climate change

Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Saturday, 1 August 2015

Agroforestry: Saving the World with Mutton and Hurleys


There are a number of threats facing small to medium sized beef farmers. Beef and sheepmeat are especially vulnerable to cost-benefit analysis involving the EU.

Professor Alan Matthews made a very strong case for a change in land use from livestock to forestry, based on Ireland's EU climate change commitments.

Though Matthews is Professor Emeritus of European agricultural policy at Trinity College Dublin, this is not idle academic pontification – Matthews sits on the recently formed Climate Change advisory Council, which is tasked with overseeing Ireland’s transition to a low carbon economy.

His point is that under new EU rules from 2020, forestry can be used as an offset, whereas now, livestock's full emissions are not measured. This, along with the level of beef and sheepmeat subsidy dependence  - 75% on average for livestock in Ireland, with some areas such as the BMW region even more dependent -  makes forestry noncompetitive at present. But not after 2020.

Naturally, the livestock sector is up in arms against Matthews, calling him unsuitable for his position on the expert panel. If he's one thing, however, its a dispassionate political economist of European agri policy, and, without doubt, both completely neutral and an expert of the highest standard.

While it can be argued that political economists lack the sociological nuance to fully grasp rural life and the benefits of  Ireland's version of rural mid sized farming, there is a third way. This third way is not in any significant sense being developed here in Ireland, despite our potential suitableness for it. It is also given but a bracket's worth of reference in Matthews' work (linked to above)). This approach is agroforestry.

Agroforestry in Loughgall
Agroforestry, combined with some organic farming techniques should urgently be investigated as a possible climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy one which could keep rural Ireland populated, vibrant, producing beef and sheepmeat, while also increasing the number of tress on the land massively.

First the organic dimension. Crop rotations, feed grown on farms and the use of farm yard manure and clover for fertility, done at a genuinely apt stocking rate builds soil carbon and reduce the use of fossil fuels. That needs to be measured on a trial set of farms as soon as possible.

(The slightly lower stocking rate in organic is important for other EU targets such as the water frameworks and biodiversity directives)

Agroforestry, fused with these organic approaches, could transform the carbon footprint of Irish agriculture.

In Loughgall, Northern Ireland, there is a long running agroforestry experiment, in place since 1989 (pictured, above) .

Ash Trees were planted at 5m x 5m spacing giving 400/ha into managed ryegrass pasture (160kgNha-1). This is grazed with sheep from March to November.

Incredibly, there is no reduction available grass to the sheep for 12 years. And around 12 years in, the Ash trees come on as a crop themselves. They too are almost (but not quite) as productive as a woodland plantation in this set up.

Minor tweaking to compensate for the relative lag years from 11 to 14 (when the trees are bigger but not yet a crop, and when the grazing area is slightly reduced) may be needed.

400 trees per hectare would make a massive impact on Ireland's GHG emissions. That's in a ryegrass trial – imagine an organic sward with a dozen plus plants including N fixing clover?

The Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs) option of greening under Pillar 1 of the CAP specifically supports agroforestry as an option.
Oh and the crop that this new vision of farming and forestry fused would yield? Hurleys. Irish made, Irish farmed hurleys. Fighting climate change through mutton and ash, while saving rural Ireland from the incidental crudeness of political economy, or the self-serving climate change spin of the agri-food sector.

What could possibly be better than that?

Photo Mark McLoughlin CC attribution noncommercial 3.0


























More

Agroforestry on this blog (2012) agroforestry round up (this blog)



Monday, 18 February 2013

GROWING IN A DIFFERENT CLIMATE: organic growers gather




“Growing in a Different Climate” is the theme of this year's Organic Growers of Ireland (OGI) conference. The event, to be held in the County Arms Hotel, Birr, is on Wednesday 20th of February.

“Climate change is very pertinent to growers and also something that had not been looked at in any great depth” says Jason Horner of the OGI, organiser of the conference.

(pic copyright Oliver Moore)

“We always try to be practical when we are looking at what information growers will benefit from and rather than speaking about climate change as something that is being looked at in the future maybe we should start addressing it in the present, in that it is already here.”

He adds: “The last time we held a conference it was all growers this time it is all academics and people associated with the industry so it is a different emphasis.”

Topics for presentations include impact of climate change on pests and plants, opportunities presented by climate change to grow new plants, resilience for weather extremes, agroforestry, alternative distribution systems and finally growing well in a bad season.

Cathriona Duffy's research, which opens the event, is the most academic of the offerings.

“The consensus within the scientific community is that our global climate is changing” she tells me. “Over the course of the last century global average surface temperature has increased by approximately 0.74°C. Further temperature increases are projected, as well as more seasonal rainfall and increased frequency of extreme weather events.”

These changes will have an effect on what organic growers can do. “Despite the physical link between agriculture and climate, there has been limited work conducted on the potential impacts of projected temperature, precipitation and atmospheric CO2 changes on economically important agricultural pests in Ireland” she says.

Her talk “will provide a general overview of the potential impacts of future climate change on insect pests, drawing on both international and national examples.”

She continues “Potential changes in plant physiology and phenology in response to increased temperatures and resultant changes in current Irish pests will also be reviewed,” will her talk “concludes by highlighting how changes in the biology of insects in Ireland as a result of climate change will impact organic production, with a view to informing adaptation policy in the future.”

Another presenter is Peter Jones. Jones is a Professor in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at University College Cork. He is joint Co-Ordinator of the MSc in Organic Horticulture based at Liss Ard Estate outside Skibbereen in West Cork.

Jones’s research interests focus on improving disease resistance and stress tolerance in crops, by both breeding better cultivars and by using natural products such as seaweed extracts and composted crabshell to switch on defence strategies in crops.

According to Jones “What I intend to describe will be the predicted effects on Irish climate over the coming decades: increasing temperatures in winter and in summer (especially inland), a longer growing season with fewer frosts; altered rainfall patterns with wetter winters, especially in the west and drier summers especially in the east.”

He continues “Ireland should fare better than the countries which are currently the main crop producers of the EU such as France, resulting in new market opportunities for Irish growers.”

“There will be changes in the way we farm” the Welsh native says, “earlier cattle turnout dates, need for irrigation of potatoes in the east. Also, changes in the range of crops we grow, with crops currently associated with Mediterranean-type climate, such as tomatoes, vines, doing much better.”

“Grain maize will begin to take over from the other cereals in Ireland, while forage maize will become a cost-effective alternative to silage. In the latter half of this century, soyabean will become an important crop in Ireland.”

Ever the optimist, event organiser Jason Horner concludes: “With the EU recently advising consumers to eat fruit and vegetables that are not standard shapes, and national promotional campaigns to support local growers, lets hope that 2013 is kinder to our food producers.”
Friday, 21 December 2012

AN ORGANIC SANTY LIST



(Note: this is a light hearted feature, but my thoughts today are with the friends and family of Minister Shane McEntee, who has just passed away suddenly.)

Oliver Moore writes to Santy...

Hi Santy, me again. I've a fair few things on my list – I hope you don't think I'm being greedy.

First up, I definitely want the heads of the climate change bill and a strategic environmental assessment of Harvest 2020 Santy. Phew! Learning all the big words now, so I am Santy! And sure I may as well ask for the big things first.

Then again, there's nothing that unusual about those two things, we're supposed to have them ages ago - I'm actually surprised I've had to wait until Christmas.

(images from crypto mundo)

Environment Minister Hogan said he'd be ready by Halloween, and then he said end of the year, so he's running out of time.

As for the assessment, well, the Department says that's not necessary, because Harvest 2020 isn't a government plan. But Santy, have you seen the front cover? They have their logo on the front cover, and no one else does. And, the Minister who launched it Minister Smith, said “The Government’s strategic policy document, Food Harvest 2020, outlines the vision for the expansion of the agri-food and fishing sector, the actions to be taken, and the targets to be achieved.” In the Dail Santy!

Now, all of a sudden its not a government plan. They are hardly pretending are they? Pretending isn't very nice, is it? Those Ministers better make sure they are on the nice list and not the naughty list, because they might just be getting a big lump of coal off you if they're not careful. Isn't that right Santy?

I know everyone is trying really hard to get the beef and dairy Green House Gas emissions down, but its really hard, isn't it? They will be more more efficient per kg, but they are also ramping up production by loads – millions of animals in fact Mr Claus.

We're supposed to be reducing emissions by 30% in every sector, but the only ones so far with a plan, agri-food, won't reduce emissions at all. What will the rest of them do? I'm very confused. And apparently, a global 30% reduction is runaway climate change anyway. We're supposed to reduce by 80% by 2050, the scientists tell us.

How come the whole world isn't planning to reduce emissions by that amount Santy? I thought adults were clever? What's clever about guaranteed runaway climate change?

