Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

243 Chapter 10: Environment and Agriculture Environment and Agriculture 1. Overview The agri-food sector is an integral part of Ireland’s society and economy, especially in our rural and coastal communities. Farming has shaped Ireland’s environment for centuries – it is a vital human activity that can deeply impact nature and the environment, but it also relies heavily on a healthy environment to thrive. There is unequivocal evidence from reports by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the agri-food sector in Ireland is a significant contributor to pollution and impacts our environment. Significant growth in parts of the sector in the last decade has brought significant environmental challenges. There is also evidence, conversely, that when agricultural practices are well managed, and are matched to the capacity of the land in a particular area, they can contribute to maintaining and enhancing environmental outcomes for biodiversity, soil health, climate, water quality and flood protection. It is clear from global assessments that tackling the climate and biodiversity emergencies will require transformative change across land and food systems, with huge implications for the products and services that will be required from farmers in the future. The latest agri-food sector strategy, Food Vision 2030 (DAFM, 2021a), has brought into sharper focus the importance of achieving environmental sustainability alongside economic growth, and many changes in farm practices to support a healthier environment are now being made on farms across the country. But it is clear from the EPA’s published assessments that a deeper level of systemic change is required in practice in the sector to ensure its environmental, social and economic sustainability in a changing world. Substantial progress can be made through the full and effective implementation of existing policies and regulations, for example through achieving full compliance with the Good Agricultural Practice for the Protection of Waters Regulations (S.I. No. 113/2022) and by implementing all the climate measures mapped out in the Teagasc marginal abatement cost curve (MACC), and these steps are urgently required. But navigating the agriculture sector towards a secure and sustainable long-term future will require more substantial fundamental changes in how we use land. Hitherto, much emphasis has been placed on continuous improvement in the product-level carbon efficiency of Irish milk and beef production, and the sector has delivered this with considerable success. Yet the latest scientific evidence increasingly focuses on absolute ecological thresholds to determine environmental sustainability at local, national and global scales. Delivering a truly sustainable and resilient agriculture sector in the long term will require a paradigm shift beyond continuous improvement and relative efficiency towards a goal-oriented approach informed by a vision of a climate-neutral and biodiverse agriculture and land sector. Strategic planning for the risks and opportunities arising from future market and policy responses to a rapidly changing world will be as important for the future economic and social viability of the sector as it will be for achieving environmental objectives. Connecting this foresight approach to current realities to identify possible ‘just transitions’ for farmers is a huge challenge that can be solved only through broad and constructive engagement across all stakeholders. Key sustainability challenges There have been increasing calls for countries to adopt a more holistic ‘food systems approach’ (Topic Box 10.1) in policymaking, so that all the elements of the system evolve and adapt together in a joined-up way. In practice, this means policymakers for agriculture, fisheries, land use, public health, the economy, trade and the environment working together, developing a holistic view and a shared vision of what the system should look like as a whole in the future. Food systems are complex, and the necessary trade-offs and synergies become apparent, and can be optimised in the public’s best interest, only when all the elements of the system are considered together (OECD, 2021). Food systems must work for people and for the planet.