Executive Director's Message

I shared an article on LinkedIn last week showing a soil map depicting levels of soil carbon throughout Europe. The original poster had made mention of the fact that sequestering carbon in soil is one of the means by which we could mitigate climate change. I was quite surprised to find a comment asking about this, and the same person questioned whether there is any scientific evidence for climate change.

The short answer is, of course, yes, and the long answer is yes, again (with all of it's hundreds of references).

The number of scientists who question whether climate change is happening is minute. There is a vociferous and very small minority of papers (less than 3% in 2016) that challenge whether human activity is the cause.

Since we know that increasing levels of Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere cause warming, and that these gases have increased dramatically over the past 100 odd years, it is clear that trying to reduce the concentration of such gases should be a priority.

For some industries, this appears to be all downside; a switch in the way power or raw materials are generated or used that requires extensive investment, potentially higher operating costs etc. For agriculture, there is an upside, and that is that soils with higher carbon levels are more productive and more resilient, they absorb more moisture in floods, and they retain more moisture into dry seasons.

So, for agriculture, it's irrelevant what the cause of climate change is, the measures that we can take are beneficial to agriculture and do not only mitigate GHGs in the atmosphere but help adapt to the effects of more extreme weather events.

I do not see the value of getting into lengthy discussions about either whether climate change is happening or what the cause is, because I am aware that a lot of people in agriculture have decided that they don't trust the science. Well, it's not the science that puts your business on the line. If the general public and ultimately governments decide that action on climate includes changes to agriculture, we need to be working constructively on ways that answer their demands while meeting the needs of producers.

So whether or not we think agriculture is part of the cause (again, we know that fossil fuels are the primary cause,) we do know that we can be part of the solution, and why wouldn't we want to be? If we can sequester carbon in soils why wouldn't we?

If we can reduce enteric emissions and doing so actually increases animal performance, why wouldn't we?

I'm not suggesting that we accept all the blame that is thrown at livestock or agriculture in general; but we will always be more credible if we accept the consensus and work in constructive ways to benefit our own industry whilst alleviating the concerns of others.

Emerging Technology Could Identity Cattle Through Facial Recognition
Amanda Radke, Beef Magazine | January 27, 2019
In China, an artificial intelligence (AI) company is developing a new livestock health monitoring system with facial recognition to manage the herd one cow at a time.

At Brother Farm in northern China, four overhead cameras capture one image per second of cows as they arrive to be milked. The photos are being used to develop one of China's most advanced agricultural technologies.

Zhao Jinshi, founder of Beijing Unitrace Tech, says, "AI is already capable of identifying human faces. Now, we want to teach AI how to identify cows."

Checkoff–Funded Beef Quality Assurance Program's Online Certification Option Reaches Major Milestone
Agri News | February 6, 2019
More than 50,000 cattle producers have been certified through the Beef Quality Assurance program's new online learning system since it was first offered in February 2017.

Throughout the country, hundreds of thousands have now become BQA–certified through in–person and online training, with an estimated 80 percent of the U.S. fed beef supply now touched by BQA–certified operations.

The beef checkoff–funded BQA program is a nationally coordinated, state implemented program that provides systematic information to U.S. beef producers and beef consumers of how common sense husbandry techniques can be coupled with accepted scientific knowledge to raise cattle under optimum management and environmental conditions.

Drinking the Plant–Based Diet Kool–Aid
Troy Media | January 27, 2019
The EAT–Lancet Commission report underscores the importance of global food security, it falls short on a few fronts.

It also doesn't recognize that meat can be grown more sustainably, through efforts such as the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef and the emergence of cultured meat. Science is also pushing industry to think differently about how to produce meat. Notably, of the report's 37 authors, few have backgrounds in economics, policy, or animal, plant or soil sciences.

Healthy Sustainable Diets for All: A View from Ethiopia
Gebregziabher Gebreyohannes, Thomson Reuters Foundation | February 7, 2019
Ethiopia, once a byword for hunger and want, has in recent decades become a dynamic success story, a leader in the fight against both poverty and malnutrition. In that achievement, livestock figure prominently.

