Organic by May 15th or not til next year!

Farmers considering converting over to organic this year have a May 15^th Deadline to have their applications with the Department. The EU commission have imposed this deadline on Ireland to streamline EU-wide agri-environmental payments, including REPS and the Organic Farming Scheme.

According to Minister Sargent, �once we have the applications by 15 May we can process them. If this happens, then �farmers will be in a position to receive payment under the new Scheme during 2008.�

According to the Department, the new Commission regulations also lay down rules for the way in which farmers will be paid under the Organic Farming Scheme:

• Payment will be on a calendar year basis; in other words a farmer will be paid for the number of months in the year in which he or she is in the Scheme.

• Payment will be in two stages. The first payment, which will be at the rate of 75%, will be released when the administrative checks (both for the Scheme itself and for the Single Payment Scheme) are completed. In practice this is likely to be early autumn.

• The remaining 25% will be released when the last of the on-farm inspections for the year has taken place. This is likely to be towards the end of the year, probably December.

All undertakings will have an anniversary date of 1 January. Minister Sargent emphasised that the new deadline and payment rules applied to all farmers joining the Scheme, whether or not they intended to join REPS 4 as well.

The organic certification bodies have responded to the announcement of this deadline with an understandable mixture of annoyance and pragmatism.

According to the larger of the two certification bodies, IOFGA: �the announcement that the deadline for entrants to REPS 4 is May 15^th will seriously limit the growth of the organic farming sector this year�.

They suggest that the short timeframe involved �is not realistic as many potential members had hoped to join the scheme throughout the year or had planned to do so once their current REPS Plan had finished later in the year. The late nature of this announcement and the fact that it coincides with the busy spring period means that many farmers will defer going organic until next year.�

They also suggest that this will have an adverse effect on both the government�s 5% organic target for 2012, and on the consumer�s growing desire for good quality Irish organic product.

Helen Scully, certification manager with the Organic Trust was perhaps more pragmatic in her response: �The Organic Trust will be able to facilitate those producers who wish to avail of the May 15th deadline - simply forward completed documentation to the office and it will be processed in a very timely manner�.

For farmers who won�t be ready for the 15^th May, Helen pointed out that �organics is for the long-haul and a decision based on some and not all of the salient facts could present difficulties down the road. When the information and research phases have been completed� (those who want to convert to organic) can then organise to have their conversion plans drawn up over the coming months and submitted to the Organic Trust in December 2008, ready for a January 1st 2009 start date.�

If you can�t make the 15^th May deadline, according to Helen, �don't put the plans to convert your farm to organic production on the back burner - stay with the process and use the June to November period to copper-fasten plans for conversion; to become familiar with the details of the specific conversion plan and to study the organic standards. Plan to have everything ready to submit to the Organic Trust in November/December 2008 so that a January 1st 2009 conversion start date can be availed of.�

While this deadline will put them under strain, it is my understanding that both certification bodies will endeavour to deal efficiently will promptly with all applications.

Organic Trust 01 8530271 www.organic-trust.org

IOFGA: 043 42495 www.iofga.org

Links on the left for both

organic milk in Ireland: news, issues and a new company

A new company has been established by a group of 16 organic dairy farmers. I spoke to Tipperary organic farmer Pat Mulrooney, of the newly formed Irish Organic Milk Producers (IOMP) Company about the company and also about issues facing the sector in general.

Quota, costs and prices, the need for joined up thinking about organics at Departmental level, and the remit and opportunities of the new company all emerged as key issues.

First off, Pat does see some growth potential: �We see development, and more farmers coming into it, if not in the short term them further down the line. Our production will double in the next 2 yrs, and it will probably double in Northern Ireland as well. Some of our 16 members haven�t come on stream into organic as of yet.�

However, according to Pat, this doubling will come about because of extra farmers, not because of quota increases:

�Its 2001 or 2002 since anyone has been able to get quota of any size. There is no-one retiring from our group, and we�re not able to get anything from the national pool�.

�There is a small amount of new quota for various new products, but none for our specific products. There is such a small pool of milk available to us, and none from any other source�

While the vast majority of organic milk will still be purchased by Glenisk, Pat suggests that freeing up some quota would allow for some product and brand development.

As with so many other farmers, feed costs are a major concern:

�We�d like to see more done with summer milk. Winter milk is a hefty commitment. The costs are gone crazy, with meal at �600 a tonne. It�s crippling and marginalising. Now, we�re all adapting to this as best we can, to develop systems where we�re less dependent on meal, such as growing our own crops, and growing more red clover. But we�ve no good alternative system in place - we�re making progress, but even growing our own feed puts more pressure on our available land�.

