Sir, – The article asserting that the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme will become "another barrier to the sale of Northern Irish milk in the South" and that it "will milk consumers" (John McManus, December 16th) is misleading and potentially damaging to the industry's international reputation.
The new Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme, with its solely international focus, has nothing to do with the argument about Northern milk that has been advanced in The Irish Times over recent weeks.
Confusing these issues does a disservice, not just to our dairy industry, but to the wider Irish food and drink industry, to farmers and manufacturers, at a time when it seeks to consolidate and build on its green and natural reputation, using objective measures as part of a programme designed to position Ireland as a world leader on the sustainability journey.
The scheme is being launched as part of the Origin Green programme which extends across all sectors of the food and drink industry. It is export-focused, is fully funded by the dairy sector and is not being promoted on the Irish market.
The assertion “sustainable dairy farming is whatever Bord Bia says it is” lacks understanding of the principles upon which the Origin Green programme is based. Bord Bia has always described sustainability as a journey and the goal of the programme is that all our food and drink exports by 2016 would come from farms and food businesses, each one individually certified as being on that journey.
In the case of dairy farms, this journey includes 170 auditable measures that must be checked on each and every farm. The international accreditation accorded to the scheme, to the ISO 17065 standard, is based on a requirement that it compares favourably with corresponding schemes.
Where it becomes a “world first” is in its inclusion of an additional, comprehensive set of environmental assessment measures that are not included in other schemes of its type.
There is no other country whose food industry has embraced this level of commitment and this level of ambition in order to show the world what it stands for. Our claim is simply that we have commenced on a journey with sustainability as its destination. – Yours, etc,
AIDAN COTTER,
CEO,
Bord Bia,
Lower Mount Street,
Dublin 2.