmers decide their herds at 50%.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil voters held almost the same beliefs, with 43% of respondents from both camps saying farmers should be allowed to decide, but that support dropped to only 7% among voters for their government colleagues in the Green Party.
Green ideas
In England, the government is trying to encourage older farmers to retire in a bid to bring more younger, ‘greener’ farmers into the sector.
It introduced a scheme earlier this year where farmers can receive a once-off lump sum payment to retire.
Asked whether Ireland should do the same, people from every part of the country on average said yes – 62% in Dublin, 54% in Leinster, 57% in Munster and 58% in Connacht and Ulster.
The national result was 58% in favour, 28% against, and 14% didn’t know.
Support was highest among Green Party and Labour Party voters at 80% and 79% but lowest with Aontú at 32%.
Fine Gael and People Before Profit voters gave similar responses – 53% and 54% yes and 31% and 36% no respectively.
Responsibility
The Ireland Thinks poll asked respondents which commercial sectors they trust the least when it comes to taking responsible action on emissions.
32% said they did not trust the agriculture sector, although distrust was higher in chemical manufacturers, energy companies and transport.
Faith in airlines, shipping and road transport was the lowest of any sector, with 58% of people saying they trusted it the least.
46% of people have the least trust in energy companies; 39% in cement and chemical manufacturers; and 18% in car manufacturers.
Only 7% of people believe all of those sectors are doing enough.
Among Labour and Green Party voters, a lack of trust in the agriculture sector was particularly acute – 51% and 61% respectively have the least trust in it.
Social Democrats are relatively confident in the sector with only 19% having least faith in it, while Aontú voters were drastically distant from other alignments at 3%.
This work is co-funded by Journal Media and a grant programme from the European Parliament. Any opinions or conclusions expressed in this work are the author’s own. The European Parliament has no involvement in nor responsibility for the editorial content published by the project. For more information, see here.
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Such manipulation of statistics just to create an impact antifarmer headline! The headline could just as easily read “62% of people think that cattle numbers should remain the same or increase “… but then that would sound like a vote of confidence in farmers and rural Ireland !
@Declan O’Dwyer: Why don’t they just develop a device that they can stick in a cows hoop that can collect their methane and use it to power an electricity station ?
@Declan O’Dwyer: it’s as if the world is going to stop eating burgers because Ireland said so.
@Declan O’Dwyer: Many of us still believe farming, including animal farming, is a very important part of Ireland. That 38% are just easily led by hysteria. Never you mind them.
@Barry Teehan: Why aren’t anti-methane tablets for humans given out freely? Lord knows there’s enough methane in us.
Ireland is responsible for .000012% of global emissions. So having less cows will do what exactly?
@Ciaran Maher: Ireland is responsible for 0.11% of global emissions. Roughly 10,000 times more than what you are making out.
Source: https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/co2-emissions-by-country/
This is despite the fact that we only make up 0.06% of the global population. So we are emitting almost double our fair share.
If you’re going to lie, at least make it realistic.
@Donncha: again with the deferral of blame to the cows.. close some data centres and let’s keep feeding our ever growing population.. you know that largest cause of emissions I. The country .. everyone is fixated, we are being so st up Id .. the future is not looking good.. I’m not a farmer but my god we need them and our cows .. we need meat and dairy !
@Donncha: Should our fair share be based on our population only though. Ireland produces a lot of food for export.
@Ciaran Maher: exactly.im sure the cows that they cant have here will be bred somwhere else like New Zealand etc.
if anyone saw the programme on Rte during the week where 100 s of lorry loads of bricketts/coal etc coming in to Dublin port evey week from europe.
Has to be a lot of carbon where the irish horticulterist buying peat from uk that came from the very bog that he was standing in and use to get from.Alot of this makes no sense to me.
@Donncha:
Even still, a vanishingly small amount.
No matter what Ireland does regarding climate change, our country will have no impact on future trends. We just don’t matter, irregardless of what people say or do.