In this variable costs context, price inevitably becomes an issue. Because of the differences in production costs, every six months or so, there are discussions as to the price of summer and winter milk: �We got a reasonable price last winter, and we�re hopeful that we�ll come to a reasonable conclusion for this summer�.

Specifically, Pat states: �Really, you�d want 60c per litre for the winter and, at the very minimum, 47 to 48 cent for the summer�

Winter prices will be discussed again on the 1^st August, while summer prices are being finalised at the moment.

What is perhaps most frustrating is that the Department seems to be speaking with a forked tongue - promoting organics with one side, and holding it back with the other:

�Overall it�s a bit disjointed. While there are some good government schemes promoting organic farming, we�re very much left behind. We can�t improve like our neighbours, though we�re living in the same economy. Promotion and grant aid money are all fine, and we�re supportive of that. But there has to be something in the quota system to allow us to expand like our neighbours. Otherwise it won�t be viable.�

The current situation for organic dairy farmers with regard to costs, price and quota has provided an impetus for the formation of the IOMP company:

�At least we�ll have a more coherent voice. We�ll be giving different jobs to different people in the company. We�ll educate ourselves this first year.�

The company will have a business development dimension: Marketing and developing a better understanding of actual on-farm milk production costs are two areas Pat cites that the company will be focusing on.

Overall them, there are both opportunities and constraints on the organic dairy sector. The Irish Organic Milk Producers company will at least help the sector represent itself.

ecologic: a healthy food store, not a health food store

�We�re a healthy food shop, not a health food shop�. So says John Dunne, founder of Eco Logic in Dundrum. On the face of it, Eco logic looks a lot like one type of health food store: the more food-focused health food store. This type is certainly in the minority, as they tend to foreground food and background the more convenient and profitable pills, potions and body building powers.

There are distinct differences between Eco Logic and these more earthy health food stores, however. For one thing there are no pills, potions or powers here at all � none. For another, this shop is certified organic.

�We went for organic certification so our customers would be in no doubt about the products we stock. I know myself, I found it annoying to have to be constantly reading those tiny labels�.

He had to go to a lot of effort, with plenty of visits from IOFGA and the Department of Agriculture. Perhaps these two groups were wary, after the well publicised and long running case involving Marc O� Mahony and the shop that called itself the Organic Shop in the English Market in Cork city. O� Mahony was prosecuted for labelling a non-organic turkey as organic under the European Communities (Organic Farming) Regulations 2004. O'Mahony pleaded guilty in Cork District Court, where Judge David Riordan fined O'Mahony �2,500 and awarded costs of �2,000 to the Department.

Back to Eco Logic. Citing climate change as a major motivator, John moved from a career in media and IT into selling home composters at farmers markets. Some of the customers he had at the markets followed him to the Dundrum shop he established with Linda McDonnell two years ago.

The shop itself is an A-Z of organic, with fruit and veg, meat, dairy products, seeds, pulses, non-alcoholic drinks, dried goods, sauces, along with some chilled, frozen and convenience products such as cereals, ice-creams, sweets and so on. There are also some non-food items, all of which maintain an environmental theme, such as Lilly�s cleaning products, Klee paper�s stationary and various personal care products.

But food dominates. Many of the newer, smaller Irish organic companies have their products stocked here, including Rossinver porridge, sauces and relish; Tipperary ice-cream; Wilde�s chocolates, and Blazing Salad�s breads.

�It breaks my heart to have to sell imported organic cheddar cheese and butter� John tells me. And herein lies a conundrum: whether to stock Irish artisan or imported organic. In John�s case, however, he can�t choose � he has to go with the certified organic.

I spent an hour or so in the shop, talking to John while taking breaks to let him deal with his customers. He seemed to know all of them by name, which is never a bad sign. They also spanned an age range that seemed to go from 20 to over 70.

I asked John about his customers: �they break down into three categories: there�s the healthy environmental ones, the parents with young kids and a group I wasn�t necessarily expecting, people with health problems�.

John�s customer base isn�t necessarily massive, but they are very loyal: he suggests that they come from a fairly wide geographical area, and tend to do a large amount of their shopping with him.

My own initial experience of the shop backs this point up: I was staying with a friend in Rathgar, who recommended Eco Logic to me. She does a weekly shop there. And I know from cycling from her house to the shop in the rain that it isn�t exactly around the corner.

