HOW MCDONALD’S IS HELPING KIWI BEEF FARMS GO GREEN

Tackling climate change means rethinking food production from the soil up – and McDonald’s has a plan.

What we eat and how it’s produced has a huge impact on the environment and our future, which is why McDonald’s is taking its responsibility as one of the world’s leading food retailers very seriously. The company is committed to decarbonising its operations, including its food chain, and has set a global goal of reaching net-zero by 2050. As an initial science-based target, it aims to have helped its diverse network of food suppliers to reduce their carbon emissions by 2030.

It’s focusing first on the areas where it believes it can have the most impact, and one of those is beef farming. McDonald’s is one of the world’s biggest buyers of beef, including more than 60 million kilograms a year from New Zealand, so it makes up a significant portion of the company’s global carbon footprint.

In 2011, McDonald’s co-founded the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, which brings together key players from across the beef industry to accelerate sustainability initiatives internationally.

The New Zealand Roundtable for Sustainable Beef’s mission is to have New Zealand beef recognised as the world’s most sustainable beef, produced by an industry that is economically viable, socially responsible and environmentally sound.

For more than 10 years, McDonald’s

New Zealand has been working with Kiwi beef farmers and scientists to figure out how to make beef production more sustainable.

It has collaborated with farmers who have shown it’s possible to produce beef in a way that protects and maintains native landscapes, improves biodiversity and sequesters carbon in the soil, while also ensuring the long-term viability of farmers’ livelihoods.

In one research initiative, McDonald’s

New Zealand and AgResearch have joined forces on a two-year regenerative farming trial that aims to improve soil health and reduce carbon emissions.

The Hawkes Bay pilot study is focused on finding alternative ways of managing stock grazing so that nutrients are cycled through the soil more evenly than with conventional grazing methods.

The study hopes this will result in a better soil structure and higher water retention capacity, leading to increased plant growth as well as lower emissions. The study is also looking at ways of encouraging increased carbon storage in the soil, which would contribute to a lower environmental footprint.

McDonald’s hopes that research projects like this will provide its beef suppliers all over the world with the information they need to change their farming practices so they produce fewer emissions – an important step towards reaching that target of net-zero by 2050.

top Whangara Farms has become the benchmark for sustainable farming in New Zealand.

Globally, McDonald’s takes a lead in areas where they think they can have the most positive impact. This includes responsible food sourcing. You can read more about their approach corporate.mcdonalds.com