UCC claims top honours at Great Agri-Food Debate

2 Mar 2026

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).

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, co-speakers Anna Ryan, Apoorva Unde, and Claudine Lynch, who are all fourth year nutritional sciences students.

The team researcher Yuelin Zhan is studying food science and technology.

The semi-finals and the grand final of this year’s competition were held in-person on 27 February at the South East Technological University (SETU) Arena in Co. Waterford.

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."