It has emerged that Brazil’s exporters predicted an estimated increase in the country’s national livestock numbers of 24 million. TD, Carol Nolan, has shared her views.
The government are at risk of making the Irish beef sector a global laughing stock, writes Independent TD for Laois Offaly, Carol Nolan.
I am calling for a definitive commitment from government that it will not impose any mandatory cuts to the national herd as part of its efforts to reduce agri based emissions.
It is time for the equivocation and ambivalence to end.
We need a definitive commitment from government that it will protect the economic interests of Irish farmers.
We cannot and should not accept a situation to develop whereby one of the strongest sectors in Irish agriculture is effectively sacrificed for what amounts to a minuscule and irrelevant contribution to the global reduction in emission numbers.
The recent projections by Brazilian exporters have made this abundantly clear.
Indeed, there is now a very real chance that this government is going to make Irish farming the laughing stock of Europe and beyond because of the imposition of absurd, economically self-destructive policies which have no chance whatsoever of making the kind of difference for which they are being pursued.
Mercosur
We have already seen the negative prospects for beef farmers outlined in the government’s own independent assessment of the economic, social, environmental and human rights impacts of the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement.
Do we really want to continue down this path when it is now abundantly clear that other major beef producing countries such as Brazil are only too happy to totally ignore environmental objectives in the pursuit of competitive advantage?
Is Ireland really ready to offer up our farmers in the face of such indifference?
Government must get honest on this matter. It must also be ready to stand over the harsh and unavoidable economic realities that its policies are creating.
Further reading
Fianna Fáil MEP, Billy Kelleher, recently shared his views on the MERCOSUR trade deal.
He believes the deal is bad for the planet, and Irish farmers and should be rejected in its entirety.
Read this article- No one will ever convince me that Brazilian beef will ever match grass-fed Irish beef’
