#46 - Grace Maher - Part 1

Grace Maher is Development Officer at the Irish Organic Association. She is a leading voice in Ireland’s organic farming movement, with decades of experience as a grower, educator, and advocate. 

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Transcript

People are enthusiastic and keen about what can be grown in Ireland because sometimes we kind of forget actually the breadth of produce that can be produced here. I mean, I think at most any, you know, in most years when we were growing commercially, you'd have 40 to 50 different crops that you were producing on the farm, like. So the range of what can actually be produced in Ireland is actually really extensive.

Hello and welcome to 15 Minute Coffee. My name is Alan, Alan O'Donovan and I'm your host. So today we have Grace Meyer with us.

Welcome, Grace. Thanks very much, Alan. So, Grace, you are a part of the Irish Organic association and I suppose you had quite an interesting journey from teaching organic horticulture to running your own farm and then working with the Irish Organic Association.

So what first drew you to organics and I suppose what was the early part of that journey? Like, where do I start? So I grew up on. I grew up on a farm in Carlow, tillage farm, conventional tillage farm. And so I was always, I suppose, exposed to growing crops.

But I didn't go into agriculture straight after school. I originally did history and English degree and then actually spent a bit of time in the States and became ironically became more interested and involved in food production because at that time there was a kind of quite a wave to promote genetically modified food. So it just kind of started me thinking a little bit more about food production.

And I worked with a non profit organization called Food first. And then I came back to Ireland and I studied organic horticulture. So I suppose kind of expanding my interest in the whole area of crop production.

And I focused on horticulture and down in Limerick in the organic college. And I suppose it began from there then really high. Learned a bit about it, I taught a little bit about it.

And then I set up my own farm in Carla, growing organic vegetables and selling them in the Carl Farmers market. So I suppose that transition into kind of organic was really just exposure to the. What was happening at this in the States at many different levels.

But it just I suppose reconnected me with the idea of local food production. And at that time in Ireland, the organic sector was quite small. So.

Yeah, but there was obviously quite a lot of people who were pioneering organic farming at the time and had been doing for quite a while. That was back kind of in the early, in the early 2000s. So.

And that's the time frame on that. So. Yeah, so that took me back to kind of beginning farming organically here in Carlow.

And then about 2007, I started working with The Irish Organic association to work to promote and develop organic farming in Ireland. And when you sort of, when you set up your own horticulture business, like, I assume it was kind of early organic days in Ireland. So, like, what, what was that like in terms of, was it challenging to.

To promote the organic side of it or. Yeah, and I suppose it's interesting because when we set it up, it was timely in Carlow because the Carlow Farmers Market was beginning at the same time. So.

So there was a couple of very really good organic producers in the area. And we came together and started the Carlo Farmers Market. So I suppose it was kind of timely in the.

In that context because there was an outlet for what we were growing and that market is thriving today. So 20 years later. So it's in its 20th, 20th year this year.

The market is really good food market. Yeah. So.

And a lot of the, you know, original producers are there. It may not be the people who started, but it could be son or daughter that now are running the business. So it's a really strong food market run by the producers.

But so we came into it and we were one of four vegetable stalls at the time. There was two organic and two non organic. And for us, I suppose, yes, there was challenges, I suppose in the context that we were trying to.

I had worked on organic farms in the States as well. One particular farm that was specialized in salad and lettuce production. And so our thing when we started was a big part of our business was salad leaves grown salad leaves.

And back in 2004, you know, I suppose customers really wanted ahead of lettuce. So the salads, the bag of salad leave was a little bit. And we were trying to say, hey, this is the next best thing.

You know, the next new thing is a bag of salad loose, still kind of wanted ahead of, you know, butterhead lettuce. So there was a lot of education in terms of, you know, dealing with your customers. But actually, very quickly people, you know, became regular customers.

And. But certainly there's a big educational piece when you're dealing directly with your. With your customer on a weekly basis.

Because even things like, you know, we'd have stuff like rainbow chard and people didn't know how to cook it. So you were kind of like growing it, selling it and giving people advice on, well, here's how you use it, you know, things like yellow tomatoes, people would be like, well, are they not ripe? Or whatever? So certainly an educational piece. But it's part of the fun, you know what I mean? And it's like, it's also so ignite kind of an interest in food and flavor in your customers.

And that's always good because that's really why they're coming back to you on a weekly basis, is because the flavor, the freshness, the taste of what you're producing is why they're back, you know, so. So. And the speciality, obviously, when you're growing, like, for example, in summer, we would.

We would grow things like peas, you know, which. It's nearly impossible to go and be able to buy fresh peas now. Yeah, sometimes we will.

We would harvest them and bring them into the market, and they would be still in the pods. And somebody said, no, I just want the pods and all the whole thing. And because in Carlo, you know, years ago, there was a.

There was a factory where people, you know, a lot of peas were grown. So people had kind of memories of actually having fresh peas when they were growing up. So things like that.

It was kind of interesting, really, in terms of working closely with your, you know, and people become friends as well when you are kind of meeting them on a weekly basis and you're trying to share recipes and. And people are enthusiastic and keen about what can be grown in Ireland, because sometimes we kind of forget actually the breadth of produce that can be produced here. I mean, I think at most any, you know, in most years when we were growing commercially, you'd have 40 to 50 different crops that you were producing on the farm.

