We are living in changing times and that’s an understatement. For weeks, it was COVID-19 but now climate change is back on the agenda as attempts continue to form a new Government. A certain Government configuration would certainly add to pressures for environmental stewardship but will that be balanced.

This Focus centres on the new buzzword of “sustainability”. Like some other words in the modern lexicon, sustainability is a word that has become widely used but it has no real meaning – a bit like the word “reality”.

Very few of those who push sustainability criteria on farmers act to tackle its primary requirement – the profitability of the farmer

Nonetheless, sustainability is widely used and generally to support a marketing effort or to satisfy a demand from somewhere in the supply chain. Such uses of the word generally relate to environmental issues, with reduced emissions central to its meaning. Very few of those who push sustainability criteria on farmers act to tackle its primary requirement – the profitability of the farmer. But this may be changing.

Reducing costs

Sustainability or the use of practices that help sustainability by either reducing costs or increasing output, or both, must add to the bottom line of primary producers.

We must remember that the practices which we now seek to change, such as high nitrogen use, high stocking rates, monocultures, etc, were promoted to farmers through research and advice and so the need for change now is not the fault of farmers.

That said, change towards more sustainable practices must be sold to farmers based on their capacity to improve output and productivity.

We see a lot of initiatives wrapped up in Teagasc’s signpost farms tackling the issues in a sustained and scientific way

We see evidence that more primary product purchase is being triggered by payment systems to help encourage these changes. Only recently, we saw that Irish Distillers is to pay €15/t for non-malting barley that they use which complies with sustainability criteria. And we see a lot of initiatives wrapped up in Teagasc’s signpost farms tackling the issues in a sustained and scientific way. There are public and private efforts in this regard.

On the other side of this fence, we see a range of moves to help support the use of renewable energy sources. Examples include the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat, the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme, grants for solar panels through TAMS and the Better Energy Communities projects.