The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) welcomes the publication today of An Bord Bia’s ‘Origin Green’ sustainability report and its stated aim for Ireland to become a ‘world leader of sustainably produced food and drink’. However existing measures are not addressing the significant role agriculture is playing in the on-going decline of nature in this country. These effects include:
Indeed the National Parks and Wildlife Service have identified agriculture as one of the principle pressures on the status of our most threatened habitats and species; see (http://www.npws.ie/article-
IWT Campaign Officer Pádraic Fogarty says “Changes in agricultural practices in recent decades have combined with a lack of funding of conservation agencies and a general apathy from government resulting in devastating impacts to our environment. This is can be seen in the pollution of waterways and the disappearance of once-familiar wildlife. While the ‘Origin Green’ marketing campaign is a welcome start in addressing the environmental impacts of food production, we have yet to see any benefit for our wildlife.”
Photo: Simon Mortimer [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons