Farming and global warming – the effects

Published on Wednesday 25 June 2008 19:37

FARMERS tend to be the ultimate cynics: should their political masters tell them that they must pursue a certain direction, then the odds are that they will move towards another point of the agriculture compass. That sense of nous has more often than not been proved to be well founded.

The farming industry has been berated for some years regarding the problems likely to be faced with the onset of global warming. There cannot be a farmer in the land who would disagree with the assertion that the spring of 2008 has not been the most difficult season for at least 20 years. Cows have never been so late in being turned out while feed supplies were down to a margin of little more than a few days. They have reason to doubt the forecast of a warmer world.

However, the theme yesterday in Edinburgh at the first "summit" climate change conference hosted by the International Dairy Federation – an organisation based in Brussels – was basically that dairy farmers must wake up soon to the negative effects of their sector in relation to global warming and the emission of greenhouse gases.

Jim Begg, a Scot who is the current president of the IDF, set the tone in measured terms. He said: "It will be far better for producers to take the initiative. It's not just about what happens down on the farm in terms of reducing emissions, but throughout the whole food chain. We have to work together – it can be done, but time is not on our side."

From the producer perspective, John Gilliland, a former president of the Ulster Farmers' Union and the current chairman on the UK government's Rural Climate Change Forum, was the most effective speaker.

Gilliland has never been afraid of expressing his opinions, and he

He said: "The world is changing fast and we have to appreciate that we are now having to feed an extra 70 million people each year. We also have to consider that at least one billion people out there are experiencing real food poverty as result of the massive rise in commodity prices in recent years."

There are no simple answers to the problems of global warming, but Gilliland is convinced that governments, including the UK, need to step up research funding by at least a factor of three.

He concluded: "Agriculture gets much of the blame for global warming, and with some good reason.

"But if we get the right funding, agriculture can be part of the solution in providing the resources for the next green revolution – feeding the world and reducing many of the environmental problems. But the politicians have to wake up, not just to the problems, but the answers that farmers can provide. I think we can do it."