Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 9 February 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Draft Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan 2023-2027: Discussion

Dr. Oliver Moore:

-----5% sustainably, keeping prices good for farmers and avoiding any negative impacts in different ways. Going from where we are at, we have never reached our organic targets. We did not reach our targets for 2020 so I am not so interested in the figures as I am in the methodology and reports. I do not want to see the negative effects the Deputy is describing potentially happening. That might happen if loads of farmers came into beef and sheep and there was no competition in processing or prices. Nobody wants these things. People want to see a sustainable growth in organics, so opening the scheme year on year is a good sign. We should also increase the payment rates for horticulture. Horticulture does not take up a huge amount of land. I want to see it grow sustainably and work for farmers. I have no interest in big megafarms coming in and taking over, but that is happening in conventional farming anyway so I do not think it is a problem in organics. We just need to do this slowly, carefully, methodically and in a full spectrum kind of way.

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