With sustainability very much the buzz word in so many political conversations over the past few weeks, it is both opportune and timely that we introduce to you a new partnership which the Irish Farmers Journal has established with Glanbia Ireland to bring you, our readers, ongoing information on this increasingly important subject.
In an effort to bring the many elements of the path to improved sustainability to our readers, the Irish Farmers Journal is delighted to team up with Glanbia Ireland to help explain the challenges and solutions that change will encompass.
Our weekly page on Sustainable Farm Insights aims to educate and enable Irish farmers, across all enterprises, to adapt existing management practices and take on new technologies which will help drive economic and environmental sustainability on farms.
In doing this, the new programme seeks to discover and disseminate relevant, robust, and practical advice from national and international scientific research. Knowledge and understanding are key to adopting new practices and we will help provide know-how and how-to guides for farmers.
The main objective is to support economic, social, and environmental sustainability and innovation on Irish farms. There are many aspects to doing this, which will revolve around:
Good management practices and using input resources to maximum efficiency.Keeping readers up to date on environmental requirements.Focusing on agri-environmental policy developments in Ireland and the EU.Discovering and delivering information on new technologies that may help in the many aspects of production, processing, and environmental technology.Understanding the opinions of industry, consumers and other stakeholders involved at different points along the supply chain. Good farm management is key to helping achieve sustainability goals. This is being increasingly recognised in pricing arrangements from major co-ops and companies, some of which operate sustainability schemes alongside price premia. These involve criteria ranging from soil health, nutrient management, genetics, grassland management, integrated pest management, biodiversity and a sense of general care and consideration for nature around where we farm.
These actions target improvements in factors like air and water quality, animal welfare, biodiversity, emissions, improved carbon sequestration and an improvement in the carbon footprint of the resources and inputs used in food production. A reduction in the consumption of resources must also be tackled, with consideration given to potential renewable energy opportunities, where available.
One of the key requirements in the new direction for EU policy is biodiversity within our ecosystem. But what does this mean? What are the potential benefits for the environment and for farmers and their families? How can any of these measures improve profitability? How will our new government tackle its emissions reduction objectives?
Consider soil health for a moment. It is good for the environment in that a healthy soil contains many billions of organisms which help to add diversity and hold carbon and other nutrients. Together, these things help with production productivity and provide an opportunity to reduce inputs. A healthy soil helps with water percolation and it also helps to filter things from the water that might cause problems in surface water or elsewhere in the environment, hence improved water quality.
Soil with higher organic matter content helps hold more water during periods of drought and should also improve the efficiency of nutrient use. That either means that you would need less or that you can grow more with the same input level. Remove cost and increase output – do more with less. Those who appreciate the principles are likely to go much further than the stated requirements to help both themselves and the environment in the process.
And then there are the less certain benefits of a healthy soil, such as improved animal health, reduced plant diseases, natural control of some insects, possible decreased longevity of some problematic weed seeds in the soil etc.
Why are these issues
emerging now
It is pertinent to ask where all these new issues have come from? They are not problems that somebody set out to create by promoting a particular agricultural or environmental policy, at least not by design. The farming systems we operate today have come about following decades of research and advice aimed at driving agricultural output and/or farm profitability. Perhaps we are all a bit to blame, or perhaps no one is to blame, but one way or another these issues must now be addressed.
For a long period there was no emphasis placed on the associated environmental consequences of driving productivity. So farmers can hardly be blamed for the situation they find ourselves in today. Still, it seems inevitable that we will have more regulatory frameworks imposed on us, mainly through the CAP, to help meet new standards of environmental stewardship. That said, many of the adjustments that will be necessary in the future have the potential to make a positive difference at farm level and to significantly influence the quality of the local environment.
Ultimately, the challenges for the future emanate from the increasing global demand for food. In 1724 Jonathan Swift wrote: “Whoever makes two blades of grass or two ears of corn grow where only one grew before serves mankind better than the whole race of politicians”. When you live in a time of food scarcity and famine, the environment seems less important. The consequential research and agricultural development largely removed global population from this threat, with political strife now being the major cause of food scarcity.
How many of the world’s 7.8bn population today are even conscious of the pressures that existed in 1960 when the population then was only 3bn people? How many of these additional 4.8bn people would not be alive today without the successes and achievements of modern agriculture?
We might also ask how many of these additional 4.8bn people (us) even acknowledge the contribution of agriculture to their very existence.
That said, the ongoing contribution of environmental science is now telling us (and has done for quite some time) that the intensification of agriculture has also contributed to a deteriorating environment which must now be addressed for very many good reasons.
