Farmers and experts have blasted politicians and officials for aa lack of leadership on farming and climate change.
An Oireachtas committee heard on Tuesday that too often the debate on how farming must adapt to climate change was driven by “misinformation” and a “toxic narrative”.
Cork dairy farmer Donal Sheehan said: “Everyone is kicking the dairy cow numbers issue down the road but we cannot have our cake and eat it.”
He said farmers are at a crossroads in dairy farming; “We can go down the road of continuous expansion with farms getting larger and larger but farmers becoming less and less and the consequences that has on rural Ireland.”
The Committee on Environment and Climate Action heard that too often it is not farmers who are unwilling to embrace change but large businesses and the Government.
Lecturer in biology and ecology at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Dr James Moran, claimed that a lack of leadership and long-term thinking about herd sizes and the wider farming system could “destroy” the agricultural sector.
“We need the political leadership to make this happen. And we can’t blame Europe.”
The meeting of the committee comes as world leaders, including Taoiseach Micheal Martin gather at the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow.
LSL News.