Sir, – Ruth Hegarty's excellent article ("Can Ireland feed itself?", Opinion, March 12th) reveals the precarity of our food system in a globalised world.
In a time of environmental degradation, climate crisis and the disruptive change brought by the war in Ukraine, it is clear that the food policies pursued in this country, reliant as they are on imported fuel, grain and fertiliser, are far from sustainable. The last two decades have seen a loss of 75 per cent of genetic plant diversity in our food crops as a result of (mis)management and selection.
Today the majority of the world’s seed is owned by just four companies. Add to this, what scientists have termed “phenological mismatch” – plants and their pollinators becoming out of sync as a result of climate change. The implications for our food crops are catastrophic. If we are not alarmed, we should be.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN defines sustainable food systems as “delivering food security and nutrition for all in such a way that the economic, social and environmental bases to generate food security and nutrition for future generations are not compromised”.
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is how we can “pivot” when necessary. Now is the time to pivot to agroecology and local sustainable food systems for food security and resilience.
There really is no other viable choice.
– Yours, etc,
ELAINE BRADLEY,
Irish Seed Savers,
Capparoe
Co Clare.