Galway research reveals benefits circular farming could bring
NEW research from University of Galway shows that transformative changes in farming and land use could mitigate huge risks facing Ireland’s farmers and taxpayers over the coming decades.
The findings underline how current farming practices and land use patterns leave Ireland vulnerable to inevitable global shocks, including climate change impacts and trade disruptions.
By making greater use of farm and food by-products, alongside ambitious climate action, circular farming could diversify revenue streams and reduce risk.
The research has been published in two new scientific articles in Nature portfolio journals. Both studies illustrate the increasing costs likely to face farmers, taxpayers and consumers if difficult decisions on subsidy reform and land strategy are kicked further down the road.
They also provide robust evidence for policy makers and farming stakeholders grappling with difficult decisions on how to balance apparently competing objectives for land.
The research was led by Professor David Styles and Dr Daniel Henn from the Ryan Institute at University of Galway.
Professor David Stylessaid: “Business as usual exposes Irish farmers to pollution pricing in a sustainable future, trade barriers in a regional rivalry future, and climate-change-driven productivity losses in a fossil-fuelled-growth future.
More diversified farming could help insulate Irish farmers, consumers and taxpayers to this plethora of risks, whilst improving food and energy security and supporting a vibrant agri-food sector less exposed to reputational risk and trade barriers.”
Dr Henn’s alternative research scenarios included dairy specialisation, food production diversification and national food self-sufficiency.
Advanced circular animal feed included refined by-products from breweries and other food industries, and insect meal produced from insects fed on food waste.
Novel indicators to evaluate sustainability and resilience considered factors such as import dependency, net human-edible protein production, total land requirement for agriculture and bioenergy generation, alongside greenhouse gas emissions and nutrient losses to water.
Findings showed that circular farming strategies could reduce Ireland’s exposure to future market, regulatory and climate threats - through the substitution of imported feed, food, fertiliser and fossil energy.