Dáil debates
Thursday, 13 July 2023
Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions
Milk Supply
9:00 am
Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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2. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine whether his Department has funded campaigns by the National Dairy Council and Bord Bia about the supposed "sustainability" of Irish milk (details supplied); and whether he has concerns around these campaigns regarding climate disinformation or greenwashing, given the state of the climate and biodiversity crises. [35135/23]
Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I do not know how the Minister reacted to it, but I found the bombardment by the National Dairy Council’s campaign around World Milk Day recently, particularly on television, alarming. It was nothing other than a greenwashing exercise. I was alarmed that it portrayed a need for us all to consume more and more dairy on the grounds that it was efficient, good for the planet, made everyone look happy-clappy, green and healthy. Will the Minister comment on this? Is he worried about it? Has the Government funded any of this advertising in any way?
Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for her question. Milk is a sustainable, safe and very nutritious food product and we are among the best in the world in how we produce and deliver it. Whenever I listen to nutritionists on television or radio, they advocate for the nutritional benefits of milk as a food. As such, it is important that milk and all the dairy products that come from it are produced. Thankfully, we in this country do that in a way that is better than anywhere else in the world. Our farm families across the country do a tremendous job in this regard. Long may that continue. It is our objective to work to support them, not only in continuing production, but in ensuring that it is done in a way that is sustainable in terms of its emissions footprint and how it intertwines with the environment around us.
The National Dairy Council is a private, farmer-funded representative body.
It is approved as an aid applicant under the EU school milk scheme and that is the only context in which my Department provides it with funding. My Department has not made any funds available to the National Dairy Council for any advertising or promotional campaigns. If the Deputy has any concerns about the veracity of claims made in an advertising campaign, she can always contact the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland, ASAI, which will consider and fully assess any complaint she may have.
Funding to Bord Bia is made annually by way of an Exchequer grant from my Department in order to fulfil its functions to promote, assist and develop the marketing of Irish food and drink. Bord Bia promotes on the twin bases of quality and sustainability. To be very clear to the Deputy, Bord Bia is not spreading climate disinformation. It is quite the opposite. It is a fact that Ireland has a comparative advantage in grass-based livestock production and the carbon footprint of a unit of milk produced here is one of the lowest among milk-producing countries globally because of our grass-based system.
9:10 am
Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I certainly will be making a complaint to the ASAI. In fact, I think it has already gone in. This advertising of dairy and the manner in which it was done is absolute greenwashing and it is disgraceful. It is interesting it came in the same week RTÉ did the exposé on the level of cruelty to animals that takes place in that industry. Every year, the industry slaughters 35,000 male calves because they are absolutely useless and those that are exported for the veal industry are treated like they were vermin. Nobody in the country who has a heart would not have been shocked by the level of unnecessary cruelty seen in the RTÉ exposé. Then in the ad breaks we got a lovely, happy-clappy image of how that industry conducts itself.
What the Minister just claimed about the industry here having one of the lowest levels of emissions in the world is based on research conducted in 2004 and a report published in 2010. If he has a more up-to-date report, I ask him to share it. As far as I can see, the only other reports that head towards refuting what the Minister said come from the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA.
Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with the Deputy about the scenes we saw on "RTÉ Investigates" on Monday night. They were absolutely unacceptable and totally intolerable. I have launched an investigation and it will be robustly followed up. We cannot have any corner of our agrifood sector in which those types of practices happen. They are certainly not representative of what happens on farms across the country or in our food sector. However, they happened. They cannot be allowed to happen and we are investigating that.
There are lots of advertisements on television with happy families, but that is not to say every family in our country is happy or that people always respect one another. Otherwise we would not need the Garda or Tusla. It is likewise with the rules and regulations we have on the treatment and welfare of our animals. We have very robust regulations in place to ensure animals are treated with respect and have good welfare, but it does not mean people cannot abuse animals and not follow those laws. We take an exceptionally hard line on any mistreatment that happens there. That will certainly be the case with respect to what was shown in the "RTÉ Investigates" programme.
Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I do not agree we have very robust measures to prevent cruelty to animals. If we had, we would not have seen that report. It is also extremely cruel to separate the male calves from their mothers at birth and to slaughter so many of them. It is an outcome of the industry itself and the fact we are producing such a large dairy herd. We are increasing our emissions from dairy year on year. I remind the House agriculture accounts for the most CO2 emissions and we are not challenging ourselves at all to bring them down in this environmental crisis.
I draw the Minister's attention to the EPA reports that show the increase in the herd and in milk production is a driver of increasing emissions. There is no way to get around this but to acknowledge that is happening and that all the cruelty and related aspects of it are part and parcel of this industry and the way it is being managed. I do not believe for a minute none of the arms of the State knew of the level of cruelty; they just turned a blind eye to it.
Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I dispute the Deputy's last point entirely. There can be no place for the type of behaviour we saw on "RTÉ Investigates". I will not tolerate that as the Minister responsible for agriculture, nor indeed will anyone in the sector with responsibility. We will clamp down on it in every way we possibly can.
The Deputy made a point about emissions. There is no doubt we saw an increase in our dairy herd after the removal of quotas in 2015 and that led to an increase in emissions. That increase happened because the herd had been constrained since the early 1980s when quotas were first introduced. However, the increase that happened has now plateaued and we have seen a stabilisation of the herd in the last two to three years. The production of food does not have to mean our emissions go up in the time ahead. In fact, the opposite is true. It is about decoupling the continuation of food production from the emissions footprint of it. Just yesterday we produced the new Teagasc marginal abatement cost curve, MACC, in relation to how that can be stepped out between now and 2025. Farmers are more proactive in taking the steps that will see our emissions reduced than any other sector of the economy.