Where should I start?
Maybe with Lubbock Texas.
I attended a Regional Sustainability Workshop: Innovating
for More Sustainable Beef, earlier this month.
For three days, I switched agricultural focus, back to beef. The Quivira Coalition sent me off to West
Texas to sit in a room with people who mainly represented “big” beef
production. The feedyard operators and
affiliates, processors/distributors (Tyson and Cargill), retailers (Walmart and
McDonald’s), non-profits (World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, QC, and
Audubon Society), ranchers, and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
(NCBA) and several Texas affiliated cattlemen’s associations were all
represented. As promised it was a full
three days and I did not get to explore Lubbock Texas and all it has to offer…which
I heard wasn’t much.
Sustainability for the ENTIRE U.S. beef industry? Why not,
eh?
You should know that this workshop was sponsored by the World
Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Beef Checkoff program. WWF? Really? The folks who are synonymous
with saving the Giant Panda are also interested in beef. WWF is very much interested in having a
global conversation around beef sustainability.
They are spiriting a global roundtable discussion on key issues
surrounding a sustainable beef outlook (Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef). They are currently drafting their key issues
and ways to monitor them. Check out the
website HERE. WWF is interested in preserving
wildlife space, which means reducing deforestation and abusive grazing
habits.
Beef Checkoff is a program I have been hearing about over
the past few years, but not something I understood until this workshop.
Taken from their website: What is the beef checkoff?
The checkoff is a producer-funded
marketing and research program designed to increase domestic and/or
international demand for beef. This can be done through promotion, research and
new product development, and a variety of other marketing tools. The
Cattlemen's Beef Board and USDA oversee the collection and spending of checkoff
funds.
More information HERE.
The four objectives
of the workshop were:
1.
Educate key supply-chain participants about
current on-the-ground sustainability efforts, including muti-stakeholder
initiatives.
2.
Foster relationships and greater collaboration across
the supply chain.
3.
Provide participants the opportunity to see
innovation in sustainability.
4.
Create an understanding of the challenges facing
farmers and ranchers and the importance of involving them in broader
sustainability discussions.
After having a week to reflect on what I learned at this
event, I can dutifully say these objectives were reached or at least the
conversations were started.
I should note that this workshop put me in a bit of an
awkward place because I approach sustainability from the small-scale/bioregional
perspective and grass-based. The “supply-chain
participants” at this workshop were from the more conventional side of today’s
beef production--Feeder cattle are finished at feedyards with several thousand
other steers and heifers, and then when finished they are shipped to processing
plants that can slaughter several hundred head a day. The carcasses are then broken down into primals
and other added value products that retailers purchase and sell to you. Heck, that’s an efficient system. I and many others have qualms about the feed
rations (corn/wheat and several other interesting delectable things), animal welfare,
additional growth technology, and increasing vertical integration of the
supply-chain. I will say it was an enlightening experience and I walked away
with a new level of appreciation for the “industrial side.”
I also felt a bit out of place because I was obviously the
youngest person present (ah-youth). As the junior in the room, I spent a great
time listening to the folks who had, in some cases, more years of experience
and knowledge about the industry than the total sum of my age (cough…22).
During the first evening we learned about sustainability
trends and issues. WWF went over their
Global Roundtable initiative. Then a very good presentation on the Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA) of the beef industry, which was sponsored by the NCBA. A LCA takes into account almost everything,
from what a cow needs to raise a calf (inputs and outputs) to the refrigerator
units (its inputs and outputs) used at the retail outlet that sell you your
hamburger. Incredibly complex and takes
a great deal of diligence to account for every detail.
Here are some statistics I learned based on this 6 year life
cycle assessment:
-Overall there has been a 9% improvement across the board
(from ranch to consumer plate)
Ecoefficiency portfolio (energy, emissions, toxicity, occupational
hazards, and wildlife/biodiversity)
-Energy: #1 user is the Home (aka storage of meat) and #2
irrigation pumps. There has been a 7%
decrease in energy since 2005.
-Emissions: Overall #1 producer is farm/ranch because of
petroleum use- diesel and fertilizer.
There has been a 13% decrease.
Precision farming (GPS use in the field) was sighted as a contributing
factor to the decrease in general emissions.
Ozone depletion: was also covered, but my notes are too
vague for me to report anything.
Smog emissions: 5% decrease.
Covering silage pits has helped reduce emissions.
Toxins: 15% reduction.
Occupational hazard: again my notes lack concise information
Wildlife/biodiversity: 6% reduction in land use. This is because of more efficient use of
productive ground.
I’ll wrap up by saying there has been a lot of movement
towards reducing environmental degradation through more efficient landuse,
packaging and storage. The ranch and
farm is where the most room for improvement rests and also where it is hardest
to quantify inputs and outputs because every farm and ranch is sight specific. This research is currently being
peer-reviewed and I’ll update us all on the published findings later on.
Part II to come- feedyard experience and an afternoon on a very large ranch
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