Cast your mind back to when the EU was called the “EC” and prior to that the “EEC”. Do you remember “butter mountains”, “intervention beef”, “set-aside” and “milk lakes”? These were sexy headline bywords simplifying to the general public how Europe’s common agricultural policy was attempting to influence market conditions.

To the casual observer, it was a scandal. Scandalous in that farmers were paid tax payer’s money for oversupplying, scandalous that they were incentivised to scale back. But needless to say, despite the fact it wasn’t so straightforward, don’t fret, because even in these pre-social media days, we were well able to do outrage based on the flimsiest of detail so as not to allow the truth get in the way of our confirmation bias.

I often wonder do they forget where their food comes from?

This EEC “intervention” policy of the time played beautifully into the hands of interests who didn’t particularly like the idea that farmers were being subsidised or who just didn’t like farmers at all. I don’t get it really. We all need to eat to survive and at times when people bemoan farmers, I often wonder do they forget where their food comes from? If we aren’t prepared to pay more for our food in the supermarket, then it shouldn’t add up that we lambast Irish cattle and sheep farmers for doing what they do. But we do and we do so with zero logistical or practical alternatives. Who cares? It is cool to be vegan.

Those butter mountains and milk lakes are a legacy of a CAP which bears little resemblance to current policy. They’re merely relics of a past which no detractor can use anymore as a stick to beat the farmer with although some might still try. But they don’t need to because there’s a new stick in town and it has climate change written down the side.

Dairying and drystock farming as we know it is, and needs to continue to alter in order to help our country play its part (albeit miniscule in the global scale of things) to address the climate emergency.

Intensive agriculture and animal cruelty is the uncontested enemy of sustaining and nourishing the environment, nature and biodiversity

Nevertheless, disappointingly, despite the fact that the Irish cattle population accounts for around 0.7% of the combined world population of bovines, the contribution of methane gas to emissions is conveniently providing campaigners and movements who profoundly dislike the way of Irish farming with amble opportunity to deride them.

Intensive agriculture and animal cruelty is the uncontested enemy of sustaining and nourishing the environment, nature and biodiversity. But the distinction between such destructive global intensive agriculture and the relatively smaller more efficient Irish system of farming just isn’t being made clear in broad media commentary and by consequence public discussion.

Yes of course we’ve no choice but to strive to meet our international panel on climate change (IPCC) targets. But whenever the issue of greenhouse gas emissions is mentioned, you’ll find the common refrain will veer towards farming over all else as a root cause. What I mean is, I’ve little doubt but any opinion poll among young Irish people will conclude that we need to cut back eating beef ahead of plane journeys to save the planet.

It plays beautifully into the barrow of key ideological and political influencers who’ve long held anti-farming agendas. It’s manna from heaven for them to lap up the broad brush public punishment beating which small scale relatively extensive and environmentally caring individual Irish farmers are currently taking for the team.

“Meatless Monday” is great clickbait, but surely such ideological ulterior motive-driven anti-bovine rhetoric only serves disproportionately to take away from the other measures we all must also take to reduce our carbon footprint? We will see.

A whitewash

Following Dublin’s evisceration of Mayo last Saturday, we regrettably announce the death of the Gaelic football pundit. RIP.