The Lie of the Land: Ireland's Broken Food System

John Gibbons is one of Ireland's best-known environmental commentators  and a tireless voice on the big environmental issues of our time. John recently published a bestselling book called The Lie of the Land where he sets out in stark terms the effects that climate change will have on Ireland, while also putting forward a game plan for how we can avoid the worst of them, by reimagining the way we use the land.In this episode of Food Matters, John and Mick Kelly of GIY discuss some of the big food themes tackled in the book, including the farming sector in Ireland, why it's broken, and how it can be fixed; the fragility of Ireland's export-dependent food sector and the case for creating a government department for food security, and why oats might be the solution to our agricultural emissions. Mick and John also tackle the controversy around putting solar farms on agricultural land—and the claim that renewable energy threatens our ability to produce food.