EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Chapter 13: Environment and Agriculture Chapter Highlights for Environment and Agriculture Agricultural practices are identified in EPA reports as being one of the main pressures responsible for the decline in water quality nationally. Moreover, the agriculture sector is responsible for approximately one-third of national greenhouse gas emissions and over 99 per cent of national ammonia emissions. Biodiversity is also under pressure from land use changes and intensive farming. Ireland’s reputation as a food producer with a low environmental footprint is at risk of being irreversibly damaged. Outcome-focused and activity metrics are required to allow for tracking of the sector’s performance and accountability in improving sustainability and protecting the environment. Economic growth in the agri-food sector in recent years is happening at the expense of the environment, as evidenced by trends in water quality, emissions and biodiversity all going in the wrong direction. Business-as-usual scenarios will not reverse these trends. New measures must go beyond improving efficiencies and focus on reducing total emissions by breaking the link between animal numbers, fertiliser use and deteriorating water quality. Measures are also needed to address new EU strategies including the Farm to Fork Strategy, which sets ambitious but sustainable targets to ‘transform the EU’s food system’. The adoption of a more holistic farm and catchment-level approach, encompassing all environmental pressures, will be fundamental to progress towards more environmentally sustainable and carbon-neutral food production. 347