UCC claims top honours at Great Agri-Food Debate
University College Cork (UCC) have been named as the winners of the winners of the 10th annual Great Agri-Food debate.
The competition provides an opportunity for agriculture students from colleges and universities in Ireland and the UK to compete by debating topical issues relevant to the agri-food sector.
This year's competition, organised by Dawn Meats and co-sponsored by McDonald’s, saw a tightly contested final between UCC and University College Dublin (UCD).
Great Agri-Food Debate
UCC were declared the winners, having successfully proposed the motion that: “Artificial intelligence will create opportunities for farms to improve productivity sustainably and must be adopted as a matter of national policy”.
The team from UCC included team captain Aoife Lynch from Callan in Co. Kilkenny, co-speakers Anna Ryan (from Glenville in Co. Cork), Apoorva Unde (Kilkenny City), and Claudine Lynch (Ennis, Co. Clare), who are all fourth year nutritional sciences students.
The team researcher Yuelin Zhan, who is from Beijing in China, is studying food science and technology.
Susanna Kelly, a fourth year food and agri-business management student in UCD from Celbridge in Co. Kildare, won the Best Speaker award in the final.
Her fellow team members in the final were UCD team captain Fionn McDonnell, speakers Molly-Mai O’Meara, Amaia Garay, and researchers Darragh Broderick and Aoishe Wycherley.
The semi-finals and the grand final of this year’s competition were held in-person on Friday (February 27) at the South East Technological University (SETU) Arena in Co. Waterford.
Teams
In total, seven teams across Ireland and the UK entered this year's competition.
Teams from UCC; UCD; Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT); College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE); Munster Technological University (MTU); Atlantic Technological University (ATU), and SETU competed initially in Portlaoise in November 2025.
The judges then selected the teams from SETU, CAFRE, UCD and UCC to progress to the grand final.
UCC won their semi-final debate against SETU, opposing the motion: “Agriculture and Food Nutrition education should be core subjects in the school curriculum”, while SETU proposed.
UCD won in their semi-final versus CAFRE. The UCD team proposed the motion: “It is ethical to use high-quality agricultural land for solar energy farms”, while CAFRE opposed.
Richard Clinton, group commercial director at Dawn Meats, said the competition is of "great importance and value" to Dawn Meats and McDonald’s.
"It’s a unique opportunity for us to meet and hear from the next generation of agri-food leaders on the issues and challenges that are crucial to the future of our industry.
"The debates are always of a high standard and the commitment and hard work of the debaters, their researchers, and their lecturers is always impressive.
"We take great pride in continuing this tradition and hope new voices will continue to be inspired to take part in the years to come.
"I’d like to congratulate everyone who took part this year and, of course, this year’s winning team, UCC."
