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Irish agriculture should pursue a policy of rewarding farmers for producing in a biodiversity and carbon friendly way, according to newly appointed Green Party senator Pippa Hackett.
Speaking ahead of her first afternoon as a senator, Hackett, an organic suckler and sheep farmer from Co Offaly and councillor for Laois-Offaly, said the current approach has not worked for farmers.
Hackett told the Irish Farmers Journal that farmers need to be seen as deliverers of public goods and that there should be payments to address issues such as biodiversity, water quality, air quality, and carbon sequestration.
Hackett said: "If we [farmers] can connect that with a stronger marketplace for biodiversity friendly beef or a carbon friendly milk, then, I think you will be hitting the jackpot in terms of improved farming."
Nature
Hackett said many suckler farmers were already farming in nature friendly ways but their product was being sold into non-premium marketplaces.
“Your feedlot beef, it's going into the same marketplaces as other European beef, it's not being differentiated so those guys really need to be rewarded for those particular practices. That comes down to maybe Bord Bia, how we market our beef, and what the consumers want.”
She said agriculture needs to be consumer driven and not driven by big business.
Organic
“I can speak from my own farm, we made the decision, seven or eight years ago, to convert to organic farming and now we're suckler beef and sheep, and we definitely saw an increase in in our farming income.
“At the end of the day that's important to me as a parent, as a mother. I'm worried about sustaining my own farm income and I think that’s what most farmers want. I would like to think an adoption of a more nature friendly farming practice will result in that.”
Hackett said she was looking forward to providing a rural and farming voice blended “with the Green” during her time in the Seanad.
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