Green Ireland?

“Ireland's natural beauty is world-renowned. Glorious beaches, vast national parks, dramatic landscapes and interesting wildlife all make it the ideal destination for the nature enthusiast” 

http://travelfeatured.com/beautiful-ireland-landscape/ 

So says DisoverIreland.ie, the website of the National Tourism Development Agency for Ireland which sells hard the Emerald Isle’s image of a green, nature-filled land, removed from the worst of industrialised countries further east. But scratch just a little beneath the surface and the state of Ireland’s nature is far from healthy. From the mountains to the lowland bogs, from rivers to the coast, Ireland is losing wildlife and environmental quality at an alarming rate. This will come as a surprise to the many who still have an image of “old Ireland” a place of quiet certainty and wisdom born out of a life with the soil and nature.

In November 2016 the EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency for Ireland, published its latest assessment of the health of Ireland’s environment. Much of it makes disturbing reading.

“The majority of Ireland’s most important habitats are reported to be of poor or bad conservation status, including raised and blanket bogs, dune systems, oligotrophic lakes, fens and mires, natural grasslands and woodlands. Only 9 per cent of habitats listed under the Habitats Directive are considered to have favourable status.”

For example, the land of magnificent rivers and wetlands is polluted. The report states that the number of high quality rivers in Ireland has halved in the last 30 years. In the recent monitoring period between 2013 and 2015, only 21 sites were classified as the highest quality rivers compared with 575 between 1987 and 1990 and 82 between 2001 and 2003. Raised levels of nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen, mainly from agricultural run off and waste-water from human settlements, are the biggest cause of the pollution, and raw sewage was discharged into rivers at 43 separate locations. A European Commission report published in May 2015 stated that all of Ireland’s wetlands have an unfavourable conservation status and are continuing to deteriorate.

The Irish Environmental Protection Agency described the situation as “a critical issue for Ireland in the next decade.”

http://www.briansart.com/Travel/Ireland/i-jNbNFSW

Ireland also has one of the highest green house gas emissions per head of population of any country in the world. 29% of the emissions come from agriculture, the single largest contributor, followed by energy generation and transport.

Given that Ireland’s gas emissions are on the rise, and that peat bogs are highly efficient carbon sinks, it is odd that three peat-fired power stations continue to be supported and subsidised by €150 million per year. The continued use of peat as a main fuel means Ireland will not reach its greenhouse gas reduction targets set by the EU. Laura Burke, Director General of the EPA:

“The EPA’s most recent greenhouse gas emission projections …projected that Ireland would not meet its 2020 target, with emission reductions likely to be in the range of 6-11% below 2005 levels. The greenhouse gas emission increases for 2015 in this report, suggest that achieving reductions, even at the lower end of that range, will be difficult.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/court-ruling-could-have-implications-for-other-bord-na-m%C3%B3na-plants-1.2407891

Legal, commercial peat-cutting to power Ireland’s 3 peat-fired power stations will continue until 2030. Private use of peat (used domestically and to sell on the black market) is a hotly contested issue. Some of it is harvested illegally on protected sites and angry, sometimes violent, conflicts arise when any moves are made to restrict or abolish turf cutting. Even on bogs protected by European law, turf cutting is proving hard to stop. Wildlife rangers and even the police are reticent about direct conflict and the practice goes on unchallenged. In fact the Environment Minister, Heather Humphries, has just announced the drafting of legislation to delist 46 bogs which have Natural Heritage Area status. NHAs are so called because they are recognised as valuable for wildlife. As the National parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) states: “NHAs are areas considered important for the habitats present or which holds species of plants and animals whose habitat needs protection.” Delisting them will remove any protection.

Ireland’s NPWS found that “no peatland type of priority importance in Ireland is in good conservation status.” Only 1% of the original extent of the great blanket bogs remains intact, the rest has been stripped for commercial and private peat extraction or drained and “improved” for agriculture.

For the wildlife that depends on these areas it is disastrous. The curlew, the most endangered bird in Ireland, is badly affected. 70% of the remaining 130 pairs nest on bogs, and each breeding season they return to find their nesting sites cut, burned and drained. The Irish government looks set to extend the burning of upland areas into March, when birds like curlew are returning to breed. For a bird so on the edge of survival this could be devastating. Population analysis shows that Curlew will be functionally extinct (no longer enough birds for a viable breeding population) in just 7 years.

