Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Ireland’s mooted cow massacre is a warning to net zero Britain...The Irish government is reportedly looking at plans to cull around 200,000 dairy cows to meet its climate targets. It's madness
Telegraph UK ^ | 2 June 2023 • 6:00am | JAMIE BLACKETT

Posted on 06/02/2023 1:24:52 PM PDT by Red Badger

The collateral damage of net zero is now getting uncomfortably close to home. First Dutch farmers were threatened with compulsory purchases to satisfy EU emissions targets, fomenting a new revolt in the process. Now it’s Ireland’s turn, where the government is reportedly looking at plans to cull around 200,000 cows to meet its climate targets. The scheme would be a bit like voluntary redundancy, with farmers offered financial inducements to give up their cows.

British beef and dairy farmers are now very jittery. It seems increasingly clear that there is an eco-modernist agenda to do away with conventional meat altogether. It’s not just the Extinction Rebellion mob, either; many of the world’s politicians are on board.

It’s very fortunate we’re out of the EU or we could be facing the same pressure from Brussels. Now, we can only hope that Rishi Sunak, who represents a heavily rural constituency in the Yorkshire Dales, understands what’s at stake for farming communities.

Spending vast sums of taxpayer’s money on destroying productive animals would be a perfect summation of the net zero madness infecting the West. The Irish Department of Agriculture has said that the report was just a “modelling document”, but no sane government would even get to the point of including such a plan in “a deliberative process”. Why? Because it is irrational.

Dutch and Irish politicians have failed to recognise that regenerative farming techniques allow livestock farmers to help mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon in the soil. The technology needed to measure soil carbon accurately has recently been developed by a British company, Ecometric. The results are startling. Some British livestock farmers are now being paid for the net carbon sequestered into the soils after the methane from their burping cows has been accounted for. It would mean changing the way we farm to embrace holistic methods; mainly replacing cereal-based cattle diets with grass, but it can be done.

And we should be embracing the energy-creating capacity of cows. Tallow from British cattle is already being turned into biodiesel – a one tonne animal produces enough for around 180 litres. And thanks to Somerset-based start-up, Biofactory, new anaerobic technology is already available to turn the methane in their manure into usable electricity and heat. The manure itself is converted by this process into a more nutritious digestate that can substantially reduce the need for harmful artificial fertiliser. My own dairy farm is investing in these new green technologies and we hope to be carbon neutral and net exporters of energy in just a few years.

Wreaking havoc on livestock farming families in the name of climate science is also very short-sighted. By the time, if ever, lab food technology, which uses huge amounts of energy currently, is efficient enough to replace the edible fats and proteins from animals, we will probably be using hydrogen technology instead of fossil fuels, and no one will be remotely worried about carbon.

If there are any in Britain minded to follow the Dutch and Irish examples, they should think again. Farming needs to become greener, but through harnessing new technology rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water.


TOPICS: Agriculture; Business/Economy; Food; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: dutch; dutchfarmers; farmers; ireland
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

1 posted on 06/02/2023 1:24:52 PM PDT by Red Badger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Diana in Wisconsin; mylife

Corned Beef prices to fall soon!...................


2 posted on 06/02/2023 1:25:24 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

I’m all for good stewardship of the earth that God created, but I have zero tolerance for the diabolical actions of the gaia cult!


3 posted on 06/02/2023 1:27:09 PM PDT by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Do you want a Famine, because that’s how you get a Famine.


4 posted on 06/02/2023 1:27:44 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
The "net zero" idiots are anxious to eliminate all of the carbon...including YOU. Energy and food production are being destroyed as prelude to a famine to depopulate.
5 posted on 06/02/2023 1:27:48 PM PDT by Myrddin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

meats back on the menu boys.


6 posted on 06/02/2023 1:29:39 PM PDT by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world or something )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

There are several competing statistics but here is one on world hunger:
“Each day, 25,000 people., including more than 10,000 children, die from hunger and related causes. Some 854 million people worldwide are estimated to be undernourished, and high food prices may drive another 100 million into poverty and hunger.

So if to “save the planet” from “climate change” the Irish slaughter 200,000 “productive cows” they are implying that climate change is a higher value than human life.

Seeing the Left’s agenda here bolsters that explanation


7 posted on 06/02/2023 1:33:27 PM PDT by frank ballenger (You have summoned up a thundercloud. You're gonna hear from me. Anthem by Leonard Cohen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

I prefer bison.


8 posted on 06/02/2023 1:42:10 PM PDT by Raycpa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: frank ballenger

I have a suggestion, let’s cull 1 Million Politicians World wide!!!!

These gia living morons do nothing but suck up oxygen. ALL they produce is HOT AIR .

CULL POLITICIANS!!!!!!


9 posted on 06/02/2023 1:45:25 PM PDT by OHPatriot (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

I was in England during the Mad Cow crap. Had a meeting with a Scottish Program Manager on the program I was working. He said your reputation proceeds you and I’m told I’m supposed to drink beer with you. There were about 10 of us at a restaurant where we met about 7pm. I said I accept your challenge and ordered a steak.. medium rare. He said you’re aware of the mad cow business and I said I am. At 01:45 am he stood up and placed his unfinished beer in front of him and said, “You’re a formidable opponent, I concede.”

I said I figured you would, thanks for the steak.


10 posted on 06/02/2023 1:45:33 PM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

“eco-modernist agenda”

What a fancy way to say “STARVATION”


11 posted on 06/02/2023 1:48:53 PM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OHPatriot

Good idea.

John Wayne in McLintock:

“Do you know what a cull is, ma’am? A cull is a specimen that is so worthless that you have to cut him out of the herd.”


Sounds like a lot of politicians.


12 posted on 06/02/2023 1:57:54 PM PDT by frank ballenger (You have summoned up a thundercloud. You're gonna hear from me. Anthem by Leonard Cohen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Where’s PETA?


13 posted on 06/02/2023 2:00:28 PM PDT by Reno89519 (Donald Tantrum? No Thank You. We Can Do Better! I am a Veteran Supporting Veteran DeSantis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Potato famine wasn’t lesson enough in restricted food supply ?

They must have a lot of bugs to eat and milk there eh ?


14 posted on 06/02/2023 2:16:29 PM PDT by cuz1961 (USCGR Veteran )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: teeman8r

meats back on the menu boys.
/\

What makes you think they will let them eat them ?

/-)

Gaia requires human sacrifices.


15 posted on 06/02/2023 2:20:24 PM PDT by cuz1961 (USCGR Veteran )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: No name given

Agree. We can be good stewards without worshipping the earth.


16 posted on 06/02/2023 2:30:05 PM PDT by ken in texas
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

dude I love Corned Beef!!!


17 posted on 06/02/2023 2:32:29 PM PDT by mylife (I was a sort of country boy, a cockeyed optimist, wrapped in international intrigue and espionage)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

And they let them?

I guess it will be coming here soon


18 posted on 06/02/2023 4:46:30 PM PDT by Chickensoup (Genocide is here. Leftist extremists are spearhheading the Genocide against conservatives. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
Leading up to a "cull" of the human population.

Why trust a murder cult to be stewards of the environment?

19 posted on 06/02/2023 6:07:56 PM PDT by Salman (It's not a slippery slope if it was part of the program all along. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

200,000 DAIRY cows?

There goes the price of Kerry Gold through the roof!


20 posted on 06/02/2023 7:28:11 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Why are there so many more horse's @33es than horses?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson