An Tánaiste Simon Coveney has hit out at “lazy, sloppy commentary” around climate change reporting and agriculture.

“One of the real frustrations for me on the climate change debate, for example… I think there’s a lot of well-meaning but ill-informed commentary when it comes to climate mitigation, adaptation and things like the creation of carbon sinks and so on,” he told the Michael Dillon Memorial Lecture, run by the Guild of Agricultural Journalists, last week.

“I think there is an acceptance in agriculture that you don’t have the same parameters for change like you have in other areas, such as transportation, for example, and electricity generation.

“Can we afford not to have efficient herds anymore? No, we can’t, in my opinion.

“We can help farmers make that change, but I think there is lazy, sloppy commentary at times that says the only way we can deal with our climate obligation when it comes to agriculture is to just slash the size of the herd or moving to feedlot systems to drive efficiencies and economies of scale,” he said.