The ‘Advancing Farm to Fork’ project aims to educate both producers and consumers in Ireland regarding opportunities offered by the Farm to Fork strategy, and to clarify scientific evidence regarding the environmental impacts of current (intensive) agricultural practices.

A key objective of the ‘Advancing Farm-to-Fork’ project is to promote organic farming as a viable alternative to current conventional practices, for its many benefits in supporting farmer and rural livelihoods, wellbeing, community, and sustainability, as well as its potential for reducing environmental impacts, enhancing biodiversity, climate mitigation, and Irish food security (of particular relevance following Brexit, Covid-19, and the ongoing Ukrainian crisis). The project really aims to facilitate a conversation for farmers, stakeholders, and policy makers, which can be used to inform a bottom-up approach to policy and scheme design, allowing current gaps to be identified and bridged, facilitating improved future uptake and representation of organics in the agricultural landscape. 

The project will also promote organic farming at the community level, aiming to educate farmers and stakeholders on the benefits and viability of organic farming by showcasing best practice examples from existing successful organic farms around the country, and providing educational resources which will allow existing knowledge-transfer gaps to be addressed. 

A second element of the project aims to clarify the scientific evidence-base informing the urgent need to move away from our current intensification-driven agricultural model, to a more sustainable food production system. 

Central to this will be a study to model the potential trajectories for carbon emissions from the agricultural sector under different scenarios, emphasising the need for accurate measurement of emissions and legitimate reductions, if our binding targets are to be achieved.

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PODCAST

Click below to listen back to Ellen O'Hora, Agricultural Social Researcher with

An Taisce's Legacy4LIFE programme, talking about the Advancing

Farm to Fork project, on Connemara Community Radio, Wed 22 June 2022.

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