Despite the south Dublin location, John hasn�t been overrun with extremely wealthy shoppers: �generally speaking, they do seem to be reasonably well off, but I�d say that they are more intelligent than rich�.

There is much research to back this latter point up, along with varying interpretations as to what it might mean. For John, in practical terms it means that he gets plenty of banter, feedback and recommendations from his steadfast shoppers.

For more: go here or 01 2962632

a biodynamic farmer in wicklow: Ernest, aubracs and a whole load of challenges

(noite: I'll have a comprehensive article on biodynamics in Food and Wine magazine soon)

All farmers work hard, but, pound for pound, the scattered few biodynamic farmers here in Ireland work harder. What�s more, they do so for no mark up, at least in the Irish situation.

Ernest Mackee is one such rare breed. In fact he�s a rare breed with a rare breed: Aubrac cattle.

Biodynamics as a type of organic farming deserves an article, perhaps a sequence of articles, to be explained. I won�t do this today. However, I will tell you that it involves an awful lot of dawn starts, occasional hours of spinning work, making complex sprays and preparations to harmonise your farming practices with the broader cosmos and the earth itself, the heroic building of uber-healthy compost, and all, as I said, for no real mark up. An organic mark up, yes, but no extra mark up for being biodynamic:

�Demeter has no market value separate to organic� according to Michael Miklis, administrator of the Biodynamic Association of Ireland.; �we haven�t broken the mould of organic�.

Biodynamic farmers� situation is also made me difficult by the fact that there are so few of them, and their certification body has ceased being a certification body recently. Demeter found the �8000 per year fee to be a certification body too high, in a context where they only had a 15 or so certified biodynamic producers. The other organic farmers who availed of their organic certification, while being more numerous, didn�t make enough of a significant difference for Demeter to remain in certification.

Ernest Mackee, up Donard in the hills of Wicklow, is one of the handful of biodynamic practitioners in farming in Irleand. Ernest has Texel-Belclare crosses and a pedigree heard of Aubrac cattle on his 137 ha.

�The reason I�m biodynamic is to improve the soil structure of the land and the health of the animals. It�s a holistic system. These improvements are gradual, but very noticeable over the 11 yrs I�ve been biodynamic. It�s a steady, slow process. The roots go down into the ground quite deeply, and they bring up the trace elements�.

Biodynamic farming is in many ways an act of faith. There is research to back up what Ernest says � the DOC trials in Switzerland. The problem is that the results are understood but the process by which the soil quality improves isn�t � at least not by the scientific community.

I asked Ernest how he knew it was better than conventional or standard organic: �I suppose I�ve been at it so long. I�m farming 46 yrs � I started when I was 16 yrs of age. Back then, there was a lot of fertilizer being spread. There were super phosphorous subsidies to nationally increase fertility - it really took off in 60s, 70s and 80s.�

With this many years in farming, and with the experience of going organic before going biodynamic, Ernest can lay a reasonable claim to knowing the pace at which a sward grows and regrows.

Ernest gets a good return from his Aubracs. �They are hardy and suited to a forage diet�. This is important in a context whereby, in his own words, �the price of meal has gone bananas�. This also means that Ernest�s customers get 100% grass-fed beef, which is increasingly showing up as a positive in research and is generally becoming more sought after.

�They also calve easily. They are not huge cattle, and they�re easy to maintain�.

All very well, but where�s the beef?

�They don�t necessarily have less meat� Ernest tells me. �Some of the big cattle have huge bones. The Aubrac kill out rate can be as high as 80%. Some get E grades. Their bone structure is small, so there is a lot of saleable meat on them. They are more like Aberdeen Angus size than Dexter size. They�re not monsters like Emmental or Charlois�.

His returns speak for themselves: Ernest� animals consistently achieve just under the top 25% returns rating, when compared to the National Farm Survey Figures.

And yet, apart from a small number of private customers, much of his meat ends up in Superquinn as organic only. Better soil, better animals � shouldn�t he get better pay?

Ernest can be contacted on: 045 404973; the Biodynamic Association of Ireland on 056 7754214. A Teagasc farm profile of Ernest� s holding can be found by clicking on �farm profile� at www.biodynamic.ie

What is innovation in farming, and how does organic fit in?

here's an article on innovation - the word, the preconceptions, and an alternative vision of it from a farming perspective

Innovation is a funny word. It conjures up images of science and technology, of the business �community�, of skyscrapers, microchips and power-suits, and perhaps most of all, of �going forward�.

