NI farmers told to share carbon data as part of quality assurance scheme
© Elaine/Adobe Stock Livestock farmers in Northern Ireland are being asked to provide detailed information about their carbon footprints as part of their annual Farm Quality Assurance Scheme (FQAS) inspection visits.
The new approach was first announced in May 2023, but some farmers are just receiving notification now, in letters sent out by the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC), which oversees the FQAS.
The letter explains that the provision of carbon data is now a condition of FQAS membership, and farmers must allow an additional 90 minutes-plus over and above the normal inspection time, to provide the required information.
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“Tackling climate change and reducing emissions is now a key part of doing business with retailers and banks that are taking carbon emissions and environmental factors into consideration,” said LMC industry development manager Colin Smith in the letter.
“All parts of the food chain are required to act, including retailers, processors and farmers.”
While this was just a “test phase” of the new programme, Mr Smith said providing the data was “not optional”.
“Failure to complete the survey on the day will result in a rescheduling fee of £158.38,” he added.
Failure to pay the necessary fee and participate in a second visit within two months could result in suspension from the FQAS.
‘Interrogations’
One farmer who received the letter in recent days is Robert Wilson, who farms at Randalstown, County Antrim.
“These people don’t seem to understand that many farmers are one-man bands and these inspections seem like interrogations,” he said.
Just pulling the information together for a routine FQAS visit was time consuming, while the inspection visit itself took about 90 minutes. Adding another 90 minutes for the carbon audit was intolerable.
“How many individual farmers can afford to take three hours out of a day to deal with such bureaucracy?” he asked.
Mr Wilson expressed particular dismay at the threat of a £158 charge for failing to complete the carbon audit.
“I think farmers should receive a sum of £300 for each of these inspections we have to tolerate,” he said.
“It appears to me that there’s an abundance of funds going into the coffers of banks and supermarkets that need the farming community to survive.”
This amounted to “greenwashing”, he said, and was adding to farmers’ mental anguish.
Background to the new requirement
The new carbon audit was devised by the Carbon Steering Group, a consortium of farmer and processor groups including the Ulster Farmers Union, the Livestock and Meat Commission, the Dairy Council for Northern Ireland and the NI Meat Exporters Association.
According to their statement issued last May, the aim is to help the food and farming sector meet new legal targets for measuring and reducing carbon emissions. Part of this drive includes the collection of carbon data during FQAS inspections.
A UFU spokesman explained that farmers would have to do this anyway, so tying it in with an FQAS inspection would be both cheaper and more convenient.
The letters sent out recently mark the third and final stage of the test run, said an LMC spokeswoman, and come ahead of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs publishing its first Climate Action Plan in December, requiring significant reduction in carbon emissions.