Latest news with #ChrisFurlong
Scotsman
24-07-2025
- General
- Scotsman
How our obsession with meat is wasting food that could feed two billion people
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Summertime and the cows could not have been looking happier. They were out roaming the fields on rich verdant pasture studded with crimson clover. Young black heifers with catlike whiskers snorted softly and ripped up the grass with their tongues. They roamed the 2,600-acre farm in rotation with sheep and chickens in a rich symphony of life. Each species knowing their levels – cattle grazing long grass, the sheep liking it when it's shorter, and the chickens shorter still with bug-ridden cowpats. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I was visiting a nature-friendly farm in the American deep south of Georgia, run by a fourth-generation cattleman, Will Harris. A regenerative farmer who sees the value of farming in harmony with Mother Earth, he used to run an industrial feedlot before transforming his farm to operate in a better way. It was a powerful reminder of what success looks like when talking about food systems of the future. At the end of July, I'll be joining leaders from around the world in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the United Nations' Food Systems Summit +4 Stocktake . There's a lot at stake. Of the world's mammals by weight, 62 per cent are farmed animals, 34 per cent are humans, and everything else, from elephants to badgers, make up just 4 per cent (Picture: Chris Furlong) | Getty Images Ruined crops, falling farm incomes In 2015, the world's governments signed up to achieve an end to hunger, combat climate change, ensure healthy lives for all, and restore ecosystems, on land and sea, that we all depend upon. They set a deadline of 2030 for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As it stands, many of those SDGs remain well out of reach because of the way we produce and consume food. Today's food systems are failing to meet the needs of billions of people as well as leading the war on nature, creating devastating feedback loops. Ruined crops. Dwindling incomes. Increasing climate-related disasters. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Food systems generate one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions and are responsible for up to 80 per cent of biodiversity loss. Ignore our place in the natural world, and we face a future where Mother Nature will call humanity to heel. But it doesn't have to be like this. As a vision for the future of food, I take with me to Ethiopia three 'North Star' principles for what successful food system transformation looks like: 'one health'; feeding people first; and consumption within planetary boundaries. Let me explain. One health One health, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognises , is an approach that embraces the interdependency between the health of humans, animals, and the environment. Nearly three-quarters of all the world's antibiotics are fed to farmed animals, largely to control diseases inherent in the cramped, squalid conditions of industrial animal agriculture. This is a massive problem because overuse is causing bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics. The WHO warns that if we carry on as we are, we will face a post-antibiotic era, where diseases that are currently treatable could once again kill. If action isn't taken, the demise of antibiotics could cause the deaths of ten million people a year by 2050. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Ensuring the welfare of animals is essential in reducing the risk of disease transmission and safeguarding public health. Healthier, happier animals are more resilient to infections, which minimises disease and reduces the use of antibiotics. Healthy, sustainable, and resilient food systems involve moving away from harmful agricultural practices, including industrial animal agriculture where animals are confined to cages, crates and feedlots. Future-fit food systems involve humane, nature-positive practices where animals are restored to the countryside as part of rotational, organic and regenerative farming systems. Feeding people first The second North Star is to ensure that food systems really are prioritising feeding people. Unfortunately, with industrial animal agriculture, otherwise known as factory farming, this isn't the case. Industrially reared chickens, pigs, and cows are fed grain instead of grass, devouring vast amounts of food that could otherwise nourish billions of people. Instead of making food, grain-fed animals waste it . Producing meat this way takes several times more food value in terms of wheat, corn, or soya than it yields. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad How much is wasted? Enough to feed two billion people, more than twice the number of people that currently suffering hunger. Consumption within planetary boundaries The third North Star principle is to ensure that the amount we eat stays within the Earth's finite capacity to replenish it. We are currently living beyond our means, busting planetary boundaries to devastating effect, not least in terms of climate change, pollution, and the loss of biodiversity. The statistics are astonishing. Of the world's mammals by weight , 62 per cent are farmed animals, whilst we humans account for 34 per cent. Everything else, from elephants and wild bison to badgers make up just 4 per cent. On the feathered front, domestic poultry account for 70 per cent of all birds by mass . With what we eat affecting the planet so fundamentally, there has never been a greater reason for transforming our food system. The way we produce food should move away from industrial agriculture to regenerative, agroecological methods that restore soils and biodiversity. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad As on Will Harris's farm in Georgia, nature should be an inherent part of our agricultural landscape. Our consumption too would do well to shift away from diets that are heavy in animal products. The future of food is not just about what fills our plates – it's about what sustains our health, our societies, and the living planet we all depend on.
Irish Independent
26-04-2025
- General
- Irish Independent
Wexford village marks anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising
Proceedings on the day were opened by Oulart Hill Chairman Chris Furlong who introduced James Adams who sang a beautiful rendition of the song 'Grace.' This song was named after one of the Gifford sisters who married Joseph Plunkett just a few hours before his death and never married afterwards. Sean Dempsey then took up centre stage and read out the names of the 35 Oulart volunteers. This was then followed by a powerful reading of the 1916 Proclamation. Barry Leacy, a Ballycarney historian and archaeologist, read his own encouraging address called 'The importance of the Past in the Present.' Councillor Mary Farrell, whose grandfathers were in Enniscorthy with the Oulart company, stepped up to the microphone to deliver a haunting rendition of 'Meet me at the Pillar' before rounding it out with the national anthem. "This is always a proud day for my family as both grandfathers John Hayden and James Dempsey are listed on the monument and remembered with the other men named for their bravery at that crucial time of Irish history. It was once again a privilege to be asked to sing at the event,' she said. In attendance was also Minister James Browne, Cllr Pip Breen, Rev James Hammel of the Uacthtarán Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society, and Willie French of the Wexford Historical Society. Refreshments and tarts were then provided to the crowd in the Storytelling House by Eileen Dempsey, where visitors were also treated to a showing of a new video centred on the 1798 rising.
