Sir, – To address the climate and biodiversity crises, global food systems need to be transformed. This has big implications for food exporting countries like Ireland.
A recent EU-US agreement committed to a 30 per cent methane reduction by 2030. This is based on the evidence that methane traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over the 20 years after it has been generated.
As methane has a mean half-life of nine years in the atmosphere compared to an estimated mean lifetime of over 100 years for carbon dioxide, cutting methane is the single most effective method of radically curtailing global warming and climate change in the short term, giving us breathing space to emerge from reliance on fossil fuels.
Why is the benefit of radically curtailed methane emissions in the beef and dairy sector not being addressed globally?
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What is needed is a national land-use strategy to balance the need for food production and carbon sequestration using afforestation and hedgerows, while rewarding farmers for their environmental stewardship. And yes, the Irish climate is suitable for growing many crops and trees. Less input-intensive grasslands would produce far less greenhouse gas emissions as well as transforming natural habitats.
Individuals can support this by limiting beef and lamb consumption to two or three times per week. Building sustainability into the national dietary guidelines would facilitate these consumption patterns becoming a societal norm. – Yours, etc,
CATHERINE CONLON,
Ballintemple,
Cork.