The first meeting that led to the foundation of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef was held in 2010. I think it is fair to say that at that time, top of mind for many of our founding members was the impact of the beef industry on tropical forests.

Deforestation was in the headlines then, as it still is today. There was less awareness of climate change as a global issue, and it was certainly less connected to food production than it is today.

The quandary facing us now is that we know the beef industry does not have to have a negative impact on climate or biodiversity, but that it often does.

We also know that climate and biodiversity are inextricably linked when it comes to the conversion of forests or native grasslands for pasture or feed production.

Our Hot Topic Discussion in March focused on the use of the term regenerative and its relation to Nature Positive Production. We heard several examples of how a range of practices can contribute to improved performance, biodiversity and reduced climate impact.

We know that livestock production systems in many parts of the globe are reservoirs of biodiversity, providing valuable mixed use habitat for wildlife alongside food production.

In Canada for example, cattle production is approximately 33% of Canada’s total agricultural land, YET it provides two-thirds (68%) of the wildlife habitat capacity. Those same ranches store a phenomenal amount of carbon in the soil and contribute to a healthy ecosystem. They are part of a climate and biodiversity positive food system.

We must be careful however, not to imply that all cattle production systems are climate and biodiversity positive. Management is critical to both outcomes, and it seems that often management that benefits biodiversity also benefits climate, as demonstrated in the film series “Roots So Deep” and the associated published research.

Adoption of systems that benefit climate and biodiversity is therefore one of the tools that we can encourage in order to help us meet our global climate and nature positive goals. The direct relationship between national roundtables and the cattle sectors in their countries is the mechanism that can deliver context relevant change.

In the calls for a reduction of global livestock numbers, we frequently see land take and the associated emissions cited as the reason for requiring a change. Encouraging systems that increase biodiversity, such as silvopastoral systems, where appropriate, is one strategy to meet our goal.

We should also take baseline emissions scenarios into account as compared to livestock grazing or mixed livestock and wildlife. This recent paper shows that emissions from wildlife can be equivalent to those from livestock, and that the loss in food production by removing livestock would not automatically yield any climate benefits.

Since livestock grazing systems also provide more wildlife habitat than croplands, it seems fair to conclude that in biodiversity, food security and climate terms, livestock production provides a useful compromise in many geographies when managed well.

There are a variety of actors that can lever change. While there is a lot of talk about carbon or biodiversity offsets that could earn producers extra money, I personally believe that we should be focusing more on insets. I cannot see the logic of selling the credit for your own good work to an organisation that continues to pollute with impunity, and thus losing the ability to make a claim about your own sustainability.

To make insets work, we need the whole value chain, including the financiers, to be involved in a system that rewards producers for the gains they make. Since many large corporations have made commitments that require reporting on scope 3 emissions, insetting is a rational choice. They will have to understand the emissions in their supply chain, anyway, and developing positive relationships with suppliers makes good business sense.

Furthermore, this leads to positive change that can make the supply chain itself more resilient, rather than outsourcing a solution to external parties.

Ruaraidh Petre, GRSB Executive Director

Ruaraidh Petre, Executive Director of GRSB was recently featured on the podcast Ash Cloud. Petre and Ash Sweeting discussed creating positive climate impact on the vast landmass under beef production. To listen to the podcast, click here.

To view the transcript, click here.

Since GRSB was founded, we have had a focus on animal welfare; see our Principle on Animal Health & Welfare and our goal to provide cattle with good quality of life and an environment where they can thrive. As such, we have recognised animal welfare as being one of the key areas of sustainability for the beef industry. Not only is welfare a key issue in the ethics and the societal acceptance of beef production, but it is instrumental in other aspects of sustainability, including the use of natural resources, emissions and efficiency, as well as farmer livelihoods.

In both our P&C and our Goal, we reference the World Organisation for Animal Health’s (WOAH) terrestrial code for beef cattle welfare; while WOAH is the global organisation for animal health and welfare, there are a wide range of challenges posed by different production systems, regions, breeds and categories of animals.  Social stress related to stocking density is more likely in highly intensive systems, whereas extensive systems may expose beef cattle to predation risk, parasites or fluctuations in feed availability while hot climates are more likely to lead to heat stress. Different breeds may also have varying susceptibility to heat stress or disease while different categories of animals require different management. Solutions tailored to each context are needed to address their challenges and optimize beef cattle welfare.