@Donncha:that’s because we export food we produce enough food for 45 million people so if we stop other countries would do it and we all live under the one atmosphere so makes no difference
@Ciaran Maher: don’t be publishing dem statistics how can our government lacking in the brain department tax the shirt off your back with facts like that being read
@Ciaran Maher: Help political agendas.
@Ciaran Maher: what if every village or every county or every housing area in the world said they same thing?
Everyone is part of a bigger area and every small unit changing what they do is key to fixing the whole bloody mess we have created. .
@john doe: 100% wrong. If every small contributed to CO2 emissions cut out their emmisions entirely at great cost to their economies and social fabric then it would have next to zero impact on climate change.
Yes we should do our bit but only when the biggest polluters are doing their bit first. There is no point us ruining our economy and society for no discernable benefit.
Also the big question that needs to be looked at is where the CO2 is allocated. At present the CO2 is being allocated mainly at source of production but as consumers we are not penalised in this scenario. Citizens of another country are getting penalised for what a business in that country is producing. We need a carbon tax on every product that is produced and sold around the world. That way the consumer can decide whether they want to pay the price for the CO2 that was emmited in the production and transportation of that product or not. This would reduce consumption and also reduce production (supply and demand). Blaming farmers here for producing a product at very efficient CO2 levels compared to other parts of the world does nothing to advance the climate change agenda when this beef will just be produced elsewhere cheaper, with higher CO2 emmisions and imported here if those same farmers stop producing.
@Patricia O’Reilly: Why close data centers? Lots of data centers globally are providing their own source of renewable power and feeding the excess back to the grid. We need to see that here. Data centers also create massive amounts of heat that we should be looking to tap into for home heating in the locality of data centers.
@Ciaran Maher: 63% of emissions in Ireland come from the agri sector (RTE/ PT) due partly to an extra 200k cows been added to herd size in last 10 years. 90% of dairy produce is exported. We need radicle approaches to sort this rather to have to pay massive fines because of the farming community. For once can farmers try and be patriotic instead of plain greedy
@Barrycelona: exactly exported if we don’t produce another country will and at a higher emissions cost… it’s all the same air we breath so what’s the difference
@Gerrard: Agree. Naturally if you export good quality products, people will buy more of them.
I think they should be looking at industrial practices and energy sources rather than at food producers.
So 22-23% support it. So 78% disagree. Id hardly call that supporting the reduction. Soundly defeated Id say.
@Christopher Byrne: have another read there Chris…
@Christopher Byrne: It’s an extremely biased way of framing the data. The statistics clearly show a majority in favour of keeping our cattle numbers the same or increasing it. I thought The Journal was all about fact checking and good faith reporting?!
And I’m firmly in the camp that Ireland Ireland should reduce its cattle numbers. We overqproduce such an enormous amount of beef and dairy for 5 million people (+2 million in the north). We need better utilisation of the land.
We need more variety of vegetable and crop growers, we need more wild land for native species, we need more trees for carbon capture, we need more green ways, nature trails and woodland parks. Having more land dedicated to nature is proven to improve people’s mental health.
@Willie Murphy: I’d suggest you take your own advise Willie. The headline could just as similarly be phrased “78% of people in Ireland believe the number of cows should be kept the same (“limited”) or increased.”
@Christopher Byrne: meat is good for you. And what happens to the farmers.
@ShaneO’Mac: Of course we produce more than our country needs…we are an agricultural country.Germany produces more cars,France more wine Puerto Rico more banana than they need.We are the most naturally efficient…the alternative is to push production to the margins like Brazilian rain forests
@Susan O’flaherty: Meat is murder, did you not read shaneomac two up about diversification?
@Eoin Jackson: But then some readers wouldn’t have the fun of blaming imaginary Dubliners for allegedly disagreeing with them. When in fact we appreciate farmers.
