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THE PRESIDENT OF the Irish Farmers’ Association has said that reducing farming output and food production would amount to “national sabotage” and that Irish farmers need “a new deal”.
During a speech at the 70th AGM of the IFA today, Francie Gorman gave an overview of the farming lobby’s efforts in 2024 while also looking ahead to issues facing the industry this year, with newly elected executive branches in Ireland, the EU and the United States.
“Our objective was to ensure that farming would be front and centre in the various election campaigns. By any measure, I think we achieved that,” Gorman said at the annual meeting today.
“Cutting back on farm output and food production would be national sabotage,” he said.
“Global demand for meat and dairy is growing. If we don’t produce it here, it will be produced in other countries with a much bigger environmental impact,” Gorman said.
He claimed that over the course of the last five years, “the EU Commission and the Irish government have implemented policies that reduced production”.
“This has to stop,” he said, adding that rhetoric from Dublin and Brussels “appears to have changed”.
“But it must be backed by real intent and real money.
“The cost of doing business and regulation is frustrating farmers and further adding to our cost base,” Gorman said.
He quoted a paper produced by the IFA “that shows costs on farms have risen by nearly 75% in the last seven years”.
“At the same time, farm incomes have fallen by 34%. It’s an issue that the new Government must tackle,” he said.
“We need a new deal for farmers.”
He added that the IFA has seen “a dangerous shift away from supporting food production”.
Gorman also said that the last EU Commission became “detached from farmers and in many ways detached from reality”, making specific refernce to the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy, which he said had “raided” funding for farmers for the sake of climate change policies.
He stated that climate policy funding should be separated from money for the agricultural sector.
And though agriculture emissions fell by 4.6% in 2023 when compared to 2022, that represents only a 2.9% fall in emissions since 2018.
The Climate Change Advisory Council’s latest progress report on the 2024 Climate Action Plan highlighted continued progress towards Ireland’s climate targets but cautioned that there is still work to be done when it comes to organic farming.
An issue of major concern for farmers in Ireland and across the European Union is the newly signed deal with Mercosur countries in South America, which Gorman said the EU Commission had “rammed through”.
Gorman welcomed the Irish government’s stated intention to oppose the deal, which is yet to be green lit by the EU Parliament.
“We have a fight on our hands to get the deal blocked. But it is a fight we are up for,” he said.
The EU Commission said yesterday that it plans to set up a one billion euro “reserve” for European farmers that might be negatively impacted by the trade deal, which is also deeply unpopular in other member states.
Gorman said the Irish government must work with other member states “to build support to reject the deal”.
“The manoeuvre by Ursula von der Leyen last month was a bad start for the new Commission.
“We don’t want vague promises of ‘compensation’. We don’t want a Sell Out. We want a level playing field,” he said, adding that the issue would be raised with the new EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen during his visit to Ireland tomorrow.
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Time to ditch all this climate change nonsense, we need more farming and food production
@pee wee: Last year, Ireland’s dairy farms 8.3 billion litres of milk (enough to fill 3,320 Olympic sized swimming pools).
94% of all milk products produced were exported, some exported to Africa, where it undercuts local farmers, puts them out of business. We produce plenty of food, we export far more than we consume, we are food secure but but our exports undermines the food security of others.
“The article provides worrying insights into the effects of Irish dairy exports on the local markets in West Africa. The report describes a situation where west African farmers are being forced out of business by cheaper EU imports.”
And climate change is not nonsense:
https://imgur.com/gallery/global-temperature-co2-levels-last-2000-years-5ioVzFY
“The global annual average for 2024 in our dataset is estimated as 1.62 ± 0.06 °C (2.91 ± 0.11 °F) above the average during the period 1850 to 1900, …”
“In reconstructing the changes in global mean temperature since 1850, Berkeley Earth has examined 22 million monthly-average temperature observations from 50,746 weather stations. Of these 18,447 stations and 186,000 monthly averages are available for 2024.”
The Earth is warmer than any time in the last c. 120,000 years, CO2 levels are the highest in 15 million years.
