Dr. Pierre-Marie Aubert:

I will start with diet because it is one of the most important things. The changes in diets that are forced in most scenarios are the same order of magnitude as the changes we have experienced in the past 40 or 50 years in Europe. We are not talking about a revolution in diet. We are talking about gradual changes that are basically of the same order of magnitude as we have experienced. For example, in meat and dairy consumption, at European level, the amount of dairy produce quickly increased from the 1960s to the 1990s and then stabilised a bit, although I do not have the figures to hand. The same goes for meat. For chicken meat, for example, the rise has been very quick and now it is stabilising, and it is the same for pork. The kind of changes we have experienced are quite important. We tend to minimise them as a way of suggesting that the changes scientists are talking about are impossible because they would take centuries. No. It can take 20 or 30 years. It has already happened and is already happening.

For example, the rate of consumption of meat in France has been decreasing slowly over the past ten years. That trend will probably continue. Change is already taking place and we need to make that change visible and desirable. To do so, we need to invest a bit more in public action and advertising. That is on diet.

On reshaping the agricultural sector, I will not talk about the Irish case but I can talk about the French case. We have a lot of ideas and proposals on the table and these are being discussed with the major farming unions. These include reintroducing ligneous crops in rotation, lengthening rotation again and reconnecting the livestock and crop sectors. Those things are being discussed now. It means we must not only change practices at farm level but also reshape all food chains. Reshaping food chains means reterritorialising them, which is to say that if one diversifies and lengthens crop rotation, one has to have a market for the farmer. It means one has to have processors, buyers and so on in place. These are people who are not there any more and that means having to think about getting people to hear about and buy the production from the farmer. As to which countries have changed quickly and are leaders in that space, Switzerland is a really good example. I am not kidding. It has developed. I am not an expert about Swiss agricultural policy but I have a call next week with key people there. I understand Switzerland has moved strongly to shift policy towards climate-friendly and biodiversity-friendly agriculture in an amazing way.