As a Dub who is an infrequent eater of red meat and non milk drinker I can still acknowledge that Ireland is one of the best countries in the world for producing high quality grass fed beef and dairy, there should absolutely be no limit on what we produce, let the market dictate how much. My only gripe would be the use of fertilisers, its easy to spot its over use in rivers and streams around the country that almost look greener than the fields around them
@Nameo Maximus: exactly, the emissions should be based on a quality of product for all sectors and not just statistical data. As in bringing in peat from Eastern Europe is nonsense just to reduce our carbon footprint. Also countries shouldn’t be able to buy carbon credits from other countries.
@Nameo Maximus:
You’ve brought up a good point Nameo, our lakes and rivers have been destroyed by certain irresponsible farmers.
@Ian James Burgess: Exactly, that is nonsensical. If it is the case that we can produce beef in a cleaner way than a lot of countries, then in my opinion beef that is exported should carry it’s carbon footprint with it to the country that is buying it. Seems fair to me (similar to oil and gas)
@Ian James Burgess: is there an alternative to peat and is it easily sourced? I’m absolutely in favour of protecting our bogs and this practice of importing peat is nonsense but what is the alternative?
@Ian James Burgess: Carbon credits the biggest scam ever.
@HectorPickaxe: great point. We aacribe carbon emissions on oil products to where they are consumed yet we aacribe carbon emissions for agriculture to where they are produced. Why is this I wonder?
I question do people in Leinster and dublin understand that reductions would mean higher priced foods and dairy. I’d say the younger people wouldn’t appreciate until they have to buy a weekly shop. Transport has decreased and will further with better vechiles. What are the other offenders?
@Keith Faherty: Or they just go Vegan, problem solved. I’m neither vegan nor vegetarian but I can see the benefits of it, less animal cruelty and a healthier diet. I haven’t done it because it would require a significant change in lifestyle and it would be require a lot of planning, cooking and more money
@Keith Faherty: Sure, like the local market is the problem. Would LOVE to know what percentage of agri trade is for the ‘open market’… Glanbia aren’t one of the biggest companies in the world cause people in Dublin love protein shakes.
@Jj: how do you know it’s a healthier diet.??
@Jj: of course they care.
https://news.sky.com/story/vegans-more-likely-to-break-bones-than-meat-eaters-study-finds-12139886
@Keith Faherty:
There’s other things to eat besides beef.
@Jj: but more carbon emissions going healthier as in vegan
@Keith Faherty: Do you look at labels on produce you buy?it would seem not. Most veg we eat here is imported. You have to imagine buying Irish grown apples, or carrots, or cabbage or even potatoes . And there are also different methods of agriculture. Agroforestry. Permaculture which produce a larger range of products rather than unblalanced , polluting dairy monoculture.
We don’t grow food for people here in Ireland. We grow meat and grain for corporations.
@Keith Faherty: it would actually probably mean cheaper meat and dairy as they can produce it in south America and other parts of the world much cheaper than here. I’m still not in favour of reducing the herd though as it is produced at much less missions here than elsewhere. The way I see it every kg of beef produced here is saving extra emissions being emitted elsewhere in the world.
@Jj: ive read comments all over the internet about cutting farming and all saying animal cruelty , where is this animal cruelty happening because i for one know hundreds of farmers and never seen any cruelty on any farms ever so where do you people come up with this statement ANIMAL CRUELTY
@David Bourke: Lamp pork, Bison is lovely too.
@Keith Faherty: 90% of dairy is exported. So you are getting Irish people to foot the bill for your foreign exports, through increased CO2 emissions. Of course food prices are going to get higher because farmers will try and stick Irish people with the bill for the loss of their export markets. We will all lose out but the upside is new technologies will reduce our dependence on farming and we will remember your desire to destroy the planet for your own greed.nThe farmers are scared methane.
