SUBMISSION TO 2020 STRATEGY CONSULTATION
I ask that the following areas be given serious consideration when planning long-term strategy for Irish farming.
1. Protection of Wild Areas
It is always shocking for visitors to the Republic to realise just how little protection the few remaining wild areas here are given. So many of the wild places I loved have since been trashed by landowners sending in the diggers and there seems to be absolutely no protection against this happening, and in many cases this is subsidised by one form or another of a grant. Can something please be done to protect the few precious scraps of wild land that are left? In particular:
-That the remaining ancient native woodland be protected;
-That the riparian zone alongside the rivers and streams be kept clear from cultivation and livestock access to allow a buffer zone to improve water quality;
-That the wetlands be protected from further drainage to prevent worsening flooding incidents;
-That the numbers of sheep allowed on the uplands be lowered to reduce overgrazing and associated erosion ;
-That some provision be made to enable better access to the uplands for walkers, for example stiles, and some accommodation with landowners. Nearly every walker I have spoken to has been subject to verbal abuse and/or intimidation, sometimes including racist abuse, and the landowners responsible will be in receipt of REPS payments, etc. It can’t be that difficult to deal with this problem, if the will was there.
2. Protection of Organic Farming
If GM crops are set loose in Ireland then I can’t see how organic farming could be able to continue in the long-term because of contamination of the seed stock. It is self-evident that once an open-pollinated GMO is introduced into the environment it can no more be contained than can the wind. There is no safe distance for containment that could be practically applied in a country of this size, and certainly not any buffer-zone distance that I have heard proposed. If it cannot be contained then it follows that co-existence becomes impossible, certainly for any conventional or organic crop closely enough related to the GMO to cross with it. Once the non-GM seed-stock has been thus contaminated its integrity would be compromised from that season onwards, with associated repercussions discussed below.
As one example, in Canada a conventional rapeseed plant has crossed with GM rapeseed pollen producing a superweed never seen before which is now widespread across not only arable land but also in towns, cemeteries, golf courses. This takes a massive new use of more powerful highly toxic chemicals to control, at obvious expense to those affected.
In Ireland the threat of early release of GM rape is a particular concern because of the number of closely related crops it would be liable to cross with: broccoli, kale, cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, turnip, mustard and others. This in itself would have immediate financial and social repercussions for organic farmers at least, depriving them of a swathe of vegetable varieties that can be currently grown guaranteed GM-free, as organic standards rightly require. Whether any non-GM seed thus contaminated would be permitted to be licensed for sale at that point is questionable. It has certainly been the case in countries where GM crops have been grown for a number of years that no pure non-GM seed remains where a GM equivalent is grown; in other words, that contamination is total. There is compelling evidence that this is exactly what the GM corporations intend.
In the longer term it is hard to imagine how the organic movement could continue to exist in these circumstances. I want to impress on the State that for many people such as myself the organic ethos is not simply a lifestyle choice, it is an inseparable article of our Faith, and as such must be protected under Article 44.2.1 of the Constitution.
3. Aminopyralid
This herbicide has been responsible for numerous cases of poisoned vegetable crops worldwide, including in Ireland, through contaminated manure. I have alerted Minister Brendan Smith, Trevor Sargent and Michael Creed to this and none seem in the slightest bit bothered about it. There are obvious parallels with the banning of the use of manure to improve the land by the occupying forces in times past, but the government seem to allow greater tolerance to the pharmaceutical companies in this regard.
4. Animal Welfare
The recent agreed phase-out of fur farming in the Republic is to be welcomed. I hope that the government can see fit to raise the minimum welfare standards allowed particularly in regard to pigs and poultry.
5. Forestry
As the single biggest land owner in the State, Coillte has the duty of care over a vast area of land and has seen fit to cover the great majority of it with Sitka Spruce. They are using this land to make private profit, so wouldn’t it be fair to require Coillte to pay the State a reasonable rental on this land;and to remove their exemption from the Freedom of Information legislation to enable fair scrutiny by interested parties? And having received huge sums of European money to regenerate native woodland which has plainly not been used for its intended purpose, couldn’t the State compel Coillte to plant a proportion of the land given to it to native woodland, (not just strips around conifer plantations)? The nearest Coillte land to my home, at Warrenscourt, Lissarda, Co.Cork has recently been clearfelled, yet it is signposted from the main road as an amenity area. Could the government compel Coillte to plant amenity areas such as this with mixed native woodland grown from local native stock so there will be a beautiful quiet place for people to eat their picnic instead of what looks like a bomb-site?
I also request that Coillte be compelled to leave a no-interference zone around rivers, streams and adjoining native woodland to reduce adverse impacts from their operations.