Grass-fed agriculture and climate
Senator Rónán Mullen reflected on interventions from other Senators about tillage farmers and climate justice, arguing that Ireland’s grass-fed meat and dairy sector is a key competitive advantage. After a series of interruptions and procedural exchanges, he said a debate was needed on reconciling carbon targets with the importance of grass-based farming.
There have been a number of very interesting contributions on the Order of Business. I was very taken by what Senator Paul Daly had to say about the important challenges facing tillage farmers and what Senator Michelle Mulherin had to say in her reference to former President Mary Robinson's comments, in which she urged people to go vegetarian or vegan as far as possible. Like a lot of Irish people from a rural and agricultural background, I feel very conflicted when I hear such statements or such urgings. Our grass-fed meat and dairy industry are key parts of our competitive advantage as an economy and country. I would like to see 2017 being nominated as the year of grass. The importance of grass and maximising-----
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I am not talking about the kind of grasses that have worried people like this man in the past or the legalisation of grasses for other uses that bother other parliamentarians.
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The Senator is becoming very liberal.
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I might surprise the Leader some time.
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If one speaks to people in Teagasc, they will emphasise-----
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By my calculations, the Senator has deprived Senator Rónán Mullen of half a minute of speaking time.
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-----just how important it is that we get the maximum yield of grass. It is an important issue.
Like many others, I was brought up to believe we should live simply in order that others might simply live. I might have disagreed with what former President Robinson had to say on other human dignity issues in the past, but she is bang on in what she is trying to do in the area of climate justice. I would like to have a debate on how we can reconcile these aspirations. Ireland needs to meet its carbon targets in other ways, perhaps. Given the importance of the grass-fed meat and dairy industries, we need to consider how, as a country, we give a moral lead in promoting the kind of world where there is room for all and that human beings are not the problem but part of the solution. That is the solidarity-based thinking that must inform our thinking on a range of issues which will be before us in the coming months and years.