So let me get this right Paddy needs to reduce cow numbers and the EU has done a deal with South America who will export beef to us? And rainforests are been cut down to expand for agriculture reasons in Brazil? Sounds like a Stitch up.
“Agriculture is the sector with the highest greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland”. It is also the sector that absorbs the most carbon and gets no credit for it.
Happy to eat more steak, if that helps :-)
Talk about framing, Christ how about a little truth and honestly, instead of politicised “reporting” this is coming from a townie btw.
When people are bombarded incessantly with a propaganda campaign pushing a particular scenario it’s reasonable to assume that there will be a predicted outcome. Generally we call it marketing.
Why not reduce the number of people as a solution as their behaviour causes most emissions.
@Paul Crowley: Lets start the cull with… you!
@LaoisWeather: No need to cull anyone (even you) just stop the endless wave of fake asylum seekers.
More journal manipulation and deceptive reporting, honestly people, be careful with this lot
Urban and Rural divide at its best or worst. City dwellers deciding how rural life should be. If people actually read up on it they would find farming cattle is practically carbon neutral.
Instead of limiting the herd why not take away every chimney in Dublin, that would have a real impact on carbon.
@Laura McCarthy: You’d be hard pressed to find a smoking chimney in Dublin these days in fairness… I never noticed the difference until I started visiting more places in Ireland and getting surprised at detecting smokey air in the evenings
@Laura McCarthy: I don’t think you looked at the numbers if you think urban areas favour more industrialization. We use smokeless coal or electricity almost exclusively in my city.
Farming for the majority in this country is a FAS scheme which makes no net profit and depends on EU payouts. If if you ignore the CO2 and methane emissions the nitrate pollution and slurry are destroying our rivers and have a huge impact on our drinking water. There are many farmers near me which have sheds full of animals while they are off working in a full time job. They just do it for the EU cheque.
@Gregory Pym: farmers are paid this EU money in order to keep food prices affordable for its citizens. We’re it not for this subsidy large tracts of the country would become abandoned wilderness
@Gregory Pym: farmers would be happy to forfeit the grants & receive adequate payment for their produce …. The government for whatever reason is preventing that happening for years….
@Declan O’Dwyer: Good point. But what about the pollution? Particularly of rivers?
@Gregory Pym: Did it ever occur to you that some small farmers must subsidise their income with other work? Either that or sell their farm and work elsewhere fulltime.
@Declan O’Dwyer: it would do wonders for the environment and our wildlife if large tracts of the countryside did, indeed, become abandoned wilderness.
@Bill Spill: in a recent survey of water pollution in clare by ASSAP in a river that flowed through an intensive dairying area it was found that the pollution was being caused by a county council housing estate. Farmers are always the easy target to blame!
@Declan O’Dwyer: Disingenuous answer. Nitrogen in Ireland’s waterways comes primarily from chemical and organic fertilisers used in agriculture. https: //www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/nitrogen-seepage-action-programme-fails-to-protect-hundreds-of-rivers-lakes-1.4699481
@Declan O’Dwyer: Disingenuous answer. Nitrogen in Ireland’s waterways comes primarily from chemical and organic fertilisers used in agriculture. Google it and get educated
Good information project ? More like lies lies and statistics
The survey should have included this qualifying question.
Where does the food that you eat come from?
A. The supermarket
B. The kitchen
C. The takeaway
D. Mammy
E. Farming
@David Van-Standen: Plus how does it get to the shops/supermarkets.
Population of the world in 1900 was 2 Billion, Its 7.7 billion now. Every person on the planet needs somewhere to live, food to eat and a job to generate a means to get the first 2. Reducing the number of cows in Ireland isn’t going to do a whole lot to help climate change as these people will all still need to eat something and we export a vast quantity of what we produce.
