increase font size
Origin Green chief executive Aiden Cotter.
Origin Green, a scheme that verifies the sustainability of Ireland’s food and drink production, now has 100% of the country’s dairy farmers and 90% of beef farmers signed up to its extensive auditing.
Ireland is the first country with such a scheme, now envied by many countries including New Zealand.
Aidan Cotter is a quietly spoken man from Cork in the south-east of Ireland. He’s been chief executive of Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, since 2004 and the visionary and implementer of Origin Green.
Ireland and New Zealand are similar in many ways: the Irish countryside is often referred to as having 40 shades of green and it’s arguable NZ could claim this too.
NZ has used the ‘clean green’ phrase frequently, but the Irish have stolen a march on us by going one stage further – using an extensive, evidence-based science programme. Origin Green has been lauded worldwide and a steady stream of visitors from countries with a strong agricultural base -- including New Zealanders -- are knocking on Cotter’s door to find out more about the scheme.
But Bord Bia isn’t just waiting for visitors. It’s got offices in Moscow, New York, Shanghai, Madrid, Milan and Dubai to, name a few, which it uses to get its messages across.
And Cotter says he has talked to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World Wildlife Fund, World Bank and many international commercial organisations, such as Coca Cola, since the scheme was launched four and half years ago.
Origin Green has used EU regulations on sustainability as its base platform, but it as gone much further, Cotter says.
“We are carbon footprinting every farm in Ireland every 18 months. No other country is doing that,” he told Rural News.
“We have a whole audit system above the EU legislative requirement. Origin Green is voluntary and the audit encompasses food safety, traceability, animal health and welfare, a range of environmental considerations and we have added on biodiversity, water conservation and a lot of other areas.”
Cotter says Ireland as a nation understands that it lives or dies by global markets, and that to be successful it needs a point of difference – which Origen Green gives.
He says while no farmer likes being audited, they recognise it is part of the price of gaining and retaining world market share.
He points to the importance of Ireland’s agricultural exports -- 90% of its beef, in particular, is exported.
Next year, Cotter will step down from his role as chief executive of Bord Bia, the most exciting and rewarding thing he’s ever been a part of, leaving a huge legacy. He has claimed the high ground on sustainable food production for Ireland and put in place a system other countries, such as NZ, can only wonder about not having achieved.
The Irish Minister of State for Rural Communities says his country and New Zealand face very similar challenges on a range of issues related to agriculture, including climate change, biodiversity and rural depopulation.
OPINION: Before we all let The Green Party have at it with their 'bold' emissions reduction plan, the Hound thought it wise to run the numbers through the old Casio.
Environment Southland says it has now ring-fenced $375,000 for new funding initiatives, aimed at enhancing water quality.
Farmers have welcomed the Government’s move designed to limit farm to forestry conversions entering the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
OPINION: If you have kept your finger on the emissions pulse, none of the below information will be a surprise to you. However, if you are a farmer that has not been following New Zealand’s ruminant methane issue then you may be in for a nasty shock.
The chair of Beef + Lamb NZ, Kate Acland says the rush appears to be on to purchase farms and convert them to forestry before new rules limiting this come into effect.
New Zealand farmers will face higher urea prices this year, mainly on the back of tight global supply and a weak Kiwi dollar.
Andy Caughey of Wool Impact says a lot of people in NZ have been saying it's crazy that we are not using natural fibres in our buildings and houses.
Former chief executive of Beef+Lamb New Zealand Scott Champion will head the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) from July.
Avian flu getting into New Zealand's poultry industry is the biosecurity threat that is most worrying for Biosecurity Minister Andrew Hoggard.
The annual domestic utilisation of wool will double to 30,000 tonnes because of the edict that government agencies should use woollen fibre products in the construction of new and refurbished buildings.
OPINION: In the same way that even a stopped clock is right twice a day, economists sometimes get it right.
OPINION: The proposed RMA reforms took a while to drop but were well signaled after the election.
