Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Consumers were also listening to what the FAO stated recently. Its major international report states we are not the lowest carbon emitter, but there is a dispute about this and the Committee on Climate Action was examining the issue. The story that we have the lowest levels of carbon emissions in everything is contested. From the consumer side, the story does not lend great credibility to what we are doing. Critically, consumers do heed what is stated in the latest report in The Lancet. People in my constituency are going vegan and eating less meat. They are cognisant of their health and not just buying the meat-industry message that more meat is good for you. They are actually buying the opposite message. Pinning everything on a big export boom and sending produce to a market where the consumers who are going to pay the high prices are not thinking in the same way as the industry suggests we have to change tack.