You know what would definitely work though, and what I would love to get from you? A little R&D into Agroforestry, and loads of of investment into vegetable production.

Agroforestry uses trees as food producing crops. Farm animals can even use the wooded areas. It would really suit some parts of Ireland. Imagine how lovely the whole place would look, if lots of farms had dozens of food producing tree varieties?

Of course we'd have to find markets for all these new nuts and fruits, but Bord Bia are good at that sort of thing. It would be more prudent than relying on importing grains all the way from south America, or Russia or wherever has them. Those grains ain't getting any cheaper, especially with the extreme weather situations the world has been having recently.

Agroforestry would also sequester (that's take and lock away) carbon - we really need that.

Organic farming does that too, so it does Santy. A big study of all the available studies in October found that organic farms have much bigger carbon stocks - 3.5 metric tonnes per hectare higher in fact. That's loads so it is.

But boy do the organic crowd need a lot of help Santy. Teagasc only have two organic advisers now - they must be lonely.

They need a lot of help Santy. Could you sort that out? Organic is one of the few targets they won't actually hit in Harvest 2020. Funny that. First it was 5% organic by 2012, and next it was 5% by 2020. But their miles off even that Santy.

Sounds like they need a Satnav. Can you get one for the Department, and say its from me? Cheers Santy.

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

MEET THE RESILIENT EL SALVADORIAN COMMUNITY OF LOS ANGELES


(photo (c) Michelle Moore of shade grown coffee beans)


Oliver Moore travels into the hills of El Salvador, where he encounters an especially resilient community

I took a trip with Trocaire up the hills to San Julian in El Salvador on a national holiday, the day of the dead. Like All Souls Day, its a day for remembering past loved ones.
The busy graveyards were all festooned with tinsel and flowers, and scaffolded with intricate sculptures, visible even from the road as we whizzed past.



As we travelled deeper into San Julian we passed field after field of tall green sugar cane plants.


In San Julian, almost 2/3 live below the national poverty line. It was a typically hot day in the low 30s, when we arrived in the small community of Los Angeles. As we walked towards the meeting place the temperature dropped a comfortable few degrees.


Our meeting was outdoors, in the agro-forest the community maintained. Shade grown coffee accompanied taller and smaller companion planted fruit and nut trees, as well crops on the ground.

Trocaire support an NGO called UNES to help the community with growing equipment, seed banks  allotments and in the development of an agro-ecology school.

Though it wasn't planned as a trip to organic farming locations, this community, like the others visited with Trocaire, practiced organic farming methods. Its affordable techniques coupled with available labour simply made sense.


The Los Angeles community of 58 families in San Julian is extraordinarily resilient, in the face of earthquakes and ever more extreme weather.


Los Angeles Community in agroforest (c) Oliver Moore
First Los Angeles had its water supply badly contaminated, for 15 years, by a nearby pig farm. Slowly they developed their organisational skills and ran, with others in the region, a two year campaign, culminating in a 3 month ultimatum, and, finally,  blockade of the pig farm. Despite death threats, in a country where these really mean something, the community were successful.


Next came a tire incineration plant, of a type not allowed in most parts of the world. Better organised, the community resisted and won again, but this time in a shorter timeframe. So when the sugar cane owners came to try to buy out their forest garden, resistance came easier.

There are still challenges. The school Dennis Lopez, 7, attends is just a short walk from his home. On route, he usually has a quick kickaround in the football pitch next door to the school building.



Denis Lopez (c) Michelle Moore

  The school, like everything else in Los Angeles, is completely surrounded by the tall sugar cane plants. The plants come right up to the school fence, and right up to the edge of the football pitch.

Without any kind of warning, aerial spraying of pesticides occurs. “The last time it happened, the children were outside playing in the school yard at lunchtime when the helicopters came” community activist Walberto Herrera, 44, tells me. The pesticides allowable in El Salvador are strong, and include organophosphates.

“Our next campaign will be about this spraying” he tells me, adding that there is currently no buffer zone, no warning and that the wind is unpredictable. Any consequences of pesticide drift on human health here isn't recorded.

School wall close to the sugar beet plantation (c) Oliver Moore
All over the region, the sugar cane is set on fire just before harvest, when the crop is at its tallest and most dense. Done to dispose of 'trash' such as straw, tops and leaves, this envelopes the community in a wall of think black unhealthy smoke, as well as a fearful fiery inferno.

