I feel for farming communities. They have been driven down a direction for a very long time by big agri business and poor government policy that doesn't serve their needs or the needs of the public. There are many farmers out there who feel marginalised and worried about what the future looks like. Misinformation doesn't help. We live in a very noisy environment with conflicting messaging.
Ireland is not food secure. We import over 85% of our fruit and vegetables. This needs to change and farmers need to be supported and incentivised to make this happen.
'The Council will look to liaise with farmers on climate action.'
Serious investment is needed for education to build confidence among the farming community in understanding the issues we face, what that means for them & their families and the industry, and better environmentally friendly regenerative farming practices. We should also be paying farmers who use regenerative farming practices to deliver peer-peer support. Perhaps the council could set up a paired buddy system. We need to build community in all industries. The council could facilitate this.
'The Council has responsibility for enforcing Nitrate and Water Quality legislation and carries out farm inspections to ensure these pieces of legislation are adhered to.'
This needs proper resourcing so the council can test water quality and enforce this legislation.
Pay farmers who are using regenerative farming practices to offer peer-peer support.
The agriculture sector is the sector with the biggest emissions. The voice of the small farmer is lost. We need to heavily resource education so we can cut through the noise and better support farmers.