Measurement of welfare presents its own challenges. Animal welfare audits tend to focus on resources, e.g. the facilities, equipment and management practices on farms. However, these audits don’t measure direct outcomes for the animals. Animal-based indicators that cover behaviour, physiology, health, hygiene, locomotion and body condition scores aim to provide more objective information on how the animals are coping with their environment and management.

While animal-based measures are the most direct way to determine welfare, they do require observation and even with sampling methodologies e.g. Welfare Quality® Assessment, this presents a challenge to move to scale. A combination of animal and resource based measures presents a way to set and measure targets. We know, for example, that transport and handling are stressful for cattle, leading to compromised immunity. Both preconditioning and personnel training in low stress handling can improve outcomes. We also know that the adoption of pain mitigation (anaesthetics or analgesics) improves outcomes for cattle undergoing painful procedures such as castration or dehorning, so this is a clear positive action handlers can take.

The Australian Beef Sustainability Framework, in line with the national red meat industry, aspires to 100% use of pain relief in unavoidable aversive procedures by 2030. Similarly, the European Roundtable on Beef Sustainability has a target for the use of pain relief for all surgical procedures, and all forms of castration, dehorning and disbudding. The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef also has set a target to utilise practices that support animal welfare such as breed selection, polled (no horned) animals and pain relief. The challenge is that not all countries have registered products for pain mitigation in cattle. The US has no products for on-label use in cattle. The USRSB has a target that cow calf operations, transporters and lot feeders have BQA certification.

A logical alternative to the pain of dehorning is to breed polled cattle, and while this cannot be achieved overnight and may not be an option for everyone, GRSB member AACo in Australia has set a target to introduce the poll gene throughout their herd, and has already reached 25%. At the same time, AACo is working with key industry partners to develop an internationally recognised AHW certification standard for extensive beef production by 2024.

GRSB processor members are the next link in the chain after producers and also play a key role in cattle welfare, and just as producers are committed to good welfare, processors are also striving to achieve high standards. Cargill is recognised for their commitment to animal welfare by the Business Benchmark for Animal Welfare (BBFAW ) in Tier 2. JBS has developed a global scorecard with 19 indicators, developed against the five freedoms of animal welfare, which is being implemented across all of their operations. Similarly Tyson uses the Five Domains Animal Welfare Framework across its global operations and introduced the Tyson Foods FarmCheck® program to audit welfare on farm.

GRSB’s working group on Animal Welfare will be identifying more practical projects we can support to achieve our goal of providing cattle with a life worth living in an environment in which they can thrive over the coming years, as well as collecting more data on the achievements of our members in this area.

Ruardiah Petre, Executive Director

Ceres Tag, the world’s first direct to satellite livestock monitoring platform has joined the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB).

At Ceres Tag we believe change needs to happen to enable a sustainable future and with the other members of GRSB, we believe that beef can be a sustainable of protein for the world – however beef does have challenges to overcome in biosecurity, deforest free supply chains, methane emissions and other information often misrepresented public discourse.

Ceres Tag joined GRSB to assist members in providing the compliance evidence to automate reporting on the sustainability and ESG. These credentials are the key for unlocking the potential for the Red Meat industry to provide highly nutritious protein that consumers can feel good about consuming.  The ability of Ceres Tag to provide beef producers with automated certified data on location, welfare and sustainable use of land delivered via satellite for each individual animal during it’s life is an important piece of GRSB partnerships.

Ceres Tag is the only automated, unlimited range, sickness detection and contact tracing platform, requiring no towers or cell coverage. Should a biosecurity incursion occur of national significance, Ceres Tag products and data history are able to provide the information to simulate the extent of the incursion. This has the potential to save millions of animals from unnecessary culling and enable professionals to make fast and accurate decisions on the most appropriate management process to control and eradicate the necessary animals.  A solution that could thereby improve the impact on animal welfare, environmental devastation, and the profound economic and social impact that results.

Recent announcement by the EU Community to ensure deforest free supply chains can also be addressed by the automated Ceres Tag data. Simple recording of location coordinates is a standard part of a Ceres Tag data packet on every Ceres Tag and occurs in any location and for any supply chain ownership link that the animal may be in during its lifetime without the risk created by human manual input error.

However, for Ceres Tag, it is the soon to be released Pasture Feed Intake to measure; daily pasture intake, daily methane emissions, feed efficiency and phenotype traits for genetic selection that has the potential to have a significant impact all over the globe and to provide credible evidence, to back the sustainable production statements made about beef production which the GRSB members are also aligned. This automated, auditable, compliance evidence will enable producers of beef to have the confidence to represent their product with truth and integrity.