Innovation can be seen as coming up with something new and useful, as a response to a specific set of circumstances. In business it can refer to the processes through which companies get to add value, and it is inherently connected to research and development.

If we apply innovation to food, we nearly always think of brave new worlds. In the past, it was tinned foods and margarine, DDT and Angel Dust. Today, it�s GM, molecular gastronomy and functional foods.

And yet, there are other ways to look at innovation and food, inspired and catalysed by the environmental challenges we face.

So is organic farming innovative? Coming up with a new, marketable, branded, certified product, more in tune with planetary needs and consumer preferences may well be seen as innovative. Food was going in a particular direction: industrialisaton farming and food was seemingly unstoppable, spurred on by cheap abundant oil and a range of synthetic inputs.

And then, along came organic food. People all over the world had started to realise that there was an environmental crises - in fact, there were various, sometimes interconnected crises. People wanted food to taste and be more natural. People wanted animal�s welfare to be taken more seriously.

Necessity bred ingenuity and food producers responded. Taking the best of the old along with plenty of the new, they began the long process of changing how food is.

Like all businesses, this had to be done with a value-adding aspect. Organic producers not only innovated in terms of what and how they produced, they innovated in distribution and in their own organisational structures, from box schemes to certification.

And still it goes on. Innovation seems to be in the high-end, cutting-edge, urban, industrial, business domain. And yet it carries on in fields on farms, far from the urban core.

An irony of innovation is that urban food preferences for more natural food have in part helped reshape the rural space, back away from the industrialised brink.

It is still the case, however, that innovation in food is seen in agri-industrial terms, by and large. Comparative funding figures and the front pages of the farming press all suggest as much.

Because of this, it was a surprise to see Offaly organic farmer Ralph Haslam on the front cover of the Farmers� Journal recently. The journal went, by it�s own front page description, from being �fearlessly on the farmers� side� to being �the voice of Ireland�s farming industry� a while back.

And yet there was Ralph, having received top prize at the JFC awards for innovation.

Ralph not only grows vegetables and produces award-winning cheeses under the Mossfield brand, he is building a dairy processing unit and biodigestor on his farm.

Ralph will spend the bones of �1 million on his new cheese and milk products plant, which will allow him to his own organic ice-cream.

And the biomass digestor is a great example of innovative business thinking. According to Ralph, �the digestor takes slurry and farmyard manure and is fed by microorganisms. These then convert the mix to a gas that runs a turbine which in turn generates electricity�

It can in fact, LPG-style, produce a BTL � biomas to liquid.

In a context where his 247 acre farm can clock up a fuel bill of �50-60000 per annum, any move towards powering anything on-site is most welcome

He found Eddie O� Neill (Teagasc Moorepark) very helpful with the plans, and indeed Pat Barry and the whole Organic Unit in general.

Ralph keeps on innovating � he�s moving from Freisen to Rotbunt cows: �They are hardy, grass based, dual purpose, and they give high protein and butterfat content in the milk� he tells me.

Putting it all together, and you have an organic farm with high levels of biodiversity, on the foothills of an ecopark, on an ecowalk trail, producing their own award-winning cheeses, building even bigger on-farm processing to add even more value and products, while converting slurry and farm yard manure to electricity. That�s innovation.

will this become the biggest organic farm in Europe?

In what will surely be a major boon for the organic sector in Ireland, one of the countries� largest farms has decided to begin the process of converting to organic. When conversion is complete, it will also be one of the biggest organic farms in Europe.

An Grianan, is a farm in a region of Donegal with the same name. Along with being massive, at almost 3,000 acres, it is also one of the most northerly farms in Ireland. It is nestled on the Inishowen peninsula�s coastline in Donegal, between the townlands of Burt, Bridgend and Burntfoot.

Unlike much of the county�s farmland, the farm, which is owned by Donegal Creameries, is relatively flat: 1800 acres of it was reclaimed from the sea.

This also makes it quite fertile, limey and sandy � �if you walk through, after it�s been ploughed, you can see the seashells� according to Gareth Whitmore of Donegal Creameries, who is managing this ambitious project.

500 acres of the farm is an important wildlife freshwater called Inch lake: it is the first landing spot for some migrating bird species.

The rest is farmed by a varying number of farmers who rent sections, mostly on a short-term lease - at present there are 20.

