“Sustainable food and cheap food don’t go together,” the President of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) has said, warning that environmental policies in agriculture are driving up costs for consumers.
Speaking to Gript at the National Ploughing Championships this week, Denis Drennan said that measures introduced to meet climate and sustainability targets are adding significantly to food prices.
“There’s a little breakdown with the general public that they seem to think that we can still have a cheap food policy, but that food is going to be produced sustainably and in an environmentally friendly manner,” he said.
“To be honest, a sustainable food and cheap food don’t go together. So I think the rises that people see in the supermarkets and the shops at the moment, that’s here to stay.”
Drennan added that farmers were willing to meet environmental standards, but said the public needed to recognise the financial impact of such policies.
“As farmers, we’re more than happy to produce food in a more sustainable, traceable, and environmentally friendly way,” he continued.
“But it comes at a cost. And if the general public are not willing to pay that cost, we’re just going to run out of farmers.”
The ICMSA President also highlighted that inflationary pressures are compounding the problem.
“It’s twofold. I mean, you have the economic inflation like everybody else has, like everybody’s ESB bill or fuel bill or gas bill, labour costs have gone up. So that’s the inflationary part driving on the price of food,” he said.
“But then there’s environmental sustainability measures and regulation that we have to comply with, and that also adds to the cost of food. So it’s a dual prong thing and neither are going to go away by the looks of things.”
Drennan noted that the long-term viability of Irish farming was at stake, pointing to an ageing workforce and low numbers of younger entrants into the sector.
“We have a third of our farmers at pensionable age and we’ve less than 5% under 35,” he said.
“So as a sector, we have a challenge to encourage and try to get as many young people into the sector as possible.”
The comments come amid ongoing debate over Ireland’s nitrates derogation, which allows farmers to operate at higher stocking rates than EU rules usually permit. Farmers have warned that a reduction in the derogation would threaten the viability of many family-run dairy operations.