Bríd Smith on biodiversity collapse and the failures of industrial farming
Bríd Smith addresses Ireland's biodiversity crisis and the controversy over the Nature Restoration Law, arguing the law is unlikely to stop species decline unless root causes are tackled. She says farmers' fears are real and calls for compensation for biodiversity measures while criticising industrial food production.
Biodiversity crisis in Ireland
A third of examined species groups in Ireland - including plants, butterflies, freshwater fish, dragonflies and sharks - are threatened or near-threatened. The National Parks and Wildlife Service 2019 report found 85% of EU-protected habitats are in bad or inadequate status, with peatlands highlighted. Almost 50 marine species in Irish waters face extinction risk, and the 2021 bird assessment shows 63% of 211 regularly occurring bird species are on red or amber lists, with wetlands, peatlands, farmlands and marine environments worst affected.
Debate over the Nature Restoration Law
Bríd Smith says she is puzzled that the Nature Restoration Law has provoked such anger and insists she is not worried it is too radical. Her principal concern is that the law will join previous directives and regulations that have failed to halt biodiversity decline, rather than deliver the systemic change needed.
Farmers' fears and economic pressures
She acknowledges farmers' fears as genuine, noting many small farmers have seen no benefit while large food processors and beef and dairy interests have grown richer. Smith argues those fears stem from agricultural policies favouring larger commercial interests and calls for direct compensation and payments to farmers for biodiversity measures.
Challenge to the industrial food model
Smith warns that unless the root causes of biodiversity loss are confronted - in particular the unsustainable, industrial model of food production that prioritises profits of large interests over ordinary farmers - biodiversity decline will continue. She urges that anger be directed at these systemic drivers rather than at modest restoration proposals.
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Goethe, Cathaoirleach. Just to say, People Before Profit wish to also note the passing of Michael Viney. He is a great loss to the nation. Nature was his passion, and he shared it with us both widely and wildly, and he is already missed. Having heard the statements on the biodiversity crisis and the various committee meetings on the scale and the scope of it, I am not aware of any deputy who has denied the scientific reports and research that says that we are effectively in the sixth mass extinction event. Just to repeat the main examples of what is actually happening in Ireland. A third of all species groups examined in Ireland, including plants, butterflies, freshwater fish, dragonflies and sharks, are either threatened with extinction or near-threatened. The National Parks and Wildlife Service on the 2019 report on the State of Ireland's EU-protected habitats and species show that 85% of these habitats are bad or in adequate status, including peatlands. Almost 50 marine species living in Irish waters are under threat of extinction, species such as fish, shellfish and vertebrates, as well as types of seaweed. The most recent bird watch assessment in 2021 shows the status of 63% of Ireland's 211 regularly occurring wild bird species are categorised as red or amber due to moderate or severe decline. 37% of these are on the amber list and 26% on the red list. The main groups of birds affected are those on wetlands, peatlands, farmlands and marine environments. Given these facts, I am puzzled that the nature restoration law is controversial, that it has aroused such anger. There are some deputies here who, in the normal run of events, are preoccupied with other issues, complaining about refugees occupying hotel beds, accusing women accessing abortion of all sorts of things, or TDs like me who drive a diesel van. Having taken time out of their busy schedule, they are here to denounce the proposals as the greatest threat to rural Ireland since Cromwell. I too have spoken to farmers, and they are concerned, and those fears are genuine. They are based on what they have seen happening over the last decade, as the agricultural policies of this state have been led and determined by the larger interests, both in the large food processors and the beef and dairy interests. While these interests have become larger and richer, and the exports of dairies etc have rocketed, most small farmers have seen no benefit and feel more precarious and fearful of the future. The reality is backed by research from the farming organisations on the numbers and the incomes of that majority. So farmers' fears are real, and we do absolutely need to compensate them and pay them for their biodiversity measures. But I am puzzled by the fact that so much of the fear is directed at what is a pretty modest proposal, and instead it should be directed at the causes of what undermines the livelihoods and futures of these farmers, and that is not the NRL, it is the craven following by this and past governments that have benefited a relatively few in the farming industry over the interests of the vast majority of ordinary farmers. The unsustainable model of industrial food production has to be challenged. This report also admits that all previous attempts in various habitat directives and regulations and protective areas have failed to halt the decline in biodiversity. So why is there hysteria? I am not concerned that the law is too radical or it will mean too much change in order to save wildlife. My fear is the opposite, that it will join the many, many other directives and regulations that have utterly failed to halt the biodiversity decline. And until we look at the root causes of that decline, which ultimately are the same drivers pressurising ordinary farmers, the industrial intensive model that prioritises the profits of large commercial interests over ordinary farmers, we will not stop the decline in biodiversity loss. I thank you very much temperature. Thank you. Thank you very much for turning. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you. Thank you.
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