[Cymraeg isod]
Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) recognises the urgency and gravity of the challenge of sustainability. It is a challenge that is global in scale, and encompasses climate change, food security, social justice, land use and soil degradation.
All sectors of human activity – including agriculture and food production – have a role to play in responding to the emergency. Difficult choices have to be made, and creative solutions found, in order to feed a growing world population equitably without further degrading the environment and adding to climate change.
I believe passionately that food and farming in Wales is already making a positive contribution, and can do more over the coming years.
In 2012, HCC’s Red Meat Roadmap laid out steps that farmers and processors could follow to help make Wales’s red meat sector a global exemplar in terms of sustainability.
These measures have formed the blueprint for HCC’s work with the industry. Ongoing work with farmers and processors has delivered improvements in shelf-life and reductions in waste. The current strategic EU and Welsh Government-funded Red Meat Development Programme focuses on several areas which have an impact on efficiency and sustainability: from animal health planning to genetic improvement of the national sheep flock.
But much has changed since 2012 in terms of the debate on climate change.
We are about to publish a new document, looking at beef and sheep farming the ‘Welsh Way’. In this, we examine how Wales stands in the global context of sustainability and food security, and put forward a case of where our meat sector can make a real positive difference.
We also analyse where sheep and beef farming in Wales stands at present – particularly its emissions and its carbon sequestration potential. We will present new research that suggests that hill and upland farming in Wales can constitute a sustainable, low-emissions system of food production.
The document will also quantify the gains that can be made in future; what actions can be taken on farm, and throughout the supply chain, to ensure that the Welsh red meat sector remains a global leader in sustainable food production.
I look forward to discussing these issues at this year’s conference, and to presenting our findings in a few weeks’ time.
*******************
Mae Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC) yn cydnabod brys a difrifoldeb her cynaliadwyedd. Mae’n her sy’n fyd-eang o ran graddfa, ac mae’n cwmpasu newid yn yr hinsawdd, diogelwch bwyd, cyfiawnder cymdeithasol, defnydd tir a diraddio pridd.
Mae gan bob sector o weithgaredd dynol – gan gynnwys amaeth a bwyd – ran i’w chwarae wrth ymateb i’r argyfwng. Rhaid gwneud dewisiadau anodd, a dod o hyd i atebion creadigol, er mwyn bwydo poblogaeth gynyddol y byd mewn ffordd gyfiawn, heb ddiraddio’r amgylchedd ymhellach ac ychwanegu at newid yn yr hinsawdd.
Rwy’n credu’n angerddol bod bwyd a ffermio yng Nghymru eisoes yn gwneud cyfraniad cadarnhaol, ac yn gallu gwneud mwy dros y blynyddoedd sydd i ddod.
Yn 2012, nododd Map Ffordd Cig Coch HCC gamau y gallai ffermwyr a phroseswyr eu dilyn i helpu i wneud sector cig coch Cymru yn esiampl fyd-eang o ran cynaliadwyedd.
Mae’r mesurau hyn wedi bod yn greiddiol i waith HCC gyda’r diwydiant. Mae gwaith parhaus gyda ffermwyr a phroseswyr wedi sicrhau gwelliannau mewn oes silff a gostyngiadau mewn gwastraff. Mae’r Rhaglen Datblygu Cig Goch strategol gyfredol a ariennir gan yr UE a Llywodraeth Cymru yn canolbwyntio ar sawl maes sy’n cael effaith ar effeithlonrwydd a chynaliadwyedd: o gynllunio iechyd anifeiliaid i welliant genetig y ddiadell ddefaid genedlaethol.
Ond mae llawer wedi newid ers 2012 o ran y ddadl ar newid hinsawdd.
Rydyn ni ar fin cyhoeddi dogfen newydd, sy’n edrych ar ffermio gwartheg eidion a defaid yn y ‘Ffordd Gymreig’. Yn y gwaith yma, rydym yn archwilio sut mae Cymru yn sefyll yng nghyd-destun byd-eang cynaliadwyedd a diogelwch bwyd, ac yn cyflwyno achos lle gall ein sector cig wneud gwahaniaeth cadarnhaol.
Rydym hefyd yn dadansoddi lle mae ffermio defaid ac eidion yng Nghymru ar hyn o bryd – yn enwedig ei allyriadau a’i botensial i ddal a storio carbon. Byddwn yn cyflwyno ymchwil newydd sy’n awgrymu y gall ffermio bryniau ac ucheldir yng Nghymru fod yn system gynaliadwy o gynhyrchu bwyd gydag allyriadau isel iawn.
Bydd y ddogfen hefyd yn mesur yr enillion y gellir eu gwneud yn y dyfodol; pa gamau y gellir eu cymryd ar y fferm, a thrwy’r gadwyn gyflenwi, i sicrhau bod sector cig coch Cymru yn parhau i fod yn arweinydd byd-eang ym maes cynhyrchu bwyd cynaliadwy.
Edrychaf ymlaen at drafod y materion hyn yng nghynhadledd eleni, ac at gyflwyno ein canfyddiadau ymhen ychydig wythnosau.
John Richards
HCC Industry Development and Relations Manager
Rheolwr Datblygu’r Diwydiant a Rhyn-Berthynas HCC
CGFFfC 2022 WRFFC 