Mike Brady: What environmentalists and the general public don’t understand about farmers

Teagasc’s MACC curve (Marginal Abatement Cost Curve) is the roadmap for farmers to achieve GHG reductions. Will it be enough or does it need to be recalibrated? A “MACC curve on steroids” is needed to hit the 25 percent was a suggestion on social media, and maybe that’s right.

Regardless of what the government agrees to or environmentalists demand, in my experience farmers are independent and will weigh up what actions are best.

Environmentalists often overlook this fundamental point when lecturing farmers about their vision for food production systems. The following characteristics of farmers are often not understood by environmentalists and the general public:

It’s not just about profit

I recently had a debate with a non-farmer about land rewilding, which financially encourages farmers to abandon livestock systems and plant more trees. For years, tree cultivation has been financially more attractive than many cattle and sheep farms, but the uptake of forestry among farmers is very low. Financial incentives alone are not enough to motivate farmers to adopt CO2-based production systems. It’s not just about profit.

Plants don’t grow everywhere

George Monbiot, writer and environmental/political activist, recently appeared on RTÉ prime time the proclamation that all animal husbandry should be stopped. In fact, he said eating eggs, dairy, and beef is “a treat.” What about all the grasslands and prairies that are in the world? Grains and legumes will not grow on this land, these lands and ruminants are also part of the biodiversity on planet earth, they must be part of the plan. Plants don’t grow everywhere.

time is important

Farmers are the original time managers, they have to adapt their working day to different seasons, daylight and day length. The new regulations proposed as part of the EU CAP reform 2023-2027 include all “measures” to be implemented by farmers. There is an action menu for ECO programs under pillar 1 and in the new ACRES system in pillar 11. Add another action menu if a farmer participates in a nitrate waiver.

Measures mean more work and this is proving to be a major deterrent for farmers taking up such schemes as both full-time and part-time farmers face time constraints. time is important

Tradition and pride matter

Tradition is often more important in the farming community than in urban communities. People in cities and communities move based on their disposable income and social status. Farmers generally stay where they were born and raised. Combine that with the limited profit aspirations of some farmers and all the social media clicks and financial incentives in the world aren’t going to change their way of life.

Farmers don’t like being dictated to

Many farmers don’t like being told what to do. I think that’s because most farmers have always been self-employed. You are used to making your own decisions.

Some like to take action against the populist mood. For example, when cattle for processing are scarce and prices are high, many farmers can tolerate higher prices, but when prices are rock bottom, many sell in panic, counter-cyclical logic that a non-farmer may not understand.

You are resilient

Farmers have weathered much tougher storms than current greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Bad weather, bad prices, taxation, succession issues, currency devaluations, EU directives and diseases are just some of a long list of events and problems that have made farmers robust and resilient individuals.

Environmentalists, the general public and policymakers still have a long way to go to understand the farmer’s mind, but it is absolutely necessary to do so in order to meet greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Now more than ever, it’s time for environmentalists and farmers to work together instead of wasting their time on polarized debates.

By the time we reach 2050 and beyond, I am absolutely convinced that science will have won and we will look back on agriculture and the agricultural sector as the star performers in stopping global warming and perhaps even contributing to global warming Cooling produced by binding carbon from other industries.

The time to start collaborating is now.

Mike Brady is Managing Director of Agricultural Advisors and Land Brokers at The Brady Group; mike@bradygroup.ie