Ceres Tag is the 21^st Century traceability and sustainability partner for the beef industry.

The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef announces 2023 Executive Committee

5th January 2023 – The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) today announces its 2023 Executive Committee.

The newly elected committee is comprised of beef producers, beef supply chain stakeholders and beef industry groups from across the world. There is representation from Brazil, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, and the United States. These leaders will collaborate on the organization’s work towards reducing the global warming impact of beef by 30 percent by 2030.

The seven-member 2023 Executive Committee includes industry leaders from the likes of McDonalds, Tri-L Ranch, Tyson Foods, and Zoetis.

• President: Mr. Ian McConnel, Tyson Foods
• Vice President: Mr. Bob Lowe, Tri-L Ranch
• Secretary-Treasurer: Mr. Justin Sherrard, Rabobank
• Member at large: Ms. Jeannette Ferran Astorga, Zoetis
• Member at large: Mr. Lucas McKelvie, McDonalds Corporation
• Member at large: Ms. Luiza Bruscato, Brazilian Roundtable on Sustainable Livestock
• Immediate Past-President: Mr. Bob McCan, McFaddin Enterprises

Since 2012, GRSB has been working to advance sustainable beef through leadership, science, and multi-stakeholder engagement. Leaders are elected from a membership that represents the full value chain, including beef producers and producer organizations, allied services and industries, processors, retail, civil societies, and others who aim to continuously improve beef sustainability around the world.

In the last year, GRSB has grown its membership to over 100 members with new partners including Datamars, Acceligen and Woolworths. In November, the organization hosted its global conference in Denver – a four-day event that brought together a global network of likeminded individuals with an interest in powering a future of beef sustainability. This year’s COP27 saw several members of GRSB’s leadership team join panels to discuss how GRSB and its members aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the beef supply chain.

More than 500 companies and producer organizations are engaged in the work of GRSB and its members, including regionally focused beef sustainability roundtables and initiatives in Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Europe, Mexico, New Zealand, Paraguay, Southern Africa, the United States, and other countries around the world.

The new committee came into effect on January 1^st, 2023. For more information about GRSB visit https://grsbeef.org

About the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef

The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) is a worldwide network of the people and organizations powering progress in sustainable beef. Across its global roundtable and 12 regional roundtables, GRSB has over 500 stakeholder members, working in 24 different countries. Collectively, its members are responsible for more than two thirds of cross-border beef trade.

GRSB powers progress in sustainable beef by setting ambitious goals around reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving land use and animal welfare. To help achieve these goals, GRSB champions best practice, facilitates the exchange of knowledge and fosters a collaborative approach.

Visit www.grsbeef.org and @grsbeef on social media.

About the GRSB Executive Committee

President – Mr. Ian McConnel (Tyson Foods). Ian serves as Director of Sustainability for Tyson Foods International Business Unit. Before his current position Ian served as the Global Beef Lead for World Wildlife Fund (WWF) where he led the global WWF networks approach to creating and communicating a more sustainable global beef industry. Facilitating global dialogue, collaborating across WWF offices, external stakeholders and industry partners Ian is successfully developing a cohesive and effective global effort to create a beef industry that is socially, economically, and environmentally responsible and is able to communicate this message to consumers. Ian has been voted in as President again for 2023 following a successful 2022 tenure, and previously served as the GRSB Vice President in 2021, and as GRSB Secretary-Treasurer in 2019 and 2020.

Vice President – Mr. Bob Lowe (Tri-L Ranch, Ltd.) has been voted in for another term as Vice President. He is part of a long line of ranchers that came to Alberta, Canada in the late 1800s and continues that legacy with feedlot operations based in Nanton, Alberta and a cow-calf operation in Eriksdale, Manitoba. He is an outspoken advocate for sharing information about raising cattle, feedlots, and best management practices, and promotes the understanding of the stewardship and conservation that is inherent in sustainable beef production.
He currently serves as President of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) and he was also Chair of Alberta Beef Producers (2015 to 2017) and a decade as a delegate, director, and a member of the executive. First elected as a director to the CCA in 2009, Lowe has served as chair of the CCA Environment Committee and Foreign Trade Committee. He is also a Council director of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB).

Secretary-Treasurer– Justin Sherrard (Rabobank, Netherlands). Justin is the Global Strategist for Animal Protein in Rabobank’s Food & Agribusiness Research (FAR) group. He leads the bank’s global research, client engagement and profiling in the animal protein sector. His work is directed at challenging current thinking and advising companies on risks and opportunities from strategic issues on today’s and tomorrow’s CEO agendas. In 2023 Justin will begin his second term as a Member-at-Large on the GRSB Executive Committee.

