Learning the value of sustainability abroad
Sustainability is quickly becoming the most important word in farming according to Ciara Smith, a student of Sustainable Agriculture at DKIT.
The local farmer recently won a bursary of €1,000 to travel to Germany for professional work courtesy of the Agricultural Science Association (ASA) and the Irish Farmers Journal.
Ciara farms alongside her father Charles and Uncle John on their family farms in Mullagh and Wilkinstown in Meath, where they have dairy, beef and free-range poultry operations. However, she is currently enjoying her placement at Landguth a premium pet food factory in Emden a town located between Hamburg and Dusseldorf in northern Germany, where she says she is hoping to learn from the company’s waste not want not attitude.
“They take in waste products that aren’t fit for human consumption from all over the world - such as beef trimmings, bones as well as anything that can’t be sold. They grind it down to a premium pet food product, which because of its meat content can be sold for more money.
“When choosing this placement, I wanted to obtain knowledge from all three of the sustainability pillars - environmental, economic, and social - these things would have to be woven into the future of their business.
“I just completed two weeks of working in the production line where I learned how each part of the line works and now I'm going on to work in product development.”
She says that growing up on a farm with different enterprises has given her an appreciation for how different elements of a business can be integrated to work in unison together.
“Diversity and innovation have always been a big part of our family's success. Growing up in this setting gave me an understanding of the need to innovate to maintain value and relevance on a farm.”
Ciara believes farmers have a massive role to play in reducing carbon emissions, and a large factor in this is maximising their output.
“I feel if we’re producing animals that can create a lot of methane gas then we need to use absolutely all of the animal. That’s why I came here, everything is used. Farming can be zero waste. I wanted to go on a placement that can show me this and be able to bring this is back home.”
Ciara says her journey through third-level education has coincided with a change in mentality around the farming sector.
“I started college in 2020. The year before I started my course was called a BSc in Agricultural Science. Then in my first year, it changed to BSC in Sustainable Agriculture. In that time the buzz word of sustainability has been everywhere. The course has been changed to think more about sustainability and reducing waste. It’s always something I’ve had an interest in.”
Despite developing a passion for food production she says that farming is her first love and will always have a place in her heart.
“I don’t know what I want to do when I’m finished. There are a lot of jobs in the food sector, but it will be hard to come away from farming, that’s where I started off.”