Mr. Michael Spellman:

We appreciate this opportunity to discuss the issue of climate change and agriculture and to provide our perspective on the recommendations by the Citizens Assembly. The Irish Co-operative Organisation Society is the umbrella body for the co-operative movement in Ireland. We represent a range of co-operative enterprises operating across many aspects of the rural economy, including dairy processing and milk purchasing societies, livestock marts, breed societies, animal health and artificial insemination, AI, horticulture, forestry, financial services and other rural-based societies.

In a few short months, ICOS will mark its 125th anniversary. I make reference to this milestone merely to illustrate that the co-operative business model is a sustainable one that has served the interests of Irish farmers, their families and rural communities very well across many generations and through some very difficult times. There is no doubt that Brexit is at the forefront of all our minds at present, and in the most recent developments over recent days, the uncertainties are there as strong as they were two years ago.

It is no exaggeration to state, however, that environmental sustainability, be it climate change, ammonia emissions, water quality and biodiversity, are of equal if not greater importance to the agrifood sector.

The recent special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change related to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees is extremely stark. It calls for rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society. At ICOS, we strongly believe that the co-operative model will be an important vehicle to assist the rural economy with future challenges in this area, for example, through the development of community-based renewable energy projects.

The ancillary recommendations by the Citizens' Assembly rightly recognises the importance of agriculture to the economy, especially to the rural economy. The agrifood sector provided 174,000 jobs or almost 8% of total employment in 2017. Total agrifood exports were worth €13.5 billion in 2017, with exports of dairy and dairy ingredients valued at €4.02 billion. An analysis by Ernst & Young has indicated that additional milk production equates to 90 cent of additional economic benefit for every additional litre of milk produced. This multiplier effect is due to spending by co-operatives and on farms, spending by service providers to the dairy industry, and spending by those employed in the dairy sector. The analysis concludes that additional milk production from 2016 to 2020 will result in a €2.7 billion benefit to the economy or €540 million annually. There is simply no other industry generating wealth, investment and jobs to this significant scale in rural Ireland.

Dairy farming provides a sustainable livelihood, despite extreme volatility in income from one year to the next. It is a legitimate aspiration by farmers to develop the potential of their farm enterprises fully to secure better incomes and to provide better futures for their families. That said, the dairy industry acknowledges the importance of climate change and our responsibility to develop in a sustainable manner following decades of stagnation due to the imposition of quotas that severely impeded the sector and disadvantaged thousands of farm families. The Irish dairy industry exports to a multiple of Ireland’s national population a highly nutritious food product recognised as the most carbon efficient in Europe. This is because Ireland’s temperate climate is perfect for growing grass, with a long grazing season. This also enables superior animal welfare conditions on Irish farms. Globally, 80% of milk is produced in confinement-based production systems, in contrast to Ireland where cows are at grass for up to 300 days a year.

Furthermore, 95% of dairy farmers are participating in the sustainable dairy assurance scheme under Origin Green, which requires the completion of a carbon footprint every 18 months. The sustainable dairy assurance scheme has enabled Ireland to position itself as a partner of choice globally for sustainably produced and quality assured dairy products. The inclusion of the carbon navigator tool makes the Origin Green programme unique from a global perspective. It provides the average carbon figure for production on the farm and also indicates where the greatest potential saving can be made in both carbon emissions and, importantly, in financial savings. In doing so, it has mainstreamed the message that carbon efficiency goes hand in hand with economic efficiency.

As an industry, we fully adhere to the principle of sustainable intensification, as set out in the European Council conclusions from October 2014. These conclusions also recognise the lower mitigation potential of agriculture. The European Council further acknowledges the need to ensure coherence in policy between the EU’s food security and climate change objectives.