Our cows, sheep, goats, chickens, camels and other animals are bringing wealth to all actors in the livestock value chain, especially rural women who lack other opportunities to make money. They also create jobs for rural youth. And for our children, an egg or a cup of milk a day can make all the difference, helping to prevent stunting and the life sentence of cognitive deficits.

This week, experts are gathering in Addis Ababa to discuss a recent report by the EAT–Lancet Commission focused on sustainable food production systems.

It thus misses an important opportunity to contextualize the diverse food production systems that characterize much of the world outside of the rich, developed countries.

Ethiopians consume on average a tenth as much meat as people in developed countries, so moderate increases in milk and meat consumption create an opportunity to improve malnutrition and stunting, a major commitment of ours, as set forth in the Seqota Declaration.

Rabobank Earns Top Spot in Global Sustainability Ranking
Eco–Business | February 13, 2019
Sustainalytics has placed Rabobank at the top of the sustainability rankings for major banks. This means the bank received the highest score for how it applies Environmental Social Governance (ESG) data in its services and approach to risk. Sustainalytics has concluded that the risk of Rabobank incurring financial damage due to environmental and social policy is negligible.

This risk is relevant to institutional investors who wish to invest in sustainable companies. Rabobank held the 62nd position in the rankings just four years ago. The bank earned a top 10 place for the next two years before going on to seize the number two position last year.

GHG Emissions

Producers on the Job to Make Beef Carbon Neutral
Shan Goodwin, North Queensland Register | February 8, 2019
From Adelaide game designers to Sydney micro algae experts, innovative minds around the country are on the job to reduce the carbon footprint of Australia's red meat industry.

Producers, too, are doing their fair share of the heavy lifting on working out ways to reduce methane emissions from livestock and new methods of measuring carbon in soil.

Technology business 'incubator' Cicada Innovations and the beef industry's research and development body Meat and Livestock Australia joined forces to set up a 'hackathon' to come up with solutions to those two key challenges.

MLA is driving the red meat industry's ambitious goal to be carbon neutral by 2030 through a combination of new investment in research, development and adoption, and via policy settings.

Interpretive Summary: Association Between Residual Feed Intake and Enteric Methane Emissions in Hereford Steers
Jackie Walling, American Society of Animal Science
An article published in the January 2019 Issue of Translation Animal Science measured enteric methane emissions related to contrasting levels of residual feed intake (RFI) in a confined environment of Hereford steers. RFI is a heritable trait associated with methane production and measures how efficient animals convert feed to products. A low RFI indicates animals maintain their body condition consuming less food and therefore produce less emissions. This suggests selection for low RFI could help reduce methane emissions to the atmosphere.

OIE Report Shows Global Progress on Use of Antibiotics in Animals
John Maday, Drovers | February 19, 2019
Efforts toward improving stewardship of antibiotics in livestock production have gained momentum worldwide, with more countries regulating antibiotic use and collecting data to document trends.

A new report from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) show positive global progress in two key goals: more countries reporting data and fewer participants allowing use of antibiotics for growth promotion. The report also documents a continued need for enhanced surveillance and more consistent international surveillance of antibiotic use and resistance trends.

Antibiotic Stewardship: FDA Cites Progress
John Maday, Drovers | February 19, 2019
Efforts toward improving stewardship of antibiotics in livestock production have gained momentum worldwide, with more countries regulating antibiotic use and collecting data to document trends.

A new report from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) show positive global progress in two key goals: more countries reporting data and fewer participants allowing use of antibiotics for growth promotion. The report also documents a continued need for enhanced surveillance and more consistent international surveillance of antibiotic use and resistance trends.

Antibiotic Use in Animals Drops in UK
Aidan Fortune, Global Meat News | February 1, 2019
A new report into antibiotic use in the UK has revealed significant reductions over the past four years.

The UK One Health report found that the total combined quantity of antibiotics used in human and veterinary medicine dropped 19% between 2013 and 2017 in the UK.