Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Last week, I attended Ireland's second national biodiversity conference at Dublin Castle. It was greatly encouraging to see the level of engagement from academic experts, voluntary organisations and public servants about how best we can protect, restore and enhance our biodiversity. In his keynote address to the conference, the Taoiseach spoke of a growing realisation that our fortunes as a species and society are inseparable from the fortunes of our natural world. The Taoiseach also commented that biodiversity loss, "will only be successfully tackled as an all-of-government and all-of-society project".

Approximately two thirds of the land of Ireland is farmland. It is critical our farmers play a central role in that all-of-society conversation on how we can reverse biodiversity loss. The Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss is a key part of that conversation. It is vital that members of the public partaking in that assembly hear from farming voices. The simple reality is if we are to turn the tide on the biodiversity crisis, we will only be able to do so with the help of our farmers, who need to be in the room contributing to the conversation on how best we can do that.

We know that biodiversity does not recognise borders or field boundaries, land parcels or herd numbers. That is why it is essential to embrace farming practices that support biodiversity across the whole farm. A whole-farm approach should not confine biodiversity to a small strip or corner of a field. Nor should we do down the road of a split within agriculture whereby one cohort of farmers farms exclusively for nature and another exclusively for food production. They must go hand in hand. Adopting practices that allow biodiversity to flourish across our countryside, across all fields and on all farms, is the direction of travel we must take. I know from the farms I visit, in Laois-Offaly, the constituency in which I live, and further afield, that the vast majority of farmers want to get involved and play their part in our whole-of-society response to biodiversity loss by farming with nature and not against it.

It takes a lot of time and energy to work against nature. As an organic farmer, that is something I have been able to reflect upon in the context of my own farm. Organic farming means working with nature. After nearly ten years of farming organically, I can see the difference in my soil quality and how abundantly our grass grows. I can see the increase in the number and variety of insects and birds on my farm. Again, while we know the benefits for biodiversity that go with organic farming, we simply cannot afford a twin-track approach with only certain cohorts of farmers incentivised to farm for nature. If we are to tackle the biodiversity crisis, we will have to bring all farmers with us as we make the shift to an agricultural model that works for biodiversity instead of against it.