Corn bunting - RSPB

Corncrake - Telegraph

The Curlew is not the only species in Ireland that is struggling to hang on. The EPA report highlights that out of 199 species of birds in Ireland 25 are considered to be in urgent need of conservation action. The corn bunting has already gone extinct, the corncrake, once widespread across the whole of Ireland, has been reduced to 183 calling males. 2016 saw the highest number of birds of prey shot or poisoned, including the endangered hen harrier. There are only 108 pairs left. Ireland could soon become the land where no birds sing. The report also states that more than a third of Irish bees, and 15% of water beetles, butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies are threatened.

Curlew - Wiki

Hen Harrier - RSPB

Ireland has gone through dramatic changes over the last 30 years, perhaps no more so than in the way farming is carried out. Agriculture, which was previously mixed and low intensity, has rapidly become highly intensive and specialised. Drainage of fields, increased use of fertiliser and the cutting of silage to feed the increasing number of cattle have resulted in widespread loss of habitat for wildlife, as well as increases in greenhouse gas emissions. The Celtic Tiger also took its toll, encouraging often unrestrained building on sensitive areas.

In many ways all this is counter to the true heart of Ireland where wildlife and landscape are intimately bound with creativity, tradition and folklore. Some of the most beautiful poetry and prose in Europe have sprung from the rootedness of the Irish psyche to its natural heritage. To see this disappear now is to lose more than just physical matter and living species. Perhaps a re-engagement of young Irish people with their landscape-literature will re-invigorate a respect for the natural world and forge a new identity where Ireland leads the way in Europe to a more holistic and greener future.

There is no doubt Ireland’s green image is tarnished, yet its natural beauty and unsullied image is used to attract millions of tourists each year. If the continued erosion of nature continues, the tourism industry will certainly suffer. The recent EPA report should raise serious concerns about how just how quickly this will happen.

Ethical Carnivore - Louise Gray

I loved this book -  Ethical Carnivore  by Louise Gray - it got better the further in and I found myself thinking about it quite a lot.  Louise comes across as a kind, determined, vulnerable woman who wants to be honest about what she does.  She eats meat - so what is the honest thing?  Kill it for yourself and don't hide behind plastic packaging and anonymous looking chunks of pink stuff.

Louise comes from a farming/shooting background and so the idea of picking up a gun isn't totally new, although it seems her brothers took to it as children more than she did.  When she made this decision to spend a year only eating meat she killed herself, at least she had her dad to teach her how to handle a gun and take her out to shoot rabbits, I wouldn't have a clue who to ask.

The first chapter is less strong than the rest, it feels a bit - well- shaky.  She finds it hard to manage the gun and can't dispatch a rabbit without tears.  I probably wouldn't have started this way, but her vulnerability comes across straight away, and that is good. She isn't a campaigning, tattooed activist who lies in front of lorries, she is a normal, sensitive westerner who has been removed from the reality of food and now has decided to face up to what it means to eat meat.  I liked that - I identified with her fears and squeamishness, I couldn't have done what she did.

She delves headlong into abattoirs and intensive chicken farms, eating road kill, going on fishing trawlers and breaking the necks of roosters.  Eventually she tackles shooting a deer. She visits farms where animals are simply units to be processed and others where they are loved until they die humanely. She describes being in a large abattoir as being in hell and was deeply traumatised.  Addressing the question of whether CCTV should be be installed in them she says no - no one should see what happens, it is like being in a vile dream. But how else do you despatch enough animals to supply the ever growing demand for meat in this country? Around 8 billion animals (livestock and fish) are killed each year in the UK for food. Can that really be true?  This figure is taken from a vegan website which says:

The total number of animals killed in British slaughterhouses in 2013 was over a billion.

This included 9.8 million pigs, nearly 15 million sheep, 18 million turkeys, 14 million ducks, over 945 million chickens and 2.6 million cattle. Add to that 4.5 billion fish and 2.6 billion shellfish you have a total of over 8 billion animals killed in the UK each year.

This equates to around 22 million animals slaughtered every day; 919,000 an hour; 15,000 per minute and 255 every second.

I was particularly interested in reading this book after making "Would You Eat An Alien?" for Radio 4 - a whacky look at the intelligence and sentience of farm animals.  It was such an eye-opening set of programmes to be involved with and taught me a lot.  We are strange creatures, we don't treat chickens as real birds, or cows as real mammals - somehow farmed animals are different to their wild relations.  But of course they are not.  Maternal and social bonds are just as strong, the ability to feel pain and fear is just as strong - but it is far easier if we don't acknowledge it.  If we had to kill pigs or cows ourselves I am sure most would be vegetarian pretty quickly.  But we don't and we absorb the Old MacDonald farm image and turn a blind eye to reality.