 Member-at-Large – Lucas McKelvie (McDonald’s Corporation, USA). Luke has been continually active within the GRSB for several years, including on the GRSB Communications Council and has been voted in for another two-year term on the Executive Committee. Luke serves as the Global Farmer Program Manager for McDonald’s Corporation. Prior to his current position Luke spent 8 years with the advertising and public relations firm of Osborn Barr where he served as Group Director of the Animal / Livestock Sector and then as a Vice President.

Member-at-Large – Ms. Jeannette Ferran Astorga (Zoetis) is currently beginning her second term as a Member-at-Large on the GRSB Executive Committee. Jeanette serves as Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Communications and Sustainability, and Chief Sustainability Officer, as well as being serving President of the Zoetis Foundation. In these roles, Ms. Ferran Astorga is responsible for the company’s integrated and comprehensive approach to public policy, social responsibility, corporate reputation, and colleague and leadership communications and leads the sustainability and ESG disclosure strategy.  Since joining Zoetis, Jeannette established Zoetis’ Sustainability goals and led Zoetis’ progress in the areas of Sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters. Among her many accomplishments at Zoetis thus far are the establishment of the Zoetis Foundation, the formation of our Driven to Care long-term Sustainability strategy and the publication of Zoetis’ first Sustainability report.

Member-at-Large – Luiza Bruscato (GTPS, Brasil) is the Executive Manager of the Brazilian Roundtable on Sustainable Livestock. She is responsible for Corporate Public Relations and conducting multistakeholder partnerships and networking through the articulation of the livestock production chain. In 2022 Luiza joined the IPOG as a lecturer for the Agribusiness Management MBA scheme, with her role covering sustainability, consumer trends and impacts on the production chain. She has been an active member within the organisation for several years, having been elected to the GRSB’s Board of Directors from 2017 to 2019.

Immediate Past President – Mr. Bob McCan (McFaddin Enterprises). After finishing his second term as President in 2020, Bob continues to support the Executive Committee as a non-official member. He oversees the cattle operations and recreational hunting and wildlife operations for his family’s company, McFaddin Enterprises, Ltd. in Victoria, Refugio, and Bee Counties, Texas. Using rotational grazing on native rangeland, the family strikes a balance that meets the needs of both livestock and wildlife, benefiting both. The ranches are stocked with Victoria cattle, a commercial cross-bred of three-fourths Hereford and one fourth Brahman with a uniform Hereford coloring.

8 December 2022

• Leading global livestock management and data solutions company, Datamars, has joined the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
• Datamars becomes 101^st member to join the Roundtable, following the likes of leading retailer Woolworths Group and bovine genetics company, ABS Global
• The announcement follows GRSB’s global sustainable beef conference in Denver and its representation at COP27

Datamars, a global livestock management and data solutions company, has joined forces with organizations such as WWF, McDonalds, and Cargill as part of a worldwide network of people and organizations powering progress in sustainable beef – the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB).

Datamars is committed to effecting positive change by providing farmers with livestock productivity tools and data insights around animal performance and health, allowing them to make precise, informed decisions to enhance animal productivity while minimizing the use of scarce resources. Datamars’ values closely align with those of GRSB, with both organizations focused on ensuring local farmers and producers have the resources they need to be sustainably productive.

Datamars, through their Datamars Livestock offering, provides animal identification solutions as well as weight, heat and health monitoring and wider farm monitoring technologies that connect to digital platforms to provide farmers with a wealth of real time information regarding animal and farm performance. Datamars also supports farmers in safeguarding the welfare of their livestock through the provision of accurate and reliable animal health delivery tools.

In recent weeks, several members of GRSB’s leadership team attended COP27 to discuss how GRSB and its members aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the beef supply chain. This followed the organizations global conference in Denver – a four-day event that brought together a global network of likeminded individuals with an interest in powering a future of beef sustainability.

Ruaraidh Petre, Executive Director of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, said: “We’ve had an exciting year as an organization, having hosted our conference and attending COP. Furthermore, we’ve already welcomed several new members and are pleased to announce our newest member. Datamars’ technology empowers farmers with livestock management tools and insights which play an important role in helping our sector continue to make strides in becoming more sustainably productive and achieve the goals we set out as an organization last year.”

