1/ Extreme civilisation, late-stage capitalism, whatever you want to call it: this thread👇🏼 is about THE. LEAST. SUSTAINABLE. THING. EVER! And it’s Irish...
11/ But this “peat bedding” is something new. It’s not like standard peat milling (bad as that is).
No, this involves very rapid, deep mining of wet peat. The scale and speed of the destruction is shocking. Something like this.
No permission, no EIA. Regulators?! 👀
12/ Harte Peat is behind peatbed.com. They’re excavating sites to the north of Lough Derravaragh in Co. Westmeath, to the west of the road from Castlepollard to Finnea. @westmeathcoco@EPAIreland
13/ These rows you can see are drainage ditches to keep the bog dry enough for machines. But Google Maps is out of date. This site’s now a big hole in the ground, deep-mined ‘til there’s nothing left.
Worse, work is about to start on the intact area to the south here. New drain.
14/ And this is all happening without permission, EIA or other assessment! Regulators, do your job😡 @westmeathcoco@EPAIreland
It’s being done with the apparent blessing of @IFAmedia and @teagasc, which has in the past researched peat alternatives🙄
15/ The company in question - Harte Peat - was successfully sued by @EPAIreland in 2014 for its unregulated peat activities courts.ie/Judgments.nsf/…
Yet here they are just a few years later, acting as if nothing has changed.
16/ Supermarkets: if you claim to be in any way sustainable, please ask your suppliers if your beef, dairy, poultry, lamb, pork bedded down on Irish peat!
As the Joint Committee on Climate begins its vital work, we need to talk about the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and the Farmers Journal.
Other than membership, where do you think the IFA gets its €€€ in the millions?
2/ From the “European Involvement Fund” levy. What’s that, an EU tax? No, despite the name. Irish farmers pay this ‘levy’ on an *opt-out* basis on the sale of livestock, milk & other produce @ €1.50 for every €1,000 sold. Goes mostly to the IFA but also to @icmsa & others.
3/ The levy generated a whopping €4.16m for the IFA in 2016 (1/3 to 1/2 of its income). Is it any wonder they treat the senior lads so well, says you.