What's in the news right now about an environmentally sound, socially responsible and economically viable beef value chain?

Watch for more information coming soon.

Executive Director's Message:

This past Friday, we sent out our Draft Goals for member consultation! We sent the drafts to the primary contact for each organisation, so if you have not seen that in your mail, please check with your main contact.

Ideally we would like to receive feedback per organisation, but recognise for some of you this will be challenging. If the primary contact within your organisation has not received the draft goals, please ask them to check spam filters etc, then contact us, if needed.

Feedback will be collected until 19th March. We encourage you to submit your responses as early as possible to enable us to process responses and formulate answers to frequently asked questions as we proceed. Please reach out to me  or Scott Stuart for any assistance or clarification.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of the people who have been involved in developing these Draft Goals. Ian McConnel with Tyson has invested a huge amount of time in leading this process, along with Josefina Eisele, Simon Hall, Josh White and Brenna Grant who have also put in many hours with their drafting groups.

In total, the drafting has involved dozens of you across all of our member roundtables and a great majority of members. We naturally hope that the drafts reflect that broad based participation. The assistance of the Consensus Building Institute has been invaluable in getting us to where we are and will continue to be so as we edit drafts in response to your feedback and provide you with answers to your questions. We recognise the challenges of setting goals for a global industry, and are grateful for your participation and understanding that consensus requires us all to be flexible.

We had a good turnout for our briefing call on the UN Food Systems Summit last week. If you were unable to attend but are still interested in participating in discussions, please let me know. We are establishing an MS Teams group to keep track of documents and activities related to the Food Systems Summit and can add you to that group. There are already several ideas for independent dialogues, country and international levels, and a very useful suggestion for social media sharing from Amie Peck, our Communications Council chair.

It is good to see steady interest in new memberships coming in this year, which is a testament to the ongoing work on goals and communications. I hope that greater involvement in public discourse around food systems, climate and biodiversity, which all relate to our goals, will continue to attract attention this year. We are always grateful for direct introductions from existing members to those who would fit well with GRSB. It helps to have personal contact to bring organisations on board. Thanks to those who have been active in talking to potential members!

Thanks,

Ruaraidh Petre
Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
Executive Director
February 23, 2021

 "How Genes Advance Progress: Genomic's Role in Beef Sustainability" 
The free webinar will be held:
Thursday, February 25, 2021
at 2:00 p.m. Central U.S. Time 
(8:00 p.m. UTC)

Register Here

Genomics, the study of all genes in an organism and their inter-relationships in order to identify their combined influence on the growth and development of that organism, is an exciting and evolving science. But how can genomics make the beef value chain more sustainable?

This webinar will bring together experts in genomics and beef production to explore the various ways in which this technology is able to advance sustainability. Moderated by Tom Schultz, director of sales and marketing for NEOGEN Genomics, a global provider of genomic services that deliver accurate, affordable genomic testing to all sectors of the beef cattle industry, the webinar will share valuable insights and information from researchers and producers involved in advancing genomics.

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions during the webinar.

Speakers / Panelists: 

Our goal on Climate impact is ambitious, but around the world, it is being shown to be possible and in many cases is well underway. Our challenge is to see those improvements in lower income countries where the herd is growing and meat demand is rising fastest.

Australian Meat Industry Emissions Down 57 Per Cent Since 2005
Sky News, AU, 02/09/2021

Australian Meat Industry Council CEO Patrick Hutchinson says since 2005 the meat industry has reduced net emissions by up to 57 per cent and is on track to meet a 2030 net-zero target. "Our next review as an industry is due in about 2022 where we're looking to ensure we're about 25 per cent below the emissions we were tracking in 2017," he said. "Then moving out to 2025, it's at about 50 per cent and then moving to 2030. "We're working hand-in-glove across the supply chain... to ensure we can have that target of net emissions.”

We hear a lot about negative impacts of livestock on biodiversity, and have to acknowledge those, particularly the role that cattle play in land speculation and conversion in biomes in Latin America. However, there are many positive impacts that should also be recognised.

Livestock Grazing In Eastern Himalayan Pastures Enhances Biodiversity And Productivity
Neha Jain, Mongabay, 02/19/2021

Rangelands of the Himalayas are a global biodiversity hotspot and provide a myriad of ecosystem services from carbon sequestration and water storage to maintaining biodiversity and providing livelihoods to pastoral communities. For millennia, pastoralists have been inhabiting rangelands and these socio-ecological systems have coevolved. While the rangelands of Sikkim—one of the most biodiverse regions of the world—occupy a mere 0.006 percent of rangelands globally, they harbour almost 60 percent of global alpine plant families.

Guardians of the Grasslands

Guardians Of The Grasslands is a short documentary brought to you by a group of dedicated conservationists, ranchers and Canadian filmmakers. The film explores the current state of one of the world’s most endangered ecosystems, the Great Plains grasslands, and the role that cattle play in its survival. As we reach new critical levels in the loss of these iconic landscapes, there are important truths we must face about humanity’s relationship with the land and our food.

Setting a goal for animal welfare is uncontroversial – everyone involved from producer to consumer has an interest in good animal welfare, and in improving it where possible. Cost is sometimes a constraint for producers, particularly if they cannot estimate the return on that investment. Researchers from the University of Queensland have examined the cost benefits of improvements. Download research paper here

Animal Welfare Decision Support Tool Developed For Livestock Producers
Beef Central, 02/01/2021

Scientists from the University of Queensland have developed a decision support tool to help people with farm animals under their care to make evidence-based decisions about changes in practice to improve animal welfare.

Please see a summary of all meetings, calls and webinars on our event calendar in the member area of the website.

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