In the chilled section of any major supermarket, from London to Lagos, you’re likely to find a taste of Ireland – a stick of premium butter wrapped in gold or green packaging, celebrating a superior product from grass-fed pastures.
But the gleaming image of Ireland’s agri-produce hides a number of inconvenient truths, among them the damage the sector is wreaking on Ireland’s climate targets, as well as its waterways and soils.
Ahead of a general election due no later than March next year, DeSmog has launched a new interactive map revealing the power of the Irish agribusiness sector and its hundreds of connections spanning politics, marketing, academia and industry.
Dairy production in Ireland has boomed since 2011, as the EU started phasing out its cap on milk production, with a devastating impact on the climate. Latest figures show that instead of cutting its agricultural emissions, Ireland has increased them – by 10 percent over the period 2010-2023.
While profitable for dairy industry bosses, the expansion is highly detrimental to Ireland’s declared aim to cut agriculture emissions by 25 percent by 2030, as part of its legally binding commitment to achieve net zero emissions no later than 2050.
Intensive farming practices lead to excessive levels of nitrates in fertilisers and manure, harming the lush green pastures Ireland prides itself on. These nitrates lead to oxygen-sucking algae growth in lakes and rivers, and have contributed to 99 percent of Ireland’s ammonia air pollution.
Despite a slight reduction in overall emissions last year, Ireland is still “well off track” in meeting its EU and national climate targets for 2030, according to its Environmental Protection Agency – in large part due to the methane from Ireland’s unchecked dairy production. The agriculture sector was responsible for over a third (37.8 percent) of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, the highest proportion in Europe.
The intensive farming lobby appears to be in the driving seat. Major dairy processors in particular have been ramping up lobbying efforts around Ireland’s derogation from the EU Nitrates Directive, designed to tackle farming pollution. The country’s exemption allows certain farms to use larger amounts of manure as fertiliser, despite the fact it releases significant amounts of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 265 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 100 year period.
Environmental groups have argued that a transformation of Ireland’s intensive food and farming sector could help meet climate targets, protect its nature and biodiversity and provide Ireland’s 120,000 farmers with more sustainable livelihoods.
Irish producers are tackling unpredictable yields from a rise in extreme weather events while also trying to meet environmental standards. Many small farmers, who spoke to DeSmog in the course of our research, said they feel locked in an unsustainable food system they do not profit from.
Dairy farmers in particular raised their concerns over the Irish government’s policy to drive dairy growth, which they felt had benefited large processors.
The network of interlocked interests, illustrated in the map, is standing in the way of a reckoning with the sector, said Dr. Elaine McGoff, head of advocacy at An Taisce, Ireland’s National Trust.
“The intensive agriculture sector in Ireland is incredibly effective at lobbying, and at using their platform to push a false message of sustainability from a number of different angles,” McGoff told DeSmog.
“What this mapping makes clear is how well networked the key players and organisations are, and how well served by PR companies to push their messaging. This is clearly a very well oiled machine, one whose primary purpose is to sell a false narrative that we can continue business as usual and not pay the environmental price.”
This interactive map works best in Safari and Chrome browsers. Map credit: Paul Price
The Powerful Farm Lobby
DeSmog’s map shows how Ireland’s farm lobby groups are uniquely positioned to influence the country’s agriculture policies.
The sector’s power is wielded through the lobbying of politicians in meetings, letters and public statements, close relationships with Ireland’s farming media, and the high profile of its senior executives, many who occupy roles across politics and industry.
At the heart of this lobby is the Irish Farming Association (IFA), which claims to represent 72,000 farmers and is Ireland’s most prolific lobbyist on agriculture, food and the environment. DeSmog’s map highlights regular meetings between the IFA and agriculture ministers, who are often speakers at its January AGM.
A number of the most influential and active farm lobby and pro-agribusiness media and marketing groups are headquartered in close proximity to each other and share the same premises in Dublin.
They include the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), the Irish Farmers Journal (IFJ), investment holding company Farmer Business Developments (FBD), young farmers association Macra and educational trust Agri Aware. These groups share a number of strong institutional connections, such as shared board members, with the IFA.
The close relationship between the farm lobby and top politicians was illustrated at Ireland’s National Ploughing Championships last week, when Taoiseach Simon Harris defended Ireland’s current exemption from tighter EU pollution limits while being interviewed during a “bikeathon” at a tent sponsored by the Irish Farmers Journal. “The nitrates derogation is a national asset,” he said. “It’s an important part of our farming infrastructure, and Europe needs to realise that.”
In a rare example of coordinated lobbying, Ireland’s six largest agribusiness groups last week launched a ‘joint declaration’ around the nitrates derogation, timed to coincide with an EU Commission visit to Ireland.
The groups – who included the IFA, ICMSA, Macra and Meat and Dairy Industry Ireland – argued that the removal of the derogation would have “widespread negative economic consequences for Ireland’s rural economy” and that there would be a “time lag” before their actions to improve water quality would be seen “on the ground”.
Ireland is one of just five EU member states to have recently held derogations from the EU Nitrates Directive – and is likely to be the only country seeking one from 2026. The legislation is viewed as critical for protecting water quality and promoting good farming practices across Europe.
Setting Food Policy
Teagasc – the Agricultural Food and Development Authority – is central to Ireland’s farming sector. As a state agency with expert status, Teagasc’s research underpins the country’s agricultural policy and measures for reducing emissions and pollution. It operates two food research centres, six additional research centres, and eight research farms, and was due to receive €168 million from the Irish government in 2024.
The UN’s leading science body the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are clear that absolute cuts to limit cumulative total emissions are required by nations to meet climate commitments.
However, since 2010, instead of outlining policy options to directly limit total emissions, such as limiting emissions intensive livestock production, Teagasc’s climate mitigation reports have emphasised improving agricultural emissions efficiency – that is, the emissions per kilogram of milk or meat – and recommended voluntary, technical ways for farmers to reduce their carbon footprint.
The map also outlines a number of crucial policy groups, including Ireland’s agri-food strategy committees. Appointed every five years by the Minister of Agriculture, these bodies are tasked with developing 10-year food strategies that have largely been adopted into government policy, through Food Harvest 2020, Food Wise 2025 and the most recent Food Vision 2030.
DeSmog’s analysis of Food Vision 2030, which launched in 2021, showed that over half of the 32 committee members worked in the agribusiness sector.
Likewise the board of Teagasc, which channels 40 percent of its annual budget into academic research and development, is dominated by meat and dairy interests.
The agency’s 11-person board, known as Teagasc Authority, includes three dairy farmers, one beef and one tillage farmer. The board features senior executives from the ICMSA, Macra and the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS), but has no representatives from environmental NGOs at present.
Teagasc has faced criticism for its role in hosting and part-funding a 2022 “International Summit on the Societal Role of Livestock”, which launched the “Dublin Declaration”, a pro-meat manifesto that is viewed by leading climate scientists as “industry propaganda”. (Signatories of the document have condemned critiques as a “smear campaign”.)
The document was written, released and promoted by agribusiness consultants, including Peer Ederer, and aided by Dublin-based PR agency Red Flag, as investigations outlet Unearthed revealed in 2023. The declaration claimed that livestock systems “are too precious to society to become the victim of simplification, reductionism or zealotry”.
Sixteen Teagasc staff members were signatories, while Declan Troy, who at the time was the agency’s acting director of research, is listed as an “initiator”. Teagasc reported favourably on the summit, issuing a press release quoting Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Martin Heydon, who said that “Ireland welcomes the scientific effort embodied in the conference, and its contribution to global solutions that ensure meat drives solutions for a healthy future.”
Major scientific bodies, including the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the EAT-Lancet commission, have recommended that consumers in wealthy countries such as the U.S. and UK eat less meat.
According to a March 2024 paper, which surveyed more than 200 environmental and agricultural scientists, meat and dairy production must be drastically reduced – and fast – for the livestock sector to align with the Paris Agreement.
The report concluded that global emissions from livestock production need to decline by 50 percent during the next six years, with “high-producing and consuming nations” taking the lead.
In an emailed statement, Teagasc told DeSmog: “Over the past 5 years, Teagasc research associated with the Teagasc Climate Research Centre has produced 161 scientific peer reviewed published papers relating to agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and technologies to reduce emissions.”
It went on to say that Teagasc “has published extensively on technical measures for farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, both efficiency measures and those that reduce absolute emissions”, giving the examples of the latter such as “low emission fertilisers, feed and slurry additives and on-farm renewable energy”.
Teagasc added that its climate strategy “specifically aims to support the agri sector to meet the target reduction in total emissions from Agriculture by 25%”, in line with “Ireland’s commitment to reduce overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 51% by 2030”, and that its latest report “outlines how technical abatement measures could lead to reductions in GHG emissions from Irish agriculture that would be sufficient to allow agriculture to remain within its allocated 2021-2030 sectoral emissions ceiling (-25% reduction in emissions relative to 2018).”
Dublin Declaration
Frank O’Mara, Teagasc’s director since 2021, has also championed the Dublin Declaration in his capacity as president of the European public-private research partnership Animal Task Force (ATF). ATF co-organised a 2023 symposium in Brussels to share the outcomes of the summit and associated research, alongside the Belgian Association for Meat Science and Technology, where Dublin Declaration co-authors Frédéric Leroy and Peer Ederer, as well as signee Alice Stanton, were also speakers.
Professor Stanton is a clinician-scientist who served as the director of human health at livestock feed company Devenish Nutrition until 2023. Last week, Stanton published an academic paper stating that “Any possible absolute adverse effects of red and processed meat consumption on NCDs [noncommunicable diseases] are very small and uncertain.”
Contrary to Stanton’s claims, there has been substantial evidence linking high consumption of red and processed meat to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including certain types of cancer, stroke and diabetes.
A spokesperson for ATF told DeSmog they were “not a lobby group” and that they “promote EU research in the livestock sector, ensuring that the challenges that mankind currently faces are fully investigated and that research on livestock provides the needed information so that policies can be based on solid scientific data, and not on biased interests”.
They also said: “The Dublin Declaration of Scientists on the Societal Role of Livestock, as can be read in its website: ‘aims to give voice to the many scientists around the world who research diligently, honestly and successfully in the various disciplines in order to achieve a balanced view of the future of animal agriculture.’ Note that this declaration has been signed, until now, by 1,204 independent researchers around the world.”
Teagasc research officer Professor David Wall is the president of the council of trade association the Fertilizer Association of Ireland (FAI), along with another Teagasc colleague. Wall’s research interests at the Irish state agency include “improvising the precision of fertiliser advice”. He is also the “editor of Teagasc nutrient recommendations for agricultural crops”.
The FAI represents all of Ireland’s major fertiliser companies, including Yara Ireland, the Irish arm of the Norwegian firm, which has global revenues of $16.6 billion.
Researchers have found that nitrogen fertilisers are responsible for around five percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than global aviation and shipping combined.
In an emailed statement, Teagasc said: “Many Teagasc staff with research and advisory expertise in soils, soil fertility and nutrient management have contributed (including serving as President) to this [Fertiliser] association since its inception in 1968. It has, and continues to be a valuable conduit for the dissemination of best practice information and advice to farmers and the wider sector.”
Dairy Processors
The dairy sector has boomed in Ireland over the past 15 years, in response to the 2015 lifting of the EU’s milk quota that had placed restrictions on production.
Critical to Irish meat and dairy’s international reputation is the publicly funded food and drink marketing body Bord Bia, which is responsible for promoting the country’s meat and dairy export trade. Around 90 percent of Ireland’s beef and dairy products are exported – the latter raking in €6.3 billion last year.
Ireland’s meat and dairy processors, including major players Dairygold and Glanbia (which made pre-tax profits of €23.9 million and €117 million, respectively, in 2023), have been actively lobbying senior politicians to retain the nitrates derogation. In a press release issued by Dairygold after its May 2024 meeting with Simon Harris, chief executive Michael Harte said it was “important that we work hand-in-hand with the Government to protect the future of sustainable dairy production”, noting that 60 percent of its supplier farms are under derogation.
A 2021 analysis by the European Court of Auditors stated that Ireland was notable as being “among the highest greenhouse gas emitters per hectare” due to being one of four EU countries with a derogation from the Nitrates Directive. The Auditor also noted that, “since 2014, in Ireland, the area under derogation has increased by 34 percent”.
These companies can also engage in lobbying through Dairy Industry Ireland and Meat Industry Ireland, represented through IBEC, Ireland’s largest business organisation and most active lobbyist on the official register.
As noted in DeSmog’s new IBEC profile, the group has been regularly accused of acting to delay climate action, for example in 2011, 2018 and 2024. A June 2024 book chapter on climate obstruction in Ireland noted IBEC was the most active lobbyist on topics including the keyword “climate”.
The map also shows how Ireland’s farm lobby interacts with the EU’s main agribusiness lobby and research groups. These include European Livestock Voice (ELV), a campaign group set up by agricultural trade groups in the EU, the European Dairy Association, Copa-Cogeca and the European Livestock and Meat Trading Union (UECBV).
These hubs of influence, depicted on the left-hand side of the map, provide a glimpse into the high level access enjoyed by the few entities who have profited from the rapid expansion of the sector – among them major dairy processors Dairygold, Lakeland and Kerry.
The map also highlights the role of dairy processor Ornua, previously the “Irish Dairy Board”, which rebranded ahead of the lifting of the milk quota in 2015. Ornua is Ireland’s largest exporter of dairy, exporting to 110 countries worldwide.
Greening the Farm Lobby
Strong media support and marketing initiatives are crucial to Ireland’s pro-growth farming sector and its ability to win public support. Its campaigns are often coordinated and funded by the meat and dairy industry, or groups founded by industry.
The Irish Farmers Journal, a weekly farming newspaper owned by Agricultural Trust, is strongly supportive of Ireland’s farm lobby, and offers little critique of the agricultural expansion that has dominated Ireland over the past 15 years.
The newspaper also commissions reports that back the farm lobby’s positions on domestic and EU policy. In July 2024, the IFJ paid the consultancy KPMG to write a report which predicted that a reduction to the nitrates derogation could have severe economic consequences.
The IFJ has previously run columns which promote climate science denial, including a 2017 opinion column by Matt Dempsey, the former editor of the IFJ and chair of the Agricultural Trust.
The IFA, Meat Industry Ireland, ICMSA are among the farm lobby groups that fund Origin Green, a voluntary programme for Ireland’s agri industry that was developed by Bord Bia in 2012. Origin Green’s sustainability audits have routinely highlighted Irish beef and dairy farmers’ carbon footprint reductions per unit of produce, without fully addressing the sector’s high methane output.
Ireland’s farm lobby has used findings published by Origin Green to demonstrate the sustainability of the agribusiness sector. This was apparent in the IFA’s 2021 document titled “Irish Farming – its Green Credentials”, which claimed it was “imperative that Irish farmers’ current sustainability credentials are fully acknowledged”.
Origin Green has been criticised by NGOs, including An Taisce, which wrote in 2020 that “Bord Bia’s involvement, along with private sector meat and dairy companies, in funding and promoting the Meat and Dairy Facts project promoting questionable claims about sustainability and efficiency, calls Bord Bia’s independence from industry into question”.
The IFA was a main organiser of the “Meat and Dairy Facts” initiative, which it describes as an “IFA campaign”. Set up in 2019 with the initial assistance of Red Flag Consulting, along with Bord Bia, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA), Dairy Industry Ireland (DII), Meat Industry Ireland (MII) and the National Dairy Council (NDC).
National Dairy Council (NDC) plays a vital role in promoting the green credentials of the Irish farming sector to a wider public. A private, farmer-funded initiative representing a dozen dairy processors and the farming lobby, it produces educational materials promoting dairy farming and milk consumption directed at schools. Campaigns include “From the Ground Up” (2022) and “The Grass Roots Movement” (2023). NDC also regularly teams up with Irish rugby players, most recently Gary Ringrose, who was seen in adverts last year celebrating milk as “nature’s sport’s drink”.
In 2023, Ireland’s Advertising Standards Authority (Asai) ordered the removal of two National Dairy Council (NDC) advertisements following complaints that they were misleading.
Another crucial player is Agri Aware, a charitable trust founded and funded by a consortium of agricultural industry players, including Ornua,, Kerry, the Irish Food Board and the Irish Farmers Association (IFA).
Agri Aware provides “curriculum-ready” materials which are generally distributed free of charge to schools in Ireland. DeSmog previously reported that workbooks produced by the initiative and distributed to more than 3,200 primary schools had misrepresented the climate impacts of raising cattle and sheep.
Research Bodies
DeSmog’s map also reveals the close relationships between private companies, universities and state bodies that contribute to bolstering and legitimising the positions of the farm lobby.
A number of public-private research collaborations and partnerships are highlighted on the top right-hand side of the map. A number of these bodies, which are largely funded by the state and meat and dairy companies, publish research that appears to favour technical measures to increase efficiency of meat and dairy production rather than policy-driven reductions to herd numbers.
This focus comes despite the position of the 2021 Global Methane Assessment – the most detailed analysis of methane mitigation methods to date – which states that policy has more power than technical measures to reduce emissions. Its authors write: “Given the limited technical potential to address agricultural sector methane emissions, behavioural change and policy innovation are particularly important for this sector.”
The research bodies featured on the map include Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF), a research institute aiming to help farmers benefit from genetic gain. The ICBF’s board is chaired by Michael Doran of the IFA and includes three board members from both the IFA and ICMSA respectively.
Also depicted is Animal Health Ireland (AHI), a public-private research body that provides education and advice on livestock disease. AHI stakeholders include meat and dairy processors and state agency Bord Bia. One of its five directors, John Malone, is the former secretary general of the Department for Agriculture, Farming and the Marine (DAFM).
A number of Ireland’s top universities, also on the top right-hand side of the map, carry out agricultural research funded primarily by Teagasc, the Department of Farming, Agriculture and Marine, and industry groups.
They include the University of Cork, which carries out research for Moorepark Technology Limited and enjoys close connections to Teagasc – including through individuals Dr Mark Fenlon, an adjunct professor at Teagasc, and UCC professor Thea Hennessey, a board member of Teagasc Authority.
The government’s Food Vision Groups all include a member from University of Dublin. UCD is a patron of the industry-founded and funded educational charitable trust Agri Aware, and was represented on its 2022 board.
Brenda Mcnally, an interdisciplinary social scientist specialising in climate politics at Dublin City University, said the mapping was a “timely piece of research” that “provides the first visual overview of the wide range of actors engaged in shaping the public narrative and informing policy making about farming and food production in Ireland”.
“Given the increasing contestation about the pace and direction of climate policy needed for a just transition in farming,” she said, “shedding light on the links between key actors will provide a basis from which to develop new research questions, and conversations, about how to advance democratic debate and processes to tackle the climate crisis in Ireland.”
Additional research and reporting by Paul Price, Joey Grostern, Brigitte Wear and Clare Carlile
Edited by Hazel Healy
As part of its Irish Agriculture series, DeSmog has published three new profiles in our Agribusiness Database for state agency Teagasc, the Irish Farmers Association and business organisation Ibec.