I went to see Louise give a talk at the Birdfair this year - she asked if the audience would rather be a chicken or a pheasant? Clever and brave for that venue - the majority of whom would be opposed to pheasant shooting. Most of the people there, and I am sure more generally, would choose to be a pheasant - given than it lives a wild life until shot (or run over or eaten by a fox).  Surely better than living for only 6 weeks, bloated and full of chemicals, hardly able to stand and never seeing daylight. She was courageous, polite and definitely, in my opinion, held the moral argument. There is no doubt pheasants - agree with their existence in the UK or not, have a better life than your average broiler.

Therefore I applaud Louise - she didn't pretend everything was fine - she found out for herself, carried on eating meat but did the honest thing and killed it with her own hands.  And the surprising thing is - she carries on trying to eat only the animals she kills, which has had a drastic effect on how much meat she eats.  She now eats mainly vegetarian food with occasional meat thrown in.  That seems to be a very healthy and sensible way to live. We all know the dangers of too much rich, animal fat.  Many people in the West overdose on protein they don't need (my family for a start!)

Well done Louise - well written, direct from the heart, not one ounce of preachiness and its challenging. Its a great read. And if I was asked round to Louise's for a squirrel supper, I think I would look forward to it very much.

Two articles this week...

I had 2 articles published this week:

Woodpigeon flying over an organic wheat field in Somerset

The Tablet article - Faith in Farming is on the future of farming, based around a remarkable man Victor Barry (see earlier post).

Severn Estuary

The other is in a brand new magazine called Justice on the Severn Estuary.

Pony Power - Back to the Future

Victor Barry

I've just got back from another wonderful holiday in Cornwall- the Roseland Peninsula. Its funny the people you come across in unexpected places. This is Victor, he is either 73 or 74, he's not sure which - and is passionate about organic, sustainable farming. He knows how to plough with shire horses and how to farm in "the old fashioned way", ie small scale, sustainable and providing for a local community. He believes this is a type of farming that is now in danger of being forgotten and he wants to see it put right back on the agenda - and nowhere more so than on the outskirts of the major cities and towns. He wants to see horses and ponies back on the land - small scale organic plots farmed by local communities and he wants to see traditional farming values transported into a modern world. He is passionate about horses - see Cornish Horse Power for details of how he wants to use horses today.

Below is a video of the plough team on his land harvesting hay. Victor is walking behind at the end. The second video is a closer shot, notice the hay bales being thrown out of the side of the machine - which is a hundred years old. The technology used to tie the bales with string was shared with Singer sewing machines.

This plough is very old, but more modern, lighter, easier to use ploughs can be used that don't require so much specialist knowledge and can be pulled by small ponies - and this is what Victor wants us to do.









But he is not advocating going back to farming 60 years ago, he believes we have to use modern technology with old fashioned values, which he believes are more respectful of the natural world. Certainly biodiversity was higher 60 years ago, although I know (and Victor knows) that farming back then was not a perfect model of egalitarian social interaction.

One of his ideas is to use the many thousands of pet ponies that are sitting idle for most of the day all around the outskirts of out towns and cities and teach them - and us - how to plough small fields with them for community farming, using modern, small, light ploughs. Its a great idea, I love the idea of using ponies in Community Supported Agriculture. Why not? Its the kind of creative thinking we need. He is an active member of Transition Towns which he says embody many of his dearly held beliefs about community and local supply.

An important part of Victor's drive to create a sustainable future for farming is his sincere, evangelical even, Catholic faith. He believes we have been charged with tending the earth and have spectacularly failed, particularly in the 70s at the height of intensive farming. I agree Victor, I totally agree. Every morning at 7.00 Voctor holds a small prayer meeting in his tumbled down "office" before milking his Jersey cows. His farmyard is full of fascinating old things including old wind surfers ( he was once pretty good I hear) old boats, tractors, the obligatory caravans and other "stuff"which most farmers seem to find hard to throw away!



I think Victor is onto something, using the wisdom of the past and combining it with new technology. And I think the spiritual underpinning of his actions will sustain him through these difficult times when I know he often feels he is a voice in the wilderness.

Perhaps we will see ploughing ponies bringing in a local harvest, and if I do I will say a silent thank you to Victor - I hope his dreams come true.