Temperatures are rising 10x faster than the end of the last ice age, which transitioned from glaciers to warm climate over 6,300 year period (temperatures rose by 6 Celsius globally, a temperature rise of approx. 0.1 Celsius per century; we are now rising by 1 Celsius per century).
These are just facts, what we do about it politics.
@David Jordan: most of Irelands food produced stays in Europe. It does not make sense for Europe to wind down food production while we import food from Brazil. If you wish for lower emissions in agriculture it would make sense for you to agree with the IFA in opposing the Mercosur deal.
@David Jordan: climate change has not been caused by sustainable farming that we’ve embraced here. So it’s OK for Ukraine to sell grain to Africa yet we can’t supply them with milk. How would African countries have grass fed milk products without irrigation? Surely that would be less sustainable and the land would have to be fertilised more heavily than our use of nitrogen and we give out about that. Seriously please start having some common sense. Proper grass fed ruminant animal production actually has been proven to sequester more CO2 and methane than it leaves off
@David Jordan: It is up to the government of African States to apply tariffs. Ursula Von Der Leyen has been purposely targeting Irelands most secure economic resource. Farms are an essential part of the Irish economy, and especially of rural communities. The Irish governments Dublin-centric approach with regards to the economy is backfiring with the appointment of Donald Trump. It’s disgusting what Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have allowed to happen to farmers, I think it’s time that the Irish government have a bit of common sense and stand up to the European Union bullies.
So Irish and EU farmers have to abide by EU regulations, for beef and food safety, that Brussels regulators impose on the food sector… yet however Brussels wants Europe to take millions of tons off beef and other food items that are not up to EU standards and will be cheaper
Can’t see how in any way whatsoever that ridiculous Mercosur deal is beneficial to Ireland, or even Europe. If passed it’ll ring a very loud death knell to agricultural production in Ireland
@Mary Linton: it suits the Germans so the deal must be done
@Ger Whelan: not sure it suits the German farmers though…
The climate cult at it again so happy that trump dealt them a hammer blow in the US and walked away from this Paris debacle, that thing gives Paris a bad name.
He needs to use his influence to stop the policies of the incoming government. We know that all of the Independents who are going into coalition with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were elected in rural constituencies. We know that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil support foolhardy policies like reducing the national herd, implementing stringent nitrogen regulations and forcing farmers to reduce emissions by 30%, all of which pose a looming threat to the livelihoods of farmers in Ireland. The President of the IFA needs to spread the word to his members to tell them to contact their Independents and to make these policies redline issues for their vote again in the next election. The IFA is well-funded and organised. They could easily run challengers against the Independents if they back those policies.
Continuing to despoil our countryside with intensive farming will be a national disaster!
@Padraig O’Brien: Ireland is a giant farm, the illusion is that cows are the livestock when in fact it’s actually the Irish people.
The new teesh clearly told voters Mercosur was off the table so that’s that no need to worry
We need to cut beef and dairy for export. Irish farms should be producing food for Irish people. Instead, we import 60% of our fruits, grains, oils and veg etc. It’s not climate friendly to have shiploads of food pass each other in the race for cheapest production. There needs to be a better balance.
@Lorry R: gosh that’s one stupid comment. We can not complete with lidl aldi and tesco price gouging race to the bottom theyve put vegetablesgrowers out of business. Suckler grass fed animals actually sequester more co2 and methane than they emit. Rudimental understanding of the carbon cycle will concur with that fact. Why would Irish farmers produce food at a loss – because consumers want cheap food. Mercusol deal – that EU wants are going to import from Brazil….even worse land use change…..think please
Greed in disguise. But it is a sabotage, our gov loves nothing more than restricting individual access to the global economy while at the same time offering global businesses free reign to our tax systems.
“national sabotage”? Nothing about the “national sabotage” our dairy farmers have done to our rivers and lakes with their utterly irresponsible farming practices. ‘Guardians of the land’? Don’t make me laugh. They couldn’t give a flying one for the environment. It’s all about money with these perennial whingers.
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