It is now more acceptable to farm organically than it had been previously, a Department of Agriculture official has said.

Speaking at a Teagasc Signpost webinar, Jack Nolan, who heads up the Department’s organic unit, said all farmers are now more open to organics as an agricultural practice.

“It’s more acceptable, which is terrible to say it wasn’t acceptable in the past, but it’s just another form of farming and that’s the way it should be seen."

Information flow

Nolan added that there is now a better sharing of knowledge between organic and conventional farmers, which is beneficial for both.

“Organics is just a diversification option, it suits some farmers, it doesn’t suit others.

“But there are things that can be learned from organic farmers and, likewise, organic farmers can learn from conventional farmers.

“You’d like to see a better flow of information and that’s what I think is happening now,” he said.

Ambition

Nolan also highlighted that in Ireland we should be discussing more ambition in regard to organics. The target is to have 10% of land in Ireland farmed organically by 2030.

“The target is 10%, why don’t we aim for more? Imagine the benefit to Ireland if we went 100% organic. Imagine the marketing there that Fáilte Ireland could do.

“Imagine marketing an organic island across the world. Now, someone out there is already after putting it somewhere, ‘He’s mad. You can’t say that’.

“Why can’t you say it? When we changed our milk production system we went from five billion up to eight billion litres.

“Why can’t we look to the future and say by 2050 could Ireland be organic? It’s a question we should be asking anyway,” he added.

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