Irish Doctors for the Environment have slammed Bord Bia’s €8 million meat and dairy trade mission to Asia.
The Irish food board launched campaigns to sell dairy, beef and lamb to countries including Japan, Singapore and Vietnam on a ministerial-led tour earlier this month.
IDE outlined their concerns in a letter to Bord Bia, saying promotion tagline “Ireland, Working with Nature” was “not only misleading, but grossly misaligned with necessary actions to ensure food security, climate action and sustainable development”.
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As the world teeters on the brink of irreversible climate damage, they believe Bord Bia should be more focused on helping producers transition to less environmentally damaging produce like fruits, vegetables, legumes and wholegrains instead of investing heavily in animal agriculture expansions and exports.
IDE’s Róisín Fitzgerald said when debate raged earlier this year about the sectoral emissions target for agriculture, she heard time and again ‘Ireland has the lowest greenhouse gas emissions beef and dairy in the world’.
But she says that statement “was not actually backed up”.
“Regardless of how low the emissions [for Irish beef and dairy] are per global standards, it’s still a high emission food compared to a lot of other produce,” Róisín added.
Analysis by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation in 2021, found meat and dairy produces 14.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. That’s the same as all cars, lorries, aircraft and ships combined.
Meanwhile, a number of expert reports, including from the UN, found a global shift to a plant based diet could reduce mortality by 10% and greenhouse gases by 70% by 2050.
Nutrition expert and environmental scientist, Ms Fitzgerald, also says “Ireland does not have a food secure system”.
“If all imports stopped over night I think we would be very surprised at the lack of food,” she added.
“The CSO [Central Statistics Office] said in 2017 alone Ireland imported 72,000 tonnes of potatoes, 47,000 tonnes of onions, 23,000 tonnes of cabbage and 15,000 tonnes of lettuce.
“That’s food we could be supporting Irish farmers to grow here, but we’re just not.
“The current system is not working. It’s not actually benefitting farmers - 68% are at risk of financial distress. It is not working even under the subsidy scheme and that’s something we really have to emphasise.
“We can’t do business as usual... and use this unique window of opportunity to actually restructure the Irish food business to be sustainable.
“Ireland really risks being left behind because so many other countries are looking at how it actually is and using this opportunity to improve their food production for people and the planet, and keep within their climate targets.”
A Bord Bia spokesperson said: “Bord Bia would not subscribe to the view Ireland is focused on just dairy and beef.
“Of the €13.5 billion in exports last year, meat and livestock was worth €3.4 billion; dairy was worth €5.2 billion [63.7% combined] and prepared consumer foods exports in 2020 were worth €2.5 billion [leaving €2.4 billion].
“Ireland grows enough food to feed 25 million people. As an agricultural nation, we export 90% of food produced on this island,” they added.
But they also said rising commodity prices sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine mean “the discussion about growing more of our own feed... reducing our reliance on imports, is particularly opportune now at the start of the growing season and gives farmers the opportunity to react to these unforeseen circumstances”.
Bord Bia said it also launched Origin Green Global Council in February to address food and drink sustainability challenges.
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