An organic challenge

With the increase in organic farming in Ireland and with research suggesting a growing number of farmers will switch from conventional to organic practices, there is a need for the veterinary profession to take up the organic challenge.

Vets and farmers have become used to employing conventional methods of disease control and animal husbandry. However, with the increase in organic farming and, with the promise of increased benefits for farmers that switch to organic production, the demand for vets to provide non-conventional care will grow.

Unusually, it is not the larger, more populated areas that are experiencing these radical changes but rather it is the west and south of the country. Therefore, large animal vets are encountering these challenges first and are adapting their methods to suit this developing sector of farming.

Although there is a clear need for continued research into organic farming methods, the growing demand by society for a return to more environmentally-friendly and natural methods of farming means that those involved in the care of farm animals must begin to move away from a high degree of reliance on pharmaceutical solutions. As the research continues, so solutions to the problems of organic farming will be discovered; therefore, the necessity for vets to attend CPD seminars becomes more evident.

Although organic farmers must employ non-conventional farming methods to ensure the health of their livestock, they will still have the expectation that the veterinary profession can resolve livestock health problems as they arise.

It is this expectation that the profession must continue to fulfil, only now the need to advise and practice to strict organic standards must be met. The veterinary profession must not see this as a door being closed on conventional methods of treatment for which there will always be a place. On the contrary, the organic revolution that is beginning on the small independent farms in the south and west of the country must be seen as an additional door opening wider.

Market research abroad has revealed that Ireland is still perceived as an idyllic ‘green isle’ where farming practices are more traditional; where cattle still graze in green fields and where the air is clean and the food produced is more natural and healthy. This is an image that the government and farming organisations have realised is something that should be nurtured and promoted.

The growth in organic farming in Ireland is the culmination of this promotion. The demand is there, an increasing number of farms are converting to organic production and, recently, the EU announced that farming grants will be aimed at those farms switching to more environmentally-friendly methods of production.

The evidence is clear, organic farming will increase in this country. There is a swing away from the conventional methods of farming that had been the norm over the last few decades and a return to traditional methods that have been the norm for the previous millennia.

What the profession must ensure is that the benefits of traditional farming methods are achieved in combination with the relatively recent advances in disease control. Vets must employ the best of conventional practices without losing sight of the lessons of history.

A growing number of farming vets are moving to organic practices. This is not a fiscal decision, as Gerard Browne, a vet and founding member of the Irish Organic Farming and Growers’ Association said, but is more a growing feeling of disillusionment among farmers and vets with present day systems: "The current debacle over BSE and foot-and-mouth disease is leading farmers to conclude that intensive conventional practices are wrong," he said.

This seems to be a view which is gaining widespread support. The pictures of mass carcass pyres lighting the night sky in the UK and the implementation of mass culls in the North, although necessary to control the spread of foot-and-mouth, have done nothing to dispel the idea amongst the general public that continuing along the path of modern farming methods is perhaps not the best direction to go.

Although this public attitude could be dismissed as a misinformed knee-jerk reaction to the gruesome scenes on our television screens, the fact is we are experiencing a swing away from conventional farming and the veterinary profession must be prepared to meet the new challenges this presents.

However, with the establishment of Veterinary Ireland and the progressive nature of this new organisation, the veterinary profession is well placed to face the challenge. Continued professional development will, of course, always play a vital part and, in addition, the foot-and-mouth crisis has brought about a new era of relations between farmers and vets. By nurturing these relationships already established by the intense period of cooperation during the on-going FMD crisis, the farming and veterinary organisations can ensure that the two professions can be fully prepared for the challenges of the future — whatever they are.