Datamars CEO, Daniele Della Libera, says being a member of GRSB will further the company’s ability to contribute alongside other industry players who are aligned to the same goals, and continue to learn and identify ways to champion and accelerate sustainable farming through its activities and leading-edge customer solutions.

“Our membership will also help further accelerate our strategy and goals to deliver solutions that solve genuine problems and help make life easier for producers globally.”

Della Libera says he is excited to be working alongside the GRSB as Datamars continues to research, develop, and bring together integrated product solutions to help meet the growing world population’s demand for protein and other nutrients in a sustainable way for farmers, the environment and animal welfare.

Read the article here: https://www.meatingplace.com/Industry/News/Details/107141?allowguest=true

It’s a myth that beef is over-consumed in high-income countries, plant-based burgers are not nutritionally interchangeable with the real thing and red meat is underselling itself by taking on the label ‘protein’.

These were among the insights from a group of top nutrition scientists in the United States who this week met for a panel discussion on one of the most perplexing phenomena of the modern-day sustainability conversion: the imbalance of a world which has both massive malnutrition problems and huge amounts of food wastage.

The session was part of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef conference, held in Denver, Colorado, in the US.

Ty Beal, from the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition in Arizona, said the simple fact was too many people worldwide were malnourished.

Research shows more than 500 million women and adolescent girls have anemia; one-in-two preschool children and two-in-three women have at least one micronutrient deficiency worldwide, he said.

Nine-in-ten women in several countries in southern Asia and sub-saharan Africa have at least one micronutrient deficiency.

While that number is incredible, possibly more surprising to many of the 250 international delegates at the conference was revelations from recent research which brings to light the fact these deficiencies are also prevalent in the US, the United Kingdom and other high-income countries.

Dr Beal presented findings from studies that show in the UK, one-in-two women have at least one micronutrient deficiency and in the UK and US one-in-five women are iron deficient.

“These numbers are not small and addressing the situation means looking to foods which are the best sources of the nutrients most lacking – iron, zinc, folate, calcium and vitamins B12 and A,” he said.

Meat and other animal sourced foods were top sources of commonly lacking nutrients, he said.

However, it was not just the density in those nutrients of animal-sourced foods that needed to be considered, but the bioavailability.

In red meat, the bioavailability ratio of omega 3 fatty acids is 10:1 and for vitamin A it is 12:1, Dr Beal reported.

“For iron, comparing beef to pulses you’ll see twice the bioavailability,” he said. “For zinc, it is 70pc more.”

Meat also contains higher quality protein than most plant foods. The measurement of this is the digestible indispensable amino acid score, and in beef and pork it is higher than other foods – a score of 119 compared to almonds which scores just 40, or chickpeas at 83.

Thanks to Farm Online for this great article. Please continue reading the article here: https://lnkd.in/gDcMNkBJ

As New Zealand producers measure their carbon position to deal with a methane tax, it is being found that so many are sequestering far more carbon than emitting methane, Mr Petre said.

In Latin America, producers are demonstrating the same outcome as they measure their balance, just via their normal grazing management.

And in Australia, carbon emissions across the industry have been measured and reduced by 57 per cent since 2005.

The GRSB, which now has more than hundred members across 24 countries – including some big names from Australia such as AACo, Harvest Road and Meat & Livestock Australia – has a goal of 30pc reduced global warming impact by 2030.

That’s more ambitious than most policy settings around the world.

GRSB’s president Ian McConnel, an Australian ex-pat, said by demonstrating ambition and progress, the global beef industry could avoid the negative impacts of policy settings like methane taxes and herd reduction schemes.

“If we, as a global industry, achieve our stated targets the methane pledge won’t be an issue,” he said.

“Whether or not policy makers give us the time will come down to how well we communicate that this is not just a stated ambition, it is a series of actions we are already taking.”

Mr McConnell said critical to that would be producers telling the GRSB, and the rest of the value chain and allied services, what sustainability means on their farms and ranches.

He referred to a comment from Walmart executive Bob Fields ten years ago when the GRSB was set up.

When asked why the likes of Walmart, McDonalds and the WWF were coming together on beef and what it is they wanted from the producer, he replied: “We don’t want to tell you what sustainable beef is, we just want to sell lots of it.”

“Yes, we want to drive change,” Mr McConnel said. “But change that works for producers.”

Thank you to Farm Online for this great article! Continue reading here: https://lnkd.in/gHU3yRPM

Read the article here: https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/wheres-beef-how-food-firms-are-innovating-cut-methane-emissions-2022-11-02/