Later that week I spoke to Lourdes Palacios, former rebel fighter, who moved to the jungle to fight for the rebel FLMN as a teenager. She now sits on an environment committee in the parliament. Her  FMLN party have been in shared government since 2009, taking over from the right wing Arena party, who had been in power since the war ended in 1992.




Lourdes spoke of her work in trying to get the most persistent and toxic of pesticides banned, and to introduce stricter regulations on pesticides in general. A landmark report had revealed that 400 people die in El Salvador each year from direct pesticide poisonings, she claimed, which influenced her efforts.


“But its difficult, we are not a majority government, and the ex-president from the Arena party is the countries largest importer of pesticides”.

Difficult no doubt, but the people of El Salvador in general, and Los Angeles in particular, have faced tougher battles before.


See Trocaire's photo gallery of the trip here

(all pics (c) Oliver Moore unless otherwise  assigned)



Future football stars of Los Angeles, El Salvador (c) Oliver Moore
Sunday, 27 November 2011

NEW IOFGA GENERAL MANAGER: ICSA'S GILLIAN WESTBROOK

Gillian Westbrook is the new general manager of the Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association, IOFGA. This position will mainly involve strategic planning, managing and organisation on behalf of IOFGA.

(Pic (c) IOFGA: Dr. Sinead Neiland,Ciaran Cuffe Grace Maher, Gillian Westbrook, and Gabriel Gilmartin (ICSA at Portumna organic week event 2010)

In particular, this will include policy and strategy implementation, certification management, communication, members services, and more general financial, office and people management.

Westbrook was previously executive research officer with the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmer’s Association (ICSA), a role she took up in 2008.

The county Down native has also worked for Supermacs as their senior food safety manager, and in Herefordshire Trading Standards in the industry food sector.

While working for the ICSA, she was also on the Board of IOFGA. During that time, she spearheaded an organic food public procurement initiative with the Marine Institute in Galway.

Of the main farming organisations, the ICSA have always been the more amenable to organic farming. Indeed one its founder members, Pat Lalor, is one of the leading lights in the organic sector. His Teagasc organic demonstration farm walks are considered by many to be an opportunity to experience one of the best exemplars of organic farming in Ireland.

By comparison, the IFA and ICMSA are either indifferent or hostile towards organic. Occasional blips, such as the head of the Cavan IFA being an organic farmer occur, but this is rare.

Westbrook has been favourable towards organic or organic interests during her time with the ICSA. In 2010, she was part of an ICSA delegation to the (Genetic Modification) GM free regions Conference on Animal Feed Labelling in Brussels. The ICSA have also been the least favourable of the main farming organisations towards GM.

Indeed the 2010 consultation paper produced by the ICSA, “Consultation on the Socio-economic
Implications of the placing on the market of GMOs for cultivation,” stated the following:

“From a purely Irish perspective, ICSA does not support GMOs for cultivation. We are concerned that the cultivation of GMOs marks an irreversible decision, which has implications for our export markets, our green image as well as our green collar job strategy and our organic strategy. This is not a stand against science but quite the opposite; it is because we understand agri-science and the potential negative commercial implications of GM cultivation that we oppose the release of GMOs into our natural environment.

The consequence of Irish GM cultivation has far reaching economic and social effects; ICSA firmly believes the negative aspects outweigh the positive.”

The 2008 Climate Change submission by ICSA was largely positive about the benefits of organic farming in terms of soil fertility, partial reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and fossil fuel use, though it did also state that “ even a significant increase in organic farming across the entire EU would have a limited effect and must be also balanced by the need to at least maintain food production in the interests of food security.”

There are significant challenges Westbrook and IOFGA will face. While the number of organic farmers continues to grow from a small base, the rate of increase is slowing down. CAP reform may work out well for organic farming, but the situation is still unclear. Recession is hitting all aspects of the economy, including organic food. Evidence from the UK, Ireland's biggest export market for organic food, is mixed.

Her background in beef and sheep should please the majority of IOFGA members, as livestock farmers makes up the vast majority of members of the organisation.

Interestingly, IOFGA now display quite a level of reverse gender discrimination in key positions: this includes 5/7 of its Board, its Development Officer, Magazine Editor, Certification Manager, Office Staff and now General Manager. Indeed all the speakers at their recent conference were female, apart from Junior Minister McEntee, who's gender IOFGA have no control over.

We will address some of these issues, as well as her vision for the organisation, in an upcoming interview.