Agricultural pollution and waterways on the island of Ireland: Towards effective policy solutions

In the UK, Ireland and Europe generally, much attention has been devoted to understanding how the agri-food sector has leveraged disproportionate focus and support through its influence in the policymaking area. Literature from the late 20th century describes a close, ‘corporatist’ policymaking relationship between farmers unions and governments (Smith, 1990; Daugbjerg, 1998). More recent research has focused on how power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few large corporations (Clapp and Fuchs, 2009; Foord, 2017). What has received less focus is how power is distributed within the agriculture sector, i.e., why/how some agricultural industries are more ‘successful’ or receive more focus than others, and what this means for policy. Researchers typically treat ‘farmers’ as a monolith, for example, focusing on the power of the ‘farming lobby’ versus that of other interest groups such as environmentalists. This tells us only part of the picture; power distributions within agriculture itself also have implications for policy. On the island of Ireland, although increasing attention is paid to the environmental challenges associated with food production, an underlying productivist agricultural policy paradigm persists – a combination of policy objectives exemplary of ‘post-exceptionalism’, or ‘tense post-exceptionalism’ (Daugbjerg and Feindt, 2017; Attorp and McAreavey, 2020). Intensive industries (dairy, poultry, pig) are influential within policymaking and receive ongoing government support to expand, despite recognition of the increasing impact that animal manure from intensive operations is having on the island’s waterways and wider natural environment. Beef and sheep farmers do not have the same kind of seat at the policymaking table, meaning their contribution to water pollution and important role in developing solutions to it are overlooked. Using empirical research, this paper will show how different sectors hold more power than others, meaning they can resist important regulation such as water pollution initiatives. This renders such regulation ineffective. Meanwhile, other sectors are left out of the conversation, which compromises potential policy solutions. It shows that for future policies to adequately address the challenge of agriculture-related environmental degradation and support the resilience of the ecosystems upon which food production depends, agri-food system governance must become more equitable and nuanced, allowing for tangible consideration of the challenges that different agriculture sectors face. Brexit and the ongoing review of the European Common Agriculture Policy provides an opportunity for such a re-think of existing policies.