UCC have been judged the winners of the 10th Annual Great Agri-Food debate, organised by Dawn Meats and co-sponsored by McDonald’s.
The team from UCC, which included an Ennis woman, secured the win by defeating UCD in what the judges described as a tightly contested and high-quality Grand Final.
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), Claudine Lynch (Ennis, Co Clare), and researcher Yuelin Zhan, who is from Beijing in China and studying Food Science & Technology. The four UCC speakers are all fourth year Nutritional Sciences students at UCC.
Susanna Kelly, a fourth year Food & Agri-Business Management student in UCD from Celbridge in Co Kildare, won the Best Speaker award in the Grand Final. Her fellow team members in the Grand 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 at SETU Arena in Co Waterford.
The Great Agri-Food Debate 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.
In total, seven teams across Ireland and the UK entered the highly popular competition. Teams from University College Cork (UCC), University College Dublin (UCD), Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT), College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), Munster Technological University (MTU), Atlantic Technological University (ATU), and South East Technological University (SETU) faced off in Portlaoise in November 2025 to advance to the Grand Final.
Four universities progressed to the Grand Final – SETU, CAFRE, UCD and UCC.
Advancing 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.
The Grand Final was judged by Richard Clinton, Group Commercial Director of Dawn Meats, Jim Roynane, McDonald’s Restaurants Franchisee, Phelim O’Neil, Market Intelligence and EU Specialist at Irish Farmers Journal, Dale Crammond, Director of Meat Industry Ireland, and Eimear Brazil, Chef and influencer (@TheKitchenShift_ Instagram). The Grand Final was moderated by Tom Moran, Chairman at Kerry Group and Alliance New Zealand.
Richard Clinton, Group Commercial Director at Dawn Meats, said: “I was delighted to attend the Grand Final of the 10th iteration of the Great Agri-Food Debate. This competition continues to be of great importance and value to Dawn Meats and McDonald’s, our event co-sponsors. 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. Many thanks to all involved, including the participants, judges and moderators, for making this event such a success.”
The recordings of this year’s debates are available on the Dawn Meats YouTube channel: @dawnmeatsgroup