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

Ireland’s Environment – An Integrated Assessment 2020 SYSTEM CHANGE – DELIVERY ON SECTORAL AND SOCIETAL OUTCOMES NEEDS TO BE ACCELERATED SOE 10: Environmentally- sustainable Agriculture An Agriculture and Food Sector that Demonstrates Validated Performance Around Producing Food with a Low Environmental Footprint A more holistic farm management and water catchment- level management approach, encompassing all environmental pressures, will be fundamental to progress towards a more environmentally-sustainable and carbon- neutral food production system. The core principle of Food Wise 2025 was that ‘environmental protection and economic competitiveness are equal and complementary: one will not be achieved at the expense of the other’ (DAFM, 2015). While the Food Wise 2025 strategy has delivered the intensification and growth that it promised, the pressures on the natural environment have increased, with as a consequence trends in water quality, GHG emissions, ammonia and biodiversity all going in the wrong direction. The loss of nutrients from agriculture is severely affecting water quality (Chapter 7). The carbon balance for agriculture is negative, with more GHG emissions produced from the sector than are saved through carbon sinks associated with farmland and forestry (Chapter 13). Intensive agriculture and land use changes are having an impact on nature, habitats and species (Chapters 6 and 13). Ammonia emissions to air continue to rise, exceeding the EU limit in 2016, 2017 and 2018, driven by the expansion of the agricultural sector (Chapters 3 and 13). The food and drinks sector is the main industrial sector identified by the EPA for which improvements are needed to improve compliance with EPA licences (EPA, 2019c). These deteriorating trends present a significant threat to Ireland’s environment, which underpins our health and wellbeing and our economy; including to the agricultural sector, which depends on Ireland’s reputation and marketing advantage as a food-producing nation with strong environmental credentials. It can be argued that the national agricultural intensification programme has failed to protect the environment, as the business side of the programme has outbalanced the environmental sustainability side. This shortcoming should be readdressed in the next agri-food strategy to 2030, currently in development. A key aspect for the next agri-food strategy will be to address the EU Farm to Fork Strategy 8 and its targets to transform the EU’s food system. Ireland’s agri-food strategy will need to focus on breaking the link between animal numbers, fertiliser use and deteriorating water quality and resultant impacts on aquatic biodiversity. Such a move would also result in reductions in GHG and ammonia emissions and improved biodiversity. The strategy should encourage the promotion of more widespread high-nature-value farming initiatives, particularly in high status water body areas. It should also support and promote outcome-based agri-environmental schemes that would provide payments for results and ecosystem service activities rather than the current ‘payments for costs incurred or income foregone’ approach. An EPA submission, ‘SEA Scoping for Agri-Food Strategy to 2030’, 9 provides further detail. Focusing on promoting the full and transparent integration of the findings of the Strategic Environmental Assessment into the agri-food strategy, the submission advocates that the key relevant environmental challenges for Ireland, as set out above, should be addressed in the strategy. Measures and supports for farmers should be targeted and should aim to deliver multiple benefits for climate, air pollution and air quality, biodiversity, water quality and flood attenuation where possible. The introduction of a holistic farm planning approach would support farmers to achieve their business goals while meeting multiple environmental targets. Supportive programmes such as Teagasc guidance measures, the Smart Farming Programme and the Agricultural Sustainability Support and Advisory Programme need to be rolled out more widely to deliver quantifiable environmental outcomes. Measurable, reportable and verifiable data and evidence are needed to demonstrate that the agriculture sector is playing its part in reversing negative trends and making lasting environmental improvements. 8 https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european- green-deal/actions-being-taken-eu/farm-fork_en 9 EPA SEA submission are available here: http://www.epa.ie/pubs/ epasub/epasubmissionontheagri-foodstrategy2030.html 444