'Food will be a by-product': the Irish farmers creating nature-friendly fields

Rewarding positive environmental impact has revitalised an area of west Ireland. Is this a solution to the country's 'acute' nature crisis?Michael Davoren shudders when he thinks of the 1990s. He'd been in charge of his 80-hectare farm in the Burren, Co Clare, since the 1970s, and the place was in his blood. The Davorens had worked these hills for 400 years.But growing intensification fuelled by European subsidies meant that most farmers in this part of Ireland were having to decide between getting big or getting out. Hundreds were choosing the latter. Continue reading...