Irish suckler beef 35 times better for environment that from Brazil – Naughten

In Agriculture, Environment, News, Uncategorized by Denis Naughten

Taoiseach agrees to evaluate environmental aspect of deal

 

Denis Naughten has secured a commitment from the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar that the environmental and climate aspect of the Mercosur deal will be evaluated by Government, not just the economic aspects of the deal.

The Roscommon Galway TD believes that such an evaluation will expose the fact that the carbon footprint of Irish suckler beef is 35 times less than that of beef produced in the Amazon basin of Brazil.

“The fact is that 70% of the deforestation of the Amazon – the lungs of our planet – is to provide land for cattle ranches in Brazil and now the EU wants to reward this practice, forcing the collapse of carbon efficient beef production in Ireland,” stated Denis Naughten.

“This makes absolutely no sense from an environmental perspective and exposes the fact that this is a bad deal for rural Ireland.

“However, I am disappointed to hear the Taoiseach talk about replacing lost EU beef markets for Irish beef with markets in Mexico or Japan. We must support Irish farmers to supply EU markets not undermine the viability of the suckler farmer in favour of factory farms.

“I would now call on Teagasc and agricultural academics to provide the data that demonstrates the case for supporting Irish suckler beef production from not just a rural economic perspective, but also in the interests of our climate,” concluded Denis Naughten.