Union president backs LMC carbon survey

The work will specifically target the 11,600 members of the Farm Quality Assurance Scheme (FQAS) in Northern Ireland and will assess the carbon status of all the enterprises on these farms.

The UFU president is chair of the ‘Carbon Steering’ group, established as part of the over-arching sustainability body that will guide the farming and food sector’s response to the challenge of climate change.

He commented:“The steering group will work closely with a technical working group, which will comprise representatives from all of the agri-food sectors. LMC is one of these bodies.

“The time for talking is over. Climate Change legislation for Northern Ireland was enacted last year.

“We are expecting specific climate action plans for the various sectors within Northern Ireland, including agriculture to be agreed over the coming months.

“The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) will be driving this process forward.”

David Brown continued:“We produce beef and milk with less than half the carbon footprint of the global average.

“However we need the data to back up this point in the clearest way possible “

According to the UFU president, the clock is ticking – where farming’s response to climate change is concerned.

He further explained:“The industry must now actively respond to the targets that are laid down in legislation. But more, than this, the supermarkets and other businesses that buy the food we produce here want to see clear evidence that we have started down the road towards a carbon net zero position.

“All the stakeholders within local agriculture gave a commitment to DAERA that industry would come up with a plan of action that could be included within a business proposal, allowing the draw-down of the monies required to fund all data capturing activities.

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“In other words DAERA will pay for the completion of all relevant farm carbon surveys plus the generation of the accompanying carbon footprint values and mitigation recommendations issued to individual farmers.”

Brown specifically highlighted the use of the Agrecalc carbon calculator, which will be used as part of the LMC carbon survey work.

“This approach constitutes an industry standard led approach,” he said.

“What we have now is a sytem that will hold up as a totally independent process in all circumstances.

“The Union has already made it clear that farmers must not be out of pocket, in any way, where these processes are concerned.

“There is also an onus on processors to make sustainability bonus payments available to farmers who are taking the management decisions required to reduce the carbon footprint of their businesses.”

LMC has confirmed that all FQAS members will be asked to participate in a carbon survey every three years.

The survey will be carried out on the same day as an FQAS inspection. However, these are two separate processes.The carbon survey has no bearing on the outcome of an inspection and vice versa. There are no pass or fail criteria associated with the survey.

Participation in the survey will be mandatory on the part of all FQAS members.

Its purpose is to help generate a specific carbon footprint for individual farm businesses. The details of the actual questionnaires to be used on-farm to capture the necessary data points have been fully agreed.The time taken to complete the survey will depend on the number of individual enterprises that make up a specific farm business

It is anticipated that the carbon surveys will commence later this year.