@Conor Heffernan: exactly and population by 2050 will be 12 billion so more carbon also India and China not sig
@Conor Heffernan: exactly and population by 2050 will be 12 billion so more carbon also India and China not signing up to anything and they number 1 and 3 as the biggest emitters
Sure what do we need cows for anyway? Everyone knows that beef and dairy are grown by the large food retailers and that leather is made out of plastic in China…
Sure why don’t we get rid of cows altogether like we did with board na mona and inport our milk and dairy like we do with peat briquettes
@Brendan Doherty: I’d move to the Netherlands if that happened. For the food.
Another example of the Dubs not having a clue about anything or anyone past the M50
You only sell locally, do ye?
That’s great and all but will the demand for dairy and beef be reduced? Will we not just be exporting the “problem” elsewhere and importing dairy and beef from other countries where we have no control over how green their processes are? Seems like myopic ideological madness driving towards a “zero carbon” goal without any joined up thinking. And the majority of Irish people realise this.
Is this going the same way as peat and turf brickettes? Let’s reduce our footprint by reducing down our figures and importing what we actually need? Cop on!
@Ross Mc Gann: Prior to the pandemic I was standing one day at O’Connel Bridge, Dublin where I counted 16 double deck buses stuck in traffic spewing out diesel fumes.
On the same morning I listened to a discussion on radio on cows belching with the usual friends of the earth citing sustainability, bio diversity etc. Not a mention of the pollution under their noses on the streets of the capital or what they were contributing.
To help in my own small way we drive an EV, have solar panels, led lights and harvest rain water.
I’m confused as to why the herd needs to be reduced. If we were in the US with 90 million cattle,the vast majority herded in pens 5000 per pen,fed crap to fatten them up all year round, creating a toxic methan bubble above each pen,I’d agree. Paddy joe with his 150 cow herd, in fields 9 months of the year,creating probably .5% gas of what just 1 pen in the US produces,I’d say something smells bad here.
If we reduce supply, we increase cost, this is a very domestic witted and short sighted response to an issue being caused by heavy industry, not farming. Less cows = less milk, means higher prices. Less cattle = less beef, means higher prices. Also, we will end up with less exports and more imports of food, which, through haulage and transport will nullify the carbon savings associated with reducing the national herd.
I wonder who we’ll blame for the world’s problems next.
@Felix O’ Mahoney: exactly and farm land also sequester carbon and store it but this is never mentions. data centers, transport and the like pay for trees in far away countries to ofset their emissions. We don’t take this into account here for some reason.
Big question is why are agricultural emssions for food that is exported allocated to Ireland when oil emssions from transport is also allocated to Ireland even though it is produced elsewhere? It makes agriculture look far worse of a problem than it is when in fact the goods we are importing from the likes of china and India have far bigger carbon footprint but since that carbon isn’t allocated to us there is no point in trying to do anything about that.
People need to get their heads out of the clouds and start looking at this in a transparent way not peddling lies through reputable news sources like this one. A fact check on the deliberately misleading headline should be done and the author should be penalised in some way for trying to mislead the public with fake news.
Note to self…buy more beef.
Bring in quotas for pets: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2017/08/02/whats-your-dogs-carbon-pawprint/
The option of Dublin people is a MOO-t point. They make little to no contribution to red meat production. If they care that much, they’re more than capable of turning vegetarian or vegan.
@Colly: *opinion
@Colly: im not a “Dublin person” but a ‘person living in Dublin’. I do not believe the herd should be reduced. Does that make my point moot? Or because my point likely agrees with yours is it now acceptable? What about all the people outside of Dublin who do not contribute to red meat distribution? Do their opinions not count either? So basically only the opinions of farmers should be accepted or tolerated on this matter? Is this what you are saying? Ok… interesting viewpoint……
@Colly: I’m sure that sounded better in your head. Try reading the figures of the poll and Irish people aren’t trying to reduce farm subsidies at all. Regardless of county.
What a lame piece of biased ‘journalism’.
Find another career. Please.
Crows. Yes their numbers should be limited.
Thankfully public policy isn’t decided by public vote. Half of Dublin think mince comes from a mince tree.
@Paul Whitehead: You have asked have of Dublin this, have you.
@Paul Whitehead: You’ll find that people who got out of farming a couple of generations ago have a very good idea of the work involved.
Instead of limiting our herd why not limit shops such as Penneys and EuroGiant, Dealz and the like. Absolutely brim full with fake plastic produce being flown in on a daily basis. Cheap and nasty and most of it in landill or the incinerator within weeks. Yet not a peep about these businesses changing their practices. Meanwhile the Journal constantly posting articles telling us to get out and shop/consume more plastic junk because shortages are impending.
@Regina Falange: They are limited. There are only so many import licences issued to such companies. If you know people who throw clothes away every month, then they obviously have more money than sense. Excuse us for not knitting all our clothes from dark brown seaweed by candlelight.
Bit off of the point but …. Quotas for pets? Or caps?
If we’re going to make a difference for future generations then we have to address our agricultural sector.
@NeilH100: for what if it’s not us other countries will fill the void at least we have grass fed cows … if we reduce our production other countries will up there’s and we all live on the same planet … but once Ireland thinks there better then everybody else that’s all that matters
@NeilH100: Dead right NeilH100 —–Ill do that right now—Dear agricultural sector, please cut out the bullspite From now on you should only allow female cows to sh**e
@NeilH100: We could start by banning puppy farming.
Why damage our own food supply once damaged its hard to bring back best quality meat in the world best dairy leave it alone
Typical from the greens the sooner there is an election the better
china needs to cut emissions and brazil needs to stop burning the Amazon…
FACT – humans also faurt! (D4 accent cos the proper spelling, without the “u” was considered to be “toxic” by the comment police) ironic or what?
@Spot the d0g: btw, why does such an accent abomination exist????
@Jimmy Jones: no idea, but my sister in law, with grawnd ideas, speaks loike that
All they want to do is plant the whole country in trees and then ever decade or so the whole lot will go up in a dry summer. Then they’ll be shouting, look,look climate change. Close down the factory farms in the US before you start hitting us over the head here in Ireland.
and then people would be moaning about the cost of their milk
We should transition to Bison from cattle and bring back Elk. These are leaner meats and less polluting than cows. Bison’s poo can be used for heating homes in the fireplace just like wood. Environmentally friendly options that rural farmers should consider especially with how much more money can be made by switching away from cows.
Thanks some kick to the farmers who are producing food. And half the World starving
If Queen Maebh were here today….
How would such an action impact availability of meat and dairy and their food prices?
What effect would reducing our production from the relevant agri sectors to that of our own consumption. No exports, produce solely for domestic market?
@Nick Bowie: We would go bus as a country. We would also not have enough money to buy the beef.
Also a lot of other people would go hungry as well.
If we forget about GHG emissions from beef and dairy for a minute and just have a look at whats happening to farming. Farms getting larger, machinery getting larger, farms have become mostly monoculture, eggs in one basket comes to mind. Theres no resilience in the system. Look whats happening in the UK, one shortage(meat processors) and farmers are having to cull animals.
Theres been many fodder crisises the last 20 years, if we werent so dependant on animal agriculture these shocks wouldnt be so severe.
But we cant do anything to reverse that because we are at the behest of global markets.
@Anarch Eco: The UK is happy to import most of its food. Ireland is not.
I think you spelled “TD’s” wrong
Stop saying that the comments are toxic
Good, they should be moved to a vegan or insect diet ASAP.
It’s evolution
@ Lauren Boland. Have you heard of another political on this island called Sinn Fein or are you just being nostalgic for section 31 censorship????
Question should read would you accept redundancy or 30% wage cut to reduce Carbon
Farmers can’t have it all their own way.
@Stephen Kelly: 100,000 years ago humans were 1% of the land animal biomass, now humans and their livestock are over 95% of animal biomass. Its not a natural state of affairs
have your say