Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. I echo what others have said in condemning the completely outrageous actions by Russia. The war on Ukraine has certainly shone a spotlight on food production, not just in this country but also internationally. We are only at the tip of the iceberg of this food crisis. I am aware that officials are insisting that food available availability is not at stake in the EU, but they are conceding that food affordability for low-income households is. We are facing a situation where there will be enough food, but not everyone will be able to afford to eat. This is within the EU. When we look at the global south, food availability will become a much bigger issue.

As others have stated, fertiliser price increases of up to 228% are happening in tandem with unsustainable increases in feed and energy prices. The completely unsustainable costs for farmers who are operating in a distorted market where the dominance of retailers and processors mean that primary producers are not getting a fair price at the best of times. While it seems apparent from the European Union Commission that market supports will be made available, including the possibility of the use of the €500 million European Union crisis reserve fund - I am aware that the Government has announced a scheme for the pig sector - this will only amount to a few days feed for those farmers.

Against the backdrop of the war, one thing is very clear: our agriculture and food systems are very exposed to shocks such as the price of gas and the increasing cost of fertilisers and animal feed. Our food system is broken. This is not a new phenomenon; it is something that agrarian movements have been raising for years.

As Senator Garvey indicated, organic farming is one of the ways that we can absolutely reduce our vulnerability to spikes in the costs of inputs. Organic farming has been neglected in the context of Government policy. It shows that Ireland is almost bottom of the EU table. Malta is the only country that has less agricultural land dedicated to organic farming than Ireland. Our figure is 2%; I believe that the EU average is 8.5%. There has been a complete lack of ambition for years, particularly during the ten years of Fine Gael in government. There was a point at which one could not even enter the scheme. Even if someone wanted to be an organic farmer, they could not actually access the scheme because it was closed. We now have a target for organic farming of 7.5% by 2030, but this will not even bring us to up to the EU average. Meanwhile, we see the EU storming ahead in setting a target of 25% by 2030.

We are always hearing the narrative that Irish agriculture thrives on a sustainable and green reputation. The truth is that this is not true. There is a complete lack of support for truly green and sustainable agriculture that is organic. It undermines our reputation and it also does nothing to support farmers who want to go into organic. One of the proposals from my colleague, Deputy Carthy, is for an additional €15 million for organics in 2022. There is a reason other countries are storming ahead when it comes to organics. As we did with the dairy industry when we created a market and incentivised farmers to go down that road, Denmark did exactly the same with organics. The authorities there promised farmers a market. If farmers there go into organics, they will have a market. The authorities in Denmark did this by ensuring that any supermarkets over a certain square footage in size were mandated by law to stock Danish organic products. We could do exactly the same here if we had the same ambition when it comes to organics. Teagasc and An Bord Bia should be resourced with ring-fenced funding to promote organics and create a market for them. The Government knows it can do it because it was done with powdered milk and the dairy industry. Make the market for organic products.

I also want to raise issues relating to global considerations and sustainable agriculture and systems. Before the war in Ukraine broke out, we were already facing the unprecedented challenge of pursuing human development and ensuring the right to adequate food for everyone on the planet. We waste 30% of our food. We have a distribution problem, not a food shortage problem. We need to find a way to feed 9 billion people by 2050 in ways that do not break essential ecological and planetary boundaries, while also tackling poverty and extreme inequality. We must rise to those challenges with restricted deliveries of important foods like wheat and agriculture-related commodities such as fertiliser. More than enough food is produced but 811 million people go hungry. Since 2015 that number has been on the rise. Covid-19 aggravated it and now the war in Ukraine is going to make it even worse. I have raised previously with the Minister one of the measures that Trócaire has been calling for, namely, that there should be greater support for an enabling environment for sustainable food systems through its agricultural investments and that sectoral investments should be directed at the sustainable approaches that an increasing scientific and practitioner evidence base is pointing decision makers towards. The policy recommendations - endorsed by Ireland - in Agroecological and other innovative approaches for sustainable agriculture and food systems that enhance food security and nutrition - which is the long title - recommends that governments redirect their policies, budgets and investments towards those agroecological approaches. I call on the Government to follow through on its endorsement of the recommendations in that report and make sure that the necessary resources are put in place to allow us to pursue an agroecological future and address the food production crisis we have. The war in Ukraine has brought this matter into focus, but it has been there for a very long time. The way we produce food is unsustainable.