MAKING SURE THERE ARE NO BEEFS ABOUT BEEF
NZ beef farmers & Mcdonald’s making world-class strides in sustainability.
It is sometimes hard to get your head around the need for sustainability, says leading sustainable beef farmer Richard Scholefield, of Whangara Farms on the beautiful East Cape “I find myself sometimes looking out at the green grass and the sea and the blue sky and the lack of pollution like you get in the cities – and I have to remind myself that we have beef and sheep that are emitting [methane] all the time,” he says.
New Zealand’s emission issues stemming from dairy cows, beef and sheep are well known – but less so the moves being taken by farmers and, in particular, ground-breaking groups like the New Zealand Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (Scholefield is the chair). The story behind the Roundtable, whose members span farms like Whangara, beef processors and end users like Mcdonald’s, opens a window on the growing significance of sustainability as an aid to the planet and to meet changing consumer preferences.
Mcdonald’s is one of the world’s biggest buyers of beef and co-founded the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef in 2011 – a multi-stakeholder initiative bringing together key players across the beef value chain to accelerate and continuously improve sustainability.
The NZ Roundtable for Sustainable Beef wants New Zealand beef – already one of Mcdonald’s 10 top global suppliers – recognised as the world’s most sustainable.
Mcdonald’s are, says Scholefield, great allies when it comes to achieving change: “They are a global influencer, very big on sustainability. They are so powerful and can actually help bring change about, not just promote it. They encourage people to be innovative.
“If you’d asked me two or three years ago what sustainability meant, I would have pointed to things like land use capability – running stock only on land that could handle them, fencing off waterways, not running stock on hills where run-off can happen, planting trees and so on. “Those are all still valuable things to do,” says Scholefield, “but the whole question of climate change, greenhouse gases and emissions means we are going to a whole new level of sustainability now.” Last year, the Roundtable was involved in a Proof of Concept project involving six farms and 500 head of cattle up and down New Zealand, four meat processing companies and Mcdonald’s – using their supply chain to prove verified, sustainable meat patties could be delivered to consumers.
It was a success, with the project addressing water quality, water use, animal welfare and farm environmental management and demonstrating that the new “gold” sustainability standard – the New Zealand Farm Assurance Programme Plus (NZFAP+) – is an important part of New Zealand’s ability to produce sustainable beef.
The new standard uses additional benchmarks of farm environment, people and bio-security; it protects and enhances resources, creates better and more sustainable farming businesses, and incorporates socially responsible and ethical practices.
Now, says Scholefield, the Roundtable’s goal is to expand the new standards to 10,000 cattle across the country – and he loves the strides being made by the sector to improve matters: “The Roundtable is genuinely collaborative. I’ve been blown away by the way everyone leaves their egos at the door and collaborate to help bring change about – even if they are competitors; that’s a first as far as I am concerned.”
The next steps will be more advances in genetics – to produce animals that emit less and grasses and crops which produce less methane, plus continuously improving new farm practices and systems.
For now, it’s time to take the new standards to more and more farmers, he says, some of whom have been a bit slow off the mark: “I think many people in cities can’t see that farmers generally care about the environment and are making efforts.
They care for the land – which is often worked on intergenerationally - it’s their livelihood and it’s hard for some farmers to see urban pollution issues that aren’t being addressed. “However, the signs for what is happening throughout the world re emissions were there five or six years ago. We, as farmers, need to adapt to changing global consumer needs.” Scholefield says the government and consumers can also help more, as Mcdonald’s is. The government could do more to assist farmers to achieve sustainability landmarks while consumers “expect a lot” from farmers and processors – but also had to realise the expense of becoming sustainable may affect prices in time.
Simon Kenny, Head of Communications at Mcdonald’s NZ, says the New Zealand beef sector is strategically important to the Mcdonald’s world: “Beef and dairy farming make up a significant portion of Mcdonald’s global carbon footprint and, for a decade, we’ve been working with the local primary sector, with a particular focus on sustainable beef production.
“As the global population grows, we need to feed more people in increasingly sustainable ways – and Mcdonald’s can use our scale to play an important role in that effort. “We’ve made it a global priority to champion sustainability efforts across our supply chain, starting in the areas where we believe we can have the largest impact – like beef. More sustainable beef production gives Mcdonald’s one of our greatest opportunities to address climate change and drive positive change in the global food system.”
For more information go to: mcdonalds.co.nz/ our-ingredients