This afternoon.
Convention Centre, Dublin.
Outside the sitting of the Dail in the Convention Centre were Kildare grower Larry Doran (top) and , above from left: Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity Pippa Hackett and IFA President Tim Cullinan.
The horticulture sector says it is facing ‘wipeout’ because its members cannot harvest peat. Growers unveiled a 50sq metre display with their produce to highlight the threat to their sector unless there is ‘urgent Government action’.
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Why would Pippa Hackett allow herself to be photographed in front of that protest?
I think the answer would be to move your industry away from its dependence on the exploitation of areas that need to be preserved and restored to deal with the biodiversity and climate change situations.
The answer then here would be to fold entirely.
Sure why dont we just import all our food/plants from abroad instead?
What soils/material do other countries, who don’t have peat, use to grow flowers, fruit, veg?
Oh yeah I forgot it’s impossible to grow anything without peat compost.
There are plenty of alternatives: materials such as bark, wood fibre, coir(fibre from the outer husk of the coconut), anaerobic digestate, bracken, sheep’s wool waste, and green waste compost.
The writing has been on the wall for peat extraction for decades. We need to move away from it now. There is absolutely no point in propping up this damaging industry. It needs to end before we have no boglands left.
“urgent Government action” – they don’t know the meaning of any of those three words!
Lovely tractor by the way!
He looks like he just won it in a GAA raffle.
Government action is code for “give us a grant”
Great headline.
Strawberry Fields Forever?
For Pete’s sake.
Pretty low level horticulture if you can’t function without Peat compost..
Hard to believe, really – Very hard to believe.
It is not like it hasn’t been coming down the tracks for a long time now
Panic – No Produce – really?