First up, I asked Gareth about his reasons for taking on such a large project: �farming is much the same as any other business: you need to have a point of difference. Grianan is a very special place, and the farm is too - it is very naturally fertile. We looked at various things, including oil seed rape and willow. But we thought that going organic was the best way to complement the farm. We�d feel that there is a growing need and desire out there amongst consumers�

According to Gareth, a combination of some research and a more general recognition of the fact that consumers are becoming ever more aware of what they are eating: �consumers know more and more about where their food comes from. We reckon that organic consumption will continue to rise over the next five to six years�.

Compared to conventional farming, Gareth feels that organic farming has a lot of growth potential at the moment: �organic production is coming up in demand. There seems to be less competition, as supply is coming from outside the country�.

He continues: Irish conventional produce compares favourably to our competitors� conventional produce, so home grown organic produce should be better quality than much of the available imported produce�

The plan is to convert the farm in phases, over the next five to six years. At the moment, 698 acres is in conversion, growing white and red clover to build up fertility.
At present, they are setting up an organic dairy with a local farmer on the farm.

Beef, sheep, root vegetables, barley and wheat are all possible for the future � �we�re not ruling anything in or out�.

The soil may make at least part of the enterprise particularly suitable for vegetables in general and root crops in particular.

They took advice from the relevant state players, who they found to be very helpful: �We talked to Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and Teagasc to start the process. �They have been very supportive from day one. Pat Barry, the national organic advisor from Teagasc was always there with info when I needed it. All of the advisors in all of the sectors vegetables, grains, cereal crops, dairy, were all very helpful�.

As this massive and productive farm goes through the process of conversion, the organic sector will surely feel the ripples reverberate down from the tip of the north west of the island. Literally any sector they choose to go into, indeed any related sector, will feel the effects.

Will an Grianan help sort out the organic tillage shortfall? Will it reduce the proportion of imported organic vegetables on sale in Ireland? Only time will tell.

But whatever it does, being an operation on the scale it�s on, we�ll notice it.

Science, farming and fossil fuels: An organic crop researcher talks about the science of farming

Dr. Charles Merfield, or �Merf� as the approachable New Zealander prefers to be called, is making waves across the Irish agricultural landscape at the moment. Merf works for Teagasc (Irish state's agri-advisory and research organisation) as an organic crop researcher, and is based in Johnstown Castle, Wexford, Ireland. Merf's own site, which carries info on his research, letters published in the farming press etc is here

Oliver Moore: First thing first Merf, tell me a little bit about yourself and your background - hw did a New Zealander end up as a researcher in Ireland?

Merf: My partner is a soil microbiologist and nitrogen specialist and was working for Teagasc in 2006 - I heard about the job when I came to visit her. It�s also the only job in organic cropping research I found in the EU - something I find rather odd considering the general enthusiasm for organics at the moment, so I am very glad I got the position.

Oliver Moore: Do you have any practical experience in farming?

My background is in commercial horticulture - I studied at Writtle College in the UK. I then had jobs managing organic horticultural farms in the UK and New Zealand. This has given me a really solid grounding in real farming and business - which I feel is an invaluable asset now I am mostly on the research side of the fence. I only have to think back to standing in a cold wet field harvesting vegetables to remind myself of farmer�s priorities. I find agricultural scientists that have come from purely academic backgrounds without farm experience are missing something, and ag science is poorer as a result.

Oliver Moore: Your perspective on where agriculture is going has been attracting a lot of attention recently, in both the farming press and at various agricultural events. Firstly, can you give me a brief historical perspective.

Merf: Since the beginning of agriculture until the enlightenment and the industrial revolution, agriculture has been firmly embedded in the carrying capacity of the local ecosystem in which it operated. Human history in that time is riddled with endless examples of human societies that exceeded the ecological carrying capacity of the land, thereby destroying it and themselves. This is a key theme in Tim Flannery�s �The Future Eaters�. Indeed it is difficult to think of any large civilisation that has not destroyed its resource base and therefore itself. One exception held up in organic circles are the ancient Chinese who farmed the same lands for millennia without loss of fertility or productivity, due to the constant recycling of all nutrients from animal, including human, manures back to the land.

For me there are two key changes that fundamentally altered this situation - science and fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are not just fuel but are the �feed stock� for most of the materials on which our modern lives depend. Anything you see around you that you cannot clearly see is made from biological material, for example a solid wood table, is almost certainly made �from� fossil fuel, mainly oil. Unfortunately practically everything in the modern world is made �with� oil or other fossil energy, even if it is of biological origin and not made �from� oil. In other words, the energy from fossil fuel was used in its manufacture. Fossil fuel therefore provides nearly all of the energy and �feed stock� for the modem world, materials that were previously provided almost exclusively by agriculture. I therefore think the term �fossil land� is a far more accurate and useful term than fossil fuel.