With sustainability very much the buzz word in so many political conversations over the past few weeks, it is both opportune and timely that we introduce to you a new partnership which the Irish Farmers Journal has established with Glanbia Ireland to bring you, our readers, ongoing information on this increasingly important subject.
In an effort to bring the many elements of the path to improved sustainability to our readers, the Irish Farmers Journal is delighted to team up with Glanbia Ireland to help explain the challenges and solutions that change will encompass.
Our weekly page on Sustainable Farm Insights aims to educate and enable Irish farmers, across all enterprises, to adapt existing management practices and take on new technologies which will help drive economic and environmental sustainability on farms.
In doing this, the new programme seeks to discover and disseminate relevant, robust, and practical advice from national and international scientific research. Knowledge and understanding are key to adopting new practices and we will help provide know-how and how-to guides for farmers.
The main objective is to support economic, social, and environmental sustainability and innovation on Irish farms. There are many aspects to doing this, which will revolve around:
Good management practices and using input resources to maximum efficiency.Keeping readers up to date on environmental requirements.Focusing on agri-environmental policy developments in Ireland and the EU.Discovering and delivering information on new technologies that may help in the many aspects of production, processing, and environmental technology.Understanding the opinions of industry, consumers and other stakeholders involved at different points along the supply chain. Good farm management is key to helping achieve sustainability goals. This is being increasingly recognised in pricing arrangements from major co-ops and companies, some of which operate sustainability schemes alongside price premia. These involve criteria ranging from soil health, nutrient management, genetics, grassland management, integrated pest management, biodiversity and a sense of general care and consideration for nature around where we farm.
These actions target improvements in factors like air and water quality, animal welfare, biodiversity, emissions, improved carbon sequestration and an improvement in the carbon footprint of the resources and inputs used in food production. A reduction in the consumption of resources must also be tackled, with consideration given to potential renewable energy opportunities, where available.
One of the key requirements in the new direction for EU policy is biodiversity within our ecosystem. But what does this mean? What are the potential benefits for the environment and for farmers and their families? How can any of these measures improve profitability? How will our new government tackle its emissions reduction objectives?
Consider soil health for a moment. It is good for the environment in that a healthy soil contains many billions of organisms which help to add diversity and hold carbon and other nutrients. Together, these things help with production productivity and provide an opportunity to reduce inputs. A healthy soil helps with water percolation and it also helps to filter things from the water that might cause problems in surface water or elsewhere in the environment, hence improved water quality.
Soil with higher organic matter content helps hold more water during periods of drought and should also improve the efficiency of nutrient use. That either means that you would need less or that you can grow more with the same input level. Remove cost and increase output – do more with less. Those who appreciate the principles are likely to go much further than the stated requirements to help both themselves and the environment in the process.
And then there are the less certain benefits of a healthy soil, such as improved animal health, reduced plant diseases, natural control of some insects, possible decreased longevity of some problematic weed seeds in the soil etc.
Why are these issues
emerging now
It is pertinent to ask where all these new issues have come from? They are not problems that somebody set out to create by promoting a particular agricultural or environmental policy, at least not by design. The farming systems we operate today have come about following decades of research and advice aimed at driving agricultural output and/or farm profitability. Perhaps we are all a bit to blame, or perhaps no one is to blame, but one way or another these issues must now be addressed.
For a long period there was no emphasis placed on the associated environmental consequences of driving productivity. So farmers can hardly be blamed for the situation they find ourselves in today. Still, it seems inevitable that we will have more regulatory frameworks imposed on us, mainly through the CAP, to help meet new standards of environmental stewardship. That said, many of the adjustments that will be necessary in the future have the potential to make a positive difference at farm level and to significantly influence the quality of the local environment.
Ultimately, the challenges for the future emanate from the increasing global demand for food. In 1724 Jonathan Swift wrote: “Whoever makes two blades of grass or two ears of corn grow where only one grew before serves mankind better than the whole race of politicians”. When you live in a time of food scarcity and famine, the environment seems less important. The consequential research and agricultural development largely removed global population from this threat, with political strife now being the major cause of food scarcity.
How many of the world’s 7.8bn population today are even conscious of the pressures that existed in 1960 when the population then was only 3bn people? How many of these additional 4.8bn people would not be alive today without the successes and achievements of modern agriculture?
We might also ask how many of these additional 4.8bn people (us) even acknowledge the contribution of agriculture to their very existence.
That said, the ongoing contribution of environmental science is now telling us (and has done for quite some time) that the intensification of agriculture has also contributed to a deteriorating environment which must now be addressed for very many good reasons.
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: