Pippa Hackett (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Last week my Department opened two new schemes which are positive for farmers, climate, biodiversity and water quality and will help us to reach our targets in the agricultural sector. The agri climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, and the organic farming scheme are fantastic opportunities, but we still hear some criticism. I suspect it comes from those who are not joining either scheme. They say ACRES does not pay enough and the organic scheme is not the bed of roses it is made out to be but, as I speak, more farmers are joining and speaking to their advisers about joining. I thank those who are embracing these schemes and I say to those who are opposed to them that they are voluntary schemes. No one is forcing anyone onto them but we would love people to join them. These schemes are there to support farmers to embark upon a different way of doing things on their farms. It is not money for standing still or business as usual. These schemes come with terms and conditions, as they should do given that it is taxpayers' money we are spending. Expert advice on the schemes is available from farm advisers and planners across the country and we want people to avail of that. Again, I thank those farmers who will apply for these schemes over the coming weeks and I say to them that they are making a good decision. They are not only making a difference to their farms, but they are also doing something really positive for Irish society as we fight the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and water quality decline. The world is changing, Ireland is changing, agriculture is changing and our schemes are changing because we have a massive challenge ahead. The challenge we must rise to is to farm in a way that repairs our broken environment, damaged ecosystems, polluted rivers and dwindling biodiversity, and to farm in a way that enriches our soil, stores our carbon, cleans our air and is kinder to our animals. We need our food production systems to deliver on all of these things. It can be done, but it needs everyone to work together.

We speak proudly of our grass-based system of agriculture, and so we should, but much of this system is heavily reliant on synthetic fertilisers. Arguably we are fertiliser-based as much as we are grass-based. By relying so heavily on fossil fuels to push production and grow grass in this way, we put pressure on our environment and our farmers. I know many farmers who are presently surprised by how well their grass performed with less fertiliser this year. It was surprising to them because much of the advice has been telling them that their grass will not grow if they cut back on the use of chemical fertilisers. The bottom line is this: the sooner we reduce our reliance on fertiliser, the sooner our land will adapt, the sooner our soil will recover and the sooner we will move towards a truly grass-based system.

I will conclude with a plug for anyone who is interested in learning more about how they can farm with fewer inputs. They should check out the BioFarm conference on 7 to 11 November in Carrick-on-Shannon. In person or online, this is a must for anyone interested in embracing a different way of farming, with presenters from a whole area of regenerative and biological farming disciplines, including my own Department and Teagasc. The direction of travel is clear. How quickly we move is up to us all.