Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 December 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Recent Reclassification of Beef Indexes: Discussion

Dr. Paul Crosson:

To finish the point in terms of carbon economics, Mr. Coughlan has covered the future-proofing in terms of what might be merited in a carbon market, but that is not what I am talking about. I was referring to the situation where if we were to take the emissions the animal generates as part of the digestion of feed, about 5% to 10% of the energy the animal consumes is a loss of methane. It is, therefore, an economic loss within the system. I refer to the nitrous oxide emissions. The nitrogen lost as part of the nitrous oxide emissions is also an economic loss in the system. We can discuss the future-proofing aspect-----