Oliver Moore: So what�s the problem with fossil fuel or fossil land dependence then?

Merf: Peak oil is the problem. Fossil fuels having been in common use for about 300 years, nearly eight generations. Fossil fuels are so �normal� that most people cannot, or maybe until the last couple of years, could not conceive that they would not last for ever. However, its very basic maths that if you have a finite resource and progressively use it up then at some stage you will of used half of it up, that is, peak supply, at some time use all of it up, and at some point in-between its scarcity will drive its cost so high it will in effect preclude its use for most purposes. Once it is gone, it is gone forever - at least in geological time scales.

From my perspective science and fossil land make an unholy alliance. Without fossil fuels, science and technology would have been forced to work within the ecological carrying capacity of the land, and when they tried to exceed it they would be been utterly rebuffed. The carrying capacity of land is no different to the productivity of a cow, say. You can�t keep milking a cow without feeding it and expect to get milk forever, but that is often the belief about ecosystems: you can�t milk an ecosystem forever without feeding it, i.e., replacing that which you remove from it, and expect it to last forever. Had there not been fossil fuel and society had hit the ecological wall, after a few crashes �science� should have figured out what was going on and figured out how to stay within the ecological carrying capacity.

However, modernity has effectively ignored the carrying capacity of its ecosystems by consuming fossil land, in the form of oil and coal. These replaced the nutrients and energy that had previously been produced by agriculture. I hope the term �consuming fossil land� or just �consuming land� gives some insight into how insane this is. No farmer in his right mind would allow the destruction of part of his or her fields with each harvest, but this is what we are in effect doing when we consume fossil fuels, that is, fossil land. Both land and fossil fuels are finite resources and if we destroy them it takes a very long time, millennia for soil, tens of millions of year for fossil fuels, to replace them.

We have therefore used fossil land to both boost our current agricultural land area, increasing its productivity while also directly using fossil land to feed, clothe and house ourselves. Indeed, there has been so much fossil land available we have used it to have one �huge consumerist party� that far exceeds what our agricultural land would of supported on its own.

Oliver Moore: Give me a specific example, Merf

Merf: A key example using fossil land to directly boost the effective agricultural land area is nitrogen fertilisers. These are made from and with the natural gas methane, mostly as the feed sock / raw material but about 10% or so as the energy source to drive the Haber�Bosch process. By applying N fertilisers we can increase crop yield, which in the case of pasture, means we can increase stocking density. However, this is an illusion. If a farm had to produce all of the methane and energy required to produce the nitrogen fertiliser it uses then its stocking rate would be far lower, due to the land area needed. I have yet to see an analysis of this but I bet that it would be possible to get a far higher stocking rate using legumes to produce the nitrogen than the Haber�Bosch process using farm produced methane and energy.

Oliver Moore: What does this kind of analysis mean for society�s ability to feed itself?

Merf: We need ten times the amount of agricultural land we have in Europe to supply our current energy needs. On top of this about 15% of oil is used as �feed stock� to make plastic and all the other materials we have substituted for biological materials such as wool, cotton, wood and so on. So at a rough estimate we may need 15 times our existing agricultural land area to meet our current energy and synthetic material consumption, oh and one existing land area to produce our food, plus half as much again if it�s to be done within ecological constraints. Even if the figures I use are out by a power of ten we are still in serious trouble.

Oliver Moore: In the short term, what will this mean for agriculture in Ireland?

There will come a point when rotations will have to come back into mainstream farming, as clover will prove to be a cheaper source of nitrogen that the current oil-based sources.

Poultry, as a non-ruminant, needs quite a considerable quantity of grain to perform. Free-range poultry can be fed on some grass, but not completely on grass. The same goes for pigs. Now, they can be fed on various fodder crops, but you won�t get the growth rates.

In organics, the two organic meat products that cost far higher for the consumer are pigs and poultry, because organic producers can�t substitute pasture in for grain. Organic beef has the lowest price premium, especially in places like Ireland where the production differences are small.

The pig and poultry producers just don�t have the same sorts of pasture options. Their animals are indoors all the time and fed highly concentrated, high energy rations. But the whole system is based on cheep feed.

The dairy guys can look at places like New Zealand, which has similarities to Ireland, and see how to maximise the use of grass. The obvious easy one is to start to introduce clover. Clover increases quality, digestibility, protein, you get free nitrogen fixation - it�s a puzzle as to why more non-organic farmers aren�t doing it!