To illustrate the cruelty and unfairness of the Irish Government’s treatment of dairy farmers, one need only recall the following speech made by the then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, in 2016. Addressing the Irish Farmer’s association, he said the following:
“The ending of milk quotas in April 2015 offered a significant opportunity for major expansion in the milk sector.
This has already generated over €700 million in investment by industry and much more at farm level. Quotas were long recognised as being a significant hand-brake on the potential of our dairy sector.”
Fewer than eight years after a Fine Gael Taoiseach hailed a 700-million-euro investment in the Irish Dairy sector – much of that money borrowed by Irish farmers – and fewer than eight years since the Government hailed a “major expansion” in the Dairy Sector, the same Irish Government led by a Fine Gael Taoiseach wants to shrink that Dairy Sector and severely limit the income of Irish farmers.
It should be said of course that the Irish Dairy sector has not expanded solely because of Government policy. It has also expanded as a result of the quality of Irish produce, and the global demand for it. If Irish farmers were producing poor quality product, it would not be sought after globally, and their investments would never have been profitable to begin with.
This is, in other words, an Irish success story: It is a sector of our economy which is almost entirely home grown, and on which many global Irish brands have been built. It is that rare case in Ireland of wealth generated by our own people, and not as a by-product of favourable tax schemes that allow the country to skim a little off the top of wealth generated by the ingenuity of Americans. It is also wealth generated by hard work, and incredible commitment: Nobody who has not farmed a herd of dairy cows knows the commitment of keeping those cattle alive, and milked twice a day. It is not a nine to five job.
Seven years ago, the Irish Government wished to expand the sector, recognising its importance to the economy of rural Ireland, and the standard of living of its own people. It also recognised – correctly – the need for Irish produce to be internationally recognised as clean and green and humane. Consequently, we have constructed in Ireland one of the most advanced and environmentally friendly dairy industries in the world. But then, somebody recognised: Cows fart. And burp.
For these crimes, it is the stated policy of the Government that 200,000 of them should die, and not be replaced. This will mean the closure of some dairy farms, and a significant reduction in income for many others.
It will not mean that the global contribution to the climate of cow burps and cow farts will fall: In fact, Brazil alone will, over the next four years, grow its national herd by more than forty times the proposed Irish reduction. If your aim is to save the planet by killing cattle, then aside from any questions about your sanity, you should know that replacing Irish cattle with Brazilian cattle is not a net positive.
Indeed, if one is to take the Government at face value on the climate issue, then on the very face of it this policy is hypocritical: On every other matter concerning the climate, efficiency is their watchword. Yet here, they wish to hobble and destroy one of the most efficient industries in the world.
On cars, the Government favour efficient engines. On public transport, they favour efficient systems like busses and trains. In your home, they favour efficient bulbs and efficient heating systems. The list goes on. And yet on beef and dairy, Ireland has one of the most efficient sectors on the planet for producing both – and they wish to destroy it.
This policy is not underpinned by a desire for efficiency, but by a desire to meet climate targets that cannot, and will not, be met. Climate targets that are shared, incidentally, by none of Ireland’s competitors in this sector.
Brazil has no equivalent, for example, of the Nitrates Directive, designed to protect land and waterways from pollution. In many places, the expansion of arable land comes at the expense of established rainforest. Animal welfare legislation in Brazil is almost non-existent. In 2012, 2,700 Brazilian cattle died on a ship en route to the middle east, so cramped and cruel were the conditions.
The beef and dairy market is a global one. Climate change is a global problem, or so we are told. In that context, it makes sense globally to produce beef and dairy products in places that can do so efficiently and humanely. Ireland is such a place. Many of our competitor countries globally are not.
Irish Farmers have been, to put it mildly, much too passive in their opposition to the Government’s policy in this area. In the Netherlands, organised farmers have shown what can be achieved with stiff resistance to anti-farm policies.
In this instance, the Government is advocating a policy that is cruel, out of step with its own record and past statements, and completely useless in terms of any global climate problem. The evidence of our own eyes tells us that this policy will not be defeated without organised resistance. Any publication can write an editorial in defence of Irish farmers. It will all be for naught unless farmers themselves take action.