Sir, - In an article on "green taxes" (The Irish Times, September 21st), your correspondent correctly notes that agriculture, which accounts for 35 per cent of greenhouse gas emission, has not been dealt with in the Government's Green Paper.
Most of these emissions come from the livestock sector (as methane). Methane is the second most important greenhouse gas and currently contributes about 20 per cent to global warming. It contributed 28.7 per cent to all Irish emissions in 1990. This was due mainly to the number of farm animals, which is equal (EPA estimation) to an estimated 64 million people!
As EU taxpayers, we fund this overproduction and environmental degradation to the tune of about £260 million in income support for Irish farmers each year. This year, for the first time, there is a facility in the Common Agricultural Policy to apply environmental conditions to all payments. Denmark has availed of this option. We have not.
The idea, moreover, of the introduction of a legally binding baseline of good agricultural practice has been mooted in OECD and EU circles. This baseline would address problems such as global warming. Additional measures by farmers to protect and restore the environment would then receive financial support. In Ireland, this would come in the form of the REPS. At the moment, we have no baseline of good practice; therefore the REPS functions as an instrument which actually pays farmers to achieve a baseline.
In a discussion document on the REPS, Earthwatch recommends the formulation of an overall agricultural policy with at its centre a system of identifying the environmental impacts of agricultural policy and programmes and diminishing their adverse impacts. The policy would include a legally binding baseline of good practice, environmental conditions on all CAP Schemes and payments, taxing animal feeds and fertilisers, and, where technical solutions fail to solve emissions problems, a reduction in livestock numbers. - Yours, etc.,
Leni Hurley, Agricultural Officer, Earthwatch, Balbriggan, Co Dublin.