By Jacques Brennan

Speaking in Croke Park on March 7, Michael O’Leary, a farmer and Ryanair chief executive, said that Ireland should continue producing beef and the national herd should increase.

This was in relation to proposed green policies on food production.

Quoted in Agriland.ie, he said:

“There’s far too much negativity, particularly towards farming about methane and all the rest of that nonsense. We should expand the herd in this country.”

This follows concerns about the drop in cattle numbers in the national herd in recent years.

But why is there a drop in cattle numbers? Is the drop really due to climate change policies?

With regard to climate change policies, animal agriculture is rarely if ever spoken about in the media or by politicians except in terms of methane emissions. Animal agriculture is one of the leading causes of environmental degradation, global warming, and pollution today, but this is rarely spoken about. Is this the elephant in the room, or should we say, the cow?

Could the reduction in the demand for beef and thus, herd numbers, be for a very different reason?

Not so many years ago you would never have seen plant-based meat substitutes on the shelves except perhaps in some health food stores. Today they are in every supermarket. And the volume is growing all the time. More and more people are turning to plant-based, healthier food.

The demand for animal products, the diet of ‘meat & 2 veg’ is a recent phenomenon. Many older people will remember a time when meat or fish was eaten only once a week at best. There are often jokes about it:

“I remember that day, it was the day we had the meat!”

It may not be long before we go back to that older healthier diet when more people were eating plant-based food than animal derived food despite what Mr. O’Leary wishes.

He adds:

“We cannot all eat grains and peas for the next 500 years. Make more cattle and make more beef, and we will have a much healthier population.”

This is another point where Mr. O’Leary is completely incorrect. We all know (and there are many studies showing) that most deaths today are due to heart attacks and strokes, and the consumption of beef is linked to a higher risk of both strokes and heart attacks.

Michael O’Leary finishes by saying:

“The world population is growing; we have to continue to grow great food.”

Here he is right. We must continue to grow great food. He is only mistaken in the type of food we need to grow.

Jacques Brennan is the owner of Hungry Soul Ltd., producer of plant-based organic food in Co. Clare.