Agricultural News
First Ever Beef Sustainability Assessment Documents Industry Progress
Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:59:52 CST
Participants at the 2013 Cattle Industry Convention gathered today to hear the results of the first-ever Beef Industry Sustainability Assessment. The assessment, which was funded by the Beef Checkoff Program, marks the first time any industry has ever measured the sustainability of its entire supply chain. This important work positions the beef industry to lead the conversations about industry sustainability.
"Sustainability is, in fact, a journey. This particular journey started two years ago when the Beef Promotion Operating Committee decided to fund the sustainability assessment project," said Richard Gebhart, an Oklahoma cattleman and vice chairman of the checkoff's Producer Communications Working Group. "Raising cattle in a sustainable way has been important to the cattle industry for a long time, but this is the first opportunity we have had to use science to tell that story."
(Radio Oklahoma Network Farm Director Ron Hays spoke with Gebhart following the presentation. You can listen to their full conversation by clicking on the LISTEN BAR at the bottom of this story.)
Gebhart says this sustainability assessment is much broader than most and will provide a wide range of data. He says it is built on a lifecycle assessment model.
"When you look at a lifecycle assessment model, you've got to look at the three pillars of sustainability. Classically, people talk about the economic, the environmental and the social impact in there. I prefer to talk about the financial, the environmental, and the social.
"Businesses or entities have to be financially stable or they're not going to be sustainable. And we all know about the environment, the externalities of not bringing those costs in there. But, more interesting to me is the social aspect- I think a lot of cattlemen would really be surprised-and I know they'd be proud-if they look at how much cattlemen contribute to the social fabric of our society."
Gebhart says they are still collecting data for the study and will submit the final results for certification. The certification process verifies the study's validity and usefulness as a scientific tool.
The Beef Sustainability Assessment was conducted by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA), a contractor to the Beef Checkoff Program. BASF Corporation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) played integral roles as subcontractors to assemble and interpret the data required to conduct the assessment.
"This comprehensive analysis will provide a roadmap for the journey toward a more sustainable beef industry," said NCBA Director of Sustainability Kim Stackhouse-Lawson. "The U.S. beef industry is one of the most complex biological, economic and social supply chains in the world. As such, measuring these complex, interrelated systems is difficult but critically important to the future stability and profitability of the industry."
A sustainable beef industry is critically important as we work toward the goal of feeding 9 billion people by the year 2050, a global population explosion that experts estimate will require at least 70 percent more food with few additional resources.
"For the beef industry, sustainability has been defined as the process of meeting beef demand by balancing environmental responsibility, economic opportunity and social diligence throughout the supply chain," said Stackhouse-Lawson. "By ensuring that these three pillars of beef production are balanced, the industry will be well positioned to continue future growth."
According to Stackhouse-Lawson, the beef industry has made significant improvement toward a more sustainable future over time. Despite the current rate of progress, the beef industry's path toward continuous progress is never-ending.
"Sustainability is a journey and there's really no end-point to this work," she explained. "We can always be more sustainable than we are today. That's what we're working toward, that continuous improvement that will make us better over time."
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