Last Wednesday I took a bus to Dublin for a conversation.

Yes, there are plenty of conversations closer to home but this was a special conversation. It was a conversation about Sustainable Land Use.

It was the third in a series of conversations entitled "Bringing People Together for a new understanding of Climate Change".

They are being organised by IBEC, ICTU, Trocaire, Christian Aid and The Environmental Pillar. All are experts at hosting good events and engaging hearts and minds and this was no exception. There was music, poetry, food, humour and conversation. This one was held in the impressive Guinness Storehouse and it attracted a lively attendance of over 300 participants.

Difference between a lecture and conversation

The difference between a lecture and a conversation is the balance of listening and speaking. In conversation, listening is at least as important as speaking and so I listened attentively to the opening speaker outlining the sources of our carbon emissions and future challenges.

It was when he said that a cow's emissions are the same as a family car that I shifted in my seat. I listened carefully to the conversation that followed among the six panelists, but no one attempted to adjust that image of the cow as co-destroyer of the planet.

Car to cow ratio

We are very lucky to live in a country where the car:cow ration is roughly 1:1 and where a road is called a cow path - bóthar.

Transfer this image to an EU mainland region of car makers and it is easy to see how damaging such assertions and images can be. I was disappointed that no farming body joined this conversation. As far as I could see, there was no full-time farming presence. Spring is a busy time on farms and thus it fell to me to try to defend ruminants from the attack.

Distortion of fact

Equating cows with cars is a gross distortion of fact. Yes they both emit carbon gases.

However, unlike a car, the cow also promotes the return and storage of carbon to the soil.

Every farmer knows that tillage reduces the amount of humus and organic matter in his soil. He also knows that when he puts the field back in grass, and it is grazed by ruminants, they rebuild the humus and organic matter again. Humus and organic matter are stored carbon.

The bovine digestive system is frequently criticised as being less efficient at meat production compared to pigs or poultry. The inefficiency arises from the higher levels of nutrients that pass through their gut undigested. However, it is these undigested and well spread nutrients that fertilise and invigorate the soil to produce the grass that feeds the cow and builds the organic matter.

The cow and its ruminant relatives is an essential part of an ancient grassland ecology which formed the worlds great natural grasslands that stored huge quantities of carbon in their deep dark soils. The ruminant - soil - grass cycle can, and must, be part of every solution to extract carbon from the atmosphere.

The cow's side of the story

I was very happy that I took the trouble to engage in the conversation. Those 300 intelligent, inquiring people would otherwise not have heard the cow's side of the story.

I detect that some farmers and farming bodies may feel threatened by the developing Climate Change agenda.

I urge them to enter the conversation in confidence. There will be changes ahead and some presently accepted practices may have to be modified.

However, the capacity of ruminants, soil and grass to incorporate and store carbon will ensure that farmers will be at the centre of things forever into the future. Storing carbon in addition to producing food, fibre and energy just adds another string to the bow.