With the world population set to reach 9 billion people by
2050, it’s no surprise that governments and societies are beginning to rethink
how they will produce food for all these extra people.
In Ireland, we’re lucky
to have some of the most ideal conditions to produce lots of healthy,
nutritious food; with a benevolent climate, committed producers and a
world-class ‘food infrastructure’ built up over time.
In Cork – ‘Ireland’s food capital’. Someone who wanders
around the cathedral to food that is the
English Market cannot fail to notice
the importance of food to this region and the central place it has within our
city. With a proposed
new food innovation centre on the Grand Parade, it looks
like that moniker of Ireland’s food capital is being assured.
Ireland’s exports of food and drink reached nearly €10.5
billion in 2014, with the industry making up about 9% of total employment in
the country. The Irish food industry has been one of the success stories of the
Irish economy throughout the last number of very difficult years. The
challenge, as we seek to grow this sector and produce more food for a growing world
population, will be to do so in ways that are sustainable and do as little
damage to the environment as possible.
There are many ways in which this sustainability can be achieved.
For example, both industry and consumers have a real obligation to ensure that
food waste is minimised as much as possible.
Some estimates put the total percentage
of food wasted and lost before it gets in our stomachs at between 30 and 50%
globally. That means that up to half the food in our fields never reaches a
human mouth and is lost either under attack from pests and diseases in the
field or binned by suppliers, supermarkets or consumers for a variety of
reasons.
How we grow food crops is the subject of much debate. And so
it should be. Consumers have an obligation to be informed about the way in
which their food is produced. Hence the recent debates around issues like
pesticide residues, genetically-modified crops, organic production, etc. These
are good conversations to be having. If nothing more, a country like Ireland
which relies on the food industry for 9% of its total employment must be
informed about the best food production and plant protection techniques.
At
University College Cork, we have a long history of
studying plants and crop production. We are also the second ‘greenest’
university on the planet and the first third-level institution in the world to
fly the green flag for environmental policies. So, the production of food crops
in an environmentally sustainable way is a central tenet of our teaching and
research at the
School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at UCC.
In 2012 we launched Europe’s only
MSc course in organichorticulture to service a growing demand for higher qualifications in the
sector. Organic horticulture (and organic production in general) is often
defined by what it isn’t rather than what it is. For example, most synthetic
chemical fungicides and pesticides are not permitted for use by organically
certified growers so they must employ alternative plant protection techniques
like biological control.
From a scientific point of view, that poses some really
interesting research questions like how we can increase yields of plants in
ways which don’t rely on synthetic chemical inputs. For example, conventional
potato growers often apply between 15 and 20 applications of fungicide each
season to control late blight of potato (that’s the same disease which caused
the Irish famine). That works for now, but there are clear drawbacks to this
approach, putting all your eggs (or potatoes) in one basket. Research on
‘organic’ control techniques for late blight means that we might be able to expand
our options for controlling this important disease in one of our most important
crops. This sort of research can have benefits for both organic and
conventional agriculture.
Organic horticulture is not without its challenges. The lack
of conventional chemical fertilisers and pest control means organic yields are
often lower than that obtained through conventional means. Additionally, and
despite a premium paid for organic produce, small organic growers can often
find it hard to balance the books. By recognising the main challenges, we can
focus our research strengths accordingly so that we improve the lot of organic
growers as well as farmers in general. This will ensure that the organic produce
that consumers want is on the shelves and, where possible, is produced in
Ireland.
At the moment, the organic sector
in Ireland accounts for just less than 1.2% of our useable agricultural area (
PDF).
The retail value of the sector is about €100 million annually. The current
government aims to increase this area under organic production considerably.
For example, the Food Harvest 2020 plan seeks to have 5% of our useable
agricultural area under organic cultivation by 2020. To do this, significant
training of new organic growers is required along with upskilling of current
growers. Additionally, there is a need for significant research and development
in the area of organic crop production in Ireland. The MSc Organic Horticulture
programme at UCC has the dual aims of training scientists and producing a body
of Irish research on organic crop production techniques.
From looking at alternative methods of controlling slugs
with coffee grounds and seaweed, to using computer software to monitor disease
outbreaks in potato, to the study of charcoal as a soil additive, we’ve already
produced a range of research through this MSc programme. This is the sort of
research which is needed to ensure that growers have a variety of tools at
their disposal to produce the food we want, when we want it.
This article first appeared in the
Evening Echo on April 14th 2015.
Dr Eoin Lettice is a
plant scientist and lecturer at the School of Biological, Earth and
Environmental Sciences at University College Cork.
