Dr. Oliver Moore:

I am Dr. Oliver Moore of the Centre for Co-operative Studies in University College Cork and ARC2020, a European think-tank focused on the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, and other agrifood policy matters. I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak today. My focus is on three areas that have the potential to significantly impact climate change mitigation, adaptation, biodiversity and other public goods. These are organic farming, eco schemes and our approach to scrub or agroforestry. What I am presenting orally today is a shortened version of a longer, fully referenced submission. Please refer to this for more substantial considerations and evidence.

Organic farming can be described as a brilliant all-rounder in the delivery of public goods. The latest organic regulation states that:

Organic farming is an overall system of farm management and food production that combines best environmental [and climate] practices, a high level of biodiversity, the preservation of natural resources, the application of high [animal] welfare standards ...

Research, which I reference in my submission, shows enhanced environmental benefits in the areas of biodiversity, landscape, soil, ground and surface water, climate and air, energy and reduced exposure to pesticides for workers and consumers. However, there is little Irish research into organics and sustainability. I would draw the committee’s attention to organic farming's positive performance in a series of publications on biodiversity by Dr. Eileen Power and Dr. Jane Stout of Trinity College Dublin. Research suggests that organic farms can also be more viable, according to both Dan Clavin's research in Ireland and more generally. According to the EU biodiversity strategy, between 10% and 20% more employment per hectare is provided by organic farms. That is based on OECD figures. Organic farming also provides women with an easier entry point into farming, according to the organic action plan, and has a younger age base. Organic farming can thus synergise coherently with Our Rural Future, the new policy document the Government released recently.

Ireland suits organic farming due to our clean green image, the length of our grazing season and the fact that we are an agrifood exporter to EU markets that increasingly want it. Looking forward, organic farming is well positioned as regards the carbon budget, an EU carbon border adjustment mechanism that will most likely impact imported mineral fertilisers, tightening EU rules on animal welfare, pesticides and more. In reality, however, farm viability needs to be further strengthened. There is leakage from sheep meat and to a lesser extent beef into the conventional sector. We lack an economy of scale as we have a diffuse spread of farmers and a payment rate well below the EU average, as the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, pointed out recently. Ireland has one of the lowest shares of organic farmland in the whole of the EU. We have an organic action plan that is both unambitious and unlikely to succeed. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine spends approximately €15 million of its €1.8 billion budget on organic farming directly, according to information I received from it last week. Bord Bia dedicates about 2% of its budget to organic farming. The target for last year was 5% organic farming and the updated target is 7.5% by 2030. In that context, the amount of money being spent is clearly far too low. However, supports are emerging, through the EU organic action plan in particular, for research and development through Horizon Europe’s agriculture, forestry and rural areas intervention, which will dedicate at least 30% of funds to " topics specific to or relevant for the organic sector." That is a great opportunity.

In that context, there is a need for a comprehensive, full agrifood system approach to developing organics at policy, production, research, extension services, processing, distribution, advocacy and consumption ends. This must be done simultaneously and publicly, so as to develop confidence in the sector. This should be coupled with the levelling of the playing field by fully complying with EU and national environmental law and targets for water quality, reducing absolute emissions, and more. A comprehensive new organic action plan is needed. There is a range of recommendations in my longer submission, but the highlights include far higher payment rates of about €500 per hectare for grassland systems, which was also recommended by the IFA, and proportionally more for arable land and horticulture, at €600 and €700 per hectare, respectively, or priority access to all other agri-environmental schemes. Either would do but at the moment the situation is untenable. A scoring prioritisation for direct selling organic producers would also help, as would immediate progression towards dedicating 7.5% of both the Department and Bord Bia's budgets to organic areas by 2026. I also recommend the establishment of an organic advocacy organisation with initial funding of €150,000 per year and a trial European innovation partnership, EIP, for conversion to organic farming using blockchain technology to achieve group organic certification, as per the new organic regulation. It will be possible to have group certification for organics very soon. That technology should be used to make that possible and it should reduce the costs. We would have a roll-out of this approach on a regional basis by 2026 and market blockchain alignment thereafter. In other words, consumers can tap into those products as well. Finally, I suggest mandated, ring-fenced and rising levels of organic public procurement with no conflation with the Bord Bia quality assurance scheme, as has happened previously.

This can be done. Irish authorities need to learn from best practices elsewhere, such as in Austria, Denmark and France, as detailed in the longer submission. Eco schemes are also important. The final trials are on next week. This is the second policy area of intervention I am recommending. Eco schemes will be an integral part of CAP. The four areas the Department is likely to focus on are climate change, sustainable use of resources, biodiversity, and animal welfare. I recommend encouraging a verifiable reduction in and-or working without the use of fertiliser and pesticides as an eco scheme; prioritising high nature value habitats; increasing riparian zones and careful catch crop integration; enhancing and widening the definition of existing habitats to include ponds, wet grasslands, wetlands and wet flushes; and retaining winter stubble on arable fields. I do not think animal welfare and precision farming should be included as eco schemes because they are not about income foregone and costs incurred and they are not on a per hectare basis. They are done on a per kilogram basis and we need to take a per hectare approach when it comes to eco schemes because they are landscape measures.

We also need a new approach to scrub and a new agroforestry scheme. There are promising signs that the new CAP will allow a proportion of land to have scrub and still count as an eligible acre. This could add 55,000 eligible acres in the next CAP. Carefully managed, this could lead to native forestry regeneration. Ireland’s agroforestry scheme needs to be lengthened and broadened. Currently, it provides support for just five years, which is ridiculous for people trying to grow tress. It should be for 10 to 15 years. At the same time, the replanting obligation should be relaxed to give farmers the opportunity to try agroforestry. More than 20 years of trials in Loughgall have shown amazing results for sheep integrated with trees, including a longer grazing season, better health in animals, better soil quality and so on. That research must be looked at. There is a long agroforestry section in the joint agrifood policy document from Environmental Pillar, Stop Climate Chaos and SWAN that came out recently and I recommend the committee look at that.

The European Court of Auditors published a CAP and climate change report yesterday. I emphasise its second recommendation, which is to preserve carbon-rich soils such as peatlands and wetlands. That relates to the proposed new good agricultural and environmental conditionor GAEC 2. This was one of only three recommendations in this report, which found damning evidence that CAP had no significant impact on climate change mitigation or adaptation after €100 billion being spent on it. The report stated that we have to focus on carbon-rich soils so I would also recommend maintaining a strong GAEC 2 in next week's trials while also using eco schemes to further supplement farmers' incomes in a related way.

Real, comprehensive support is needed for the organic sector and ambitious and impactful eco schemes need to be put in place. Remember, they are only one-year schemes. A new attitude to scrub and tree integration into farmlands is also needed. These are clear pathways with which we can soberly face into the rapidly emerging climate and biodiversity collapses happening all around us. Farming has its role to play now in a real and just transition and these are some ways we can help do that.