Like, so obviously some were in protective shopping, some are out, you know, outside. So the range of what can actually be produced in Ireland is actually really extensive. And the seasonality aspect just naturally forms when you're kind of growing it and selling it locally.

It's just seasonality is a natural part of what you're doing. Like, you know, and for those who may not be as familiar with organic farming, can you explain sort of what sets it apart from conventional farming? And then why is it so important for the future and for sustainability? That's a big question. Now, let's start to start by answering the initial part of your question.

What sets it apart? I suppose organic is. It's a legally binding term when it comes to food. So if you, as we were saying, if you go down to the farmers market, you go to a supermarket, and somebody is selling their food as organic, it means basically that that farmer or processor is producing to a set of standards, so that we call them the organic food and farming standards in Ireland.

So they're producing to these standards or rules, and a certification Body like the Irish Organic association is going out and visiting the farm on an annual basis to just make sure that the farmer processor is compliant. So from the consumer's point of view, there is that element of traceability that the Irish Organic association are going out checking on the farm, making sure that everything is as it should be in terms of inputs they're using, in terms of like if there's a supply chain, if you know you're buying in something from somebody else and selling it on or whatever it may be, if it's on the livestock end of it, if you're buying in cattle, that you're buying them from an organic source. So that element of trust is there for the consumer in terms of the word organic.

And it is the only legal, legal binding form of food production in that context because you do get lots of other labels that pop up now and again, but they don't have that whole certification and verification system behind it. So that's what sets organic apart from the legal end of it in terms of the production end of it. Obviously, to kind of keep it simple.

You know, organic farmers are not allowed to use artificial chemicals, fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides. So that's not permitted in organic farming. So things like, I suppose, you know, if we look at it in the horticultural context, or you know, things like glyphosate or to give it a trademark name that most people would be familiar with, Roundup, aren't permitted in organic farming.

So when consumers are buying organic food, they're aware that, and hopefully they're aware that harmful chemicals like that aren't being used in the food production. So that's another thing that sets it aside. And then there's various, like, according to the regulation there would be various things like, and this is one I think the consumers often get confused about, so free range production of animals.

So animals produced on an organic farm or reared on an organic farm must have access to outdoors. So for example, if it was poultry or pigs, obviously cattle, those animals have to have access to be outdoors. And there's certain specific standards that determine how long, say, you know, cattle, pigs must be outside over the course of their lifetime.

So again, from an animal welfare point of view, there's no permanent housing of livestock. So things like that. There's a whole like, range of regulations that organic farmers must abide by.

And that's what the inspection process is about. So that's why, you know, your inspector comes out from the Irish Organic association and they verify everything that's been done at farm in that context. So the consumers can be aware that this is kind of.

This is a verifiable system. So that's, I suppose, you know, to keep it simple in terms of what differentiates organic from conventional farming. And then I suppose from an Irish point of view, you know, to bring a little bit of context into it, we're in an interesting place insofar as in the last couple of years, we have expanded the sector from approximately 2% of farmland or farmers certified organic to over 5%.

So it's been a huge growth in the last two years, and that's been pushed by the European Green Deal to actually increase the level of organic farming across all of the member states by 2030. And there is a target in Ireland to increase that to 10% of the land area certified organic by 2030. So it's an ambitious target in terms of our baseline, where we're starting from, because we started, we started very low, like just less than 2%, which was actually at the time one of the third lowest level of organic production across the eu.

So we're starting from a very low base. And to get to 10% by 2030 is something that is certainly, you know, the sector is driving and aiming to achieve. And from our, you know, if you look at the Climate Action Plan, that target is welcomed and endorsed, because again, when you look at things like climate change, you look at the level of emissions attributed to agriculture and food production organic in that context, because again, it doesn't have the various range of inputs that I alluded to earlier in terms of artificial chemicals.

That's a big plus in terms of emissions. So that's one of the areas, I suppose, that we need to think about when we look at promoting organic and trying to encourage farmers in Ireland to adopt organic practices is the environmental benefits. And obviously you've got benefits in terms of biodiversity.

At the moment, the Irish Organic association are working on a European project called Organic Climate Net. So it's working with other certification bodies and research institutions across Europe to work with farmers on the ground to monitor what they're doing in terms of farming practices, which obviously has a big influence on biodiversity, and to kind of see how that impacts on the climate at a regional basis. Because when you look at kind of policy across European level, obviously each member state is different and Ireland is very much a country that's driven in the agriculture set by family farms, so tends to be smaller farms run by families with a lot of regional kind of variation and differences.

So it's unique in that context. And that's obviously something within the organic sector that we're very, you know, that's very evident. And we got, you know, a higher gender basis in the organic sector.

So. Yeah. So I, you know, I suppose that's what sets, that's what differentiated in terms of the actual practices.

And really, most good organic farmers are really kind of concerned about enhancing the environmental attributes on their farm and looking at the farm as an ecosystem and actually looking at how they can store carbon enhanced biodiversity while at the same time producing really good quality organic food that's available to consumers, because it is about producing good quality food that has, is nutrient dense and actually is, you know, that consumers want to buy.