Normally, the annual Agricultural Science Association conference is one of the key events that gives an outlook for the year ahead, as well as getting an update on current problem areas and possible solutions. This year, it was all held remotely with links to the US, as well as multiple sites in Ireland. The technology worked faultlessly.

So, what did I learn? Politically, Simon Coveney brought us up to date telling us that for the first time a major Brexit announcement came from London with no warning to either him as Minister for Foreign Affairs or to Commissioner Barnier as the EU chief negotiator. While the UK tactic has in his view backfired and even if the UK amendment to the Northern Ireland protocol is withdrawn it will still, in his opinion, be very difficult to secure even a basic deal that would allow tariff-free trade between the UK and EU.

He saw beef as being particularly exposed, as well as dairy co-ops using milk from Northern Ireland, which would be caught by the country-of-origin regulations and wouldn’t be able to avail of EU trade deals.

Donal Dennehy of Danone forecasts that the carbon footprint will in future be on each pack of product

He specifically mentioned Lakeland Dairies but I was also struck by Bord Bia’s Padraig Brennan putting the average beef tariff at 70% on Irish beef going to Britain in the event of a no deal and 42% on average on dairy products.

Donal Dennehy of Danone forecasts that the carbon footprint will in future be on each pack of product and that, by 2030, his plants at Wexford and Macroom must phase out natural gas and replace it with biomethane.

Laura Burke of the EPA said she wasn’t and had never called for a reduction in the national herd

He acknowledged the three-to-one price gap between methane from biodigestion and natural gas but he pointed to other countries’ use of biodigestion.

Laura Burke of the EPA said she wasn’t and had never called for a reduction in the national herd but she was clear that expansion could not continue without the visible issues being addressed. The US contribution was interesting insofar as it identified scientific policy, especially in the EU food area as being driven by the “court of public opinion”. It is hard to disagree. The conference lasted only two and a half hours but it transmitted a lot of information.

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UK’s Brexit move has ‘backfired fairly spectacularly’ – Coveney

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