There’ve been a lot of headlines about a leaked plan from Ireland’s Department of Agriculture that urged the culling of 200,000 cows to help the country meet its climate targets.

Now, it is just one plan and apparently it isn’t being pursued. But dairy and beef farmers have been alarmed by suggestions of major culls before.

Let’s lay a couple of things on the table. The Irish government’s commitment to being a good guy and reducing emissions is going to run right into the teeth of Ireland’s actual Ricardian advantages in a global market. Impairing the Irish dairy and beef industries is catastrophically stupid. The lost beef production will almost certainly move to Brazil, a place where the expansion of ranches often means the cutting down of the Amazonian rainforests.

That is, Ireland would end up reducing its own and Europe’s food security, while dramatically expanding the carbon-cost of the food it consumes, even before factoring in shipping. Ireland, almost more than any other climate on earth, is ideal for growing cool-season grasses, and thus producing excellent dairy and beef livestock. Hilariously, in our lifetime, Ireland’s food reputation has entirely changed. In the 1980s, when corn-fed cattle and margarine were seen as the future, the country’s food production was lampooned as medieval. Now, it’s recognized worldwide as free-range, grass-fed, organic, full-fat, and flavorful — the good stuff.