US ranchers fight back against fake meat
Vegan alternatives and need to combat climate change spur industry action
As the vegan-burger craze sweeps the US, the country’s beef industry is trying to scrub its image as a greenhouse-gas-emitting machine. Giants like Tyson Foods and Cargill are promising ambitious reductions in emissions, including in supply chains. Chief sustainability officers are popping up in meat company executive suites and social media ads are touting beef’s misunderstood health benefits.
It’s an uphill battle. For more than a decade, studies have exhorted people to eat less beef for environmental and health reasons.
Meanwhile, plant alternatives have captured the public mood as more Americans dub themselves flexitarians — people who regularly substitute other foods for meat.
The rise of meat alternatives could start cutting into beef’s livelihood, if the recent decline of milk is any lesson. In less than a decade, alternatives came out of nowhere to steal significant market share from conventional cow’s milk. Today, milk alternatives account for 13 per cent of the US market.
Beef consumption is still robust in North America, and meat-eating in general is gaining globally. But the industry’s concerns are sparked by how quickly vegan offerings are growing and the rise of the market for green and sustainable assets.
Deborah Perkins, global head of food and agribusiness at ING Wholesale Banking, says the industry will have to keep on working to improve its footprint.
“It’s not like at any point will the industry be able to say: ‘We are done’,” she says. “People are going to want to eat meat. We will see growth in the alternative-meat industry, but I don’t think it’s going to completely replace meat.”
Cattle emit methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas, but the industry is pointing to new numbers that show how efficient American production is compared with the rest of the world. A recent Government study funded by the industry pinpointed US beef’s footprint at about 3 per cent of manmade greenhouse gases, not the 14.5 per cent global number that is often cited.
“We should own that 3 per cent and reduce it, because 3 per cent is still important,” says Kim Stackhouse
The rise of meat alternatives could start cutting into beef’s livelihood, if the recent decline of milk is any lesson.
Lawson, director of sustainability at JBS USA. Brazilian parent company JBS is the world’s biggest beef producer, and its US and Canadian business units have a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, compared with 2015.
The industry is also working to highlight the environmental benefits of raising cattle. The US Great Plains, the heart of beef production and a major carbon sink, is preserved in part because of cattle grazing, says Nancy Labbe, who manages the
World Wildlife Fund’s sustainable ranching initiative and also works with the US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef.
Ruminants like cattle can digest feed inedible to humans, turning it into protein for human consumption.
Technology can also help lower emissions from livestock. Today, US ranchers are able to produce the same amount of beef as they did in 1975 with 36 per cent fewer animals, according to Sara Place, senior director of sustainable beef production for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Ermias Kebreab, a professor of animal science at the University of California-Davis, says major reductions in emissions are achievable over the next five years given the promise of imminent feed additives that reduce the amount of methane cattle produce.
Helping in the adoption of regenerative farming practices such as grazing management and cover cropping can make a difference, says Heather Tansey, sustainability director at Cargill’s animal-nutrition unit. The company has a goal of reducing emissions by 30 per cent in its North America beef supply-chain, compared with 2017 levels.
Tyson is trying to get its beef suppliers on board with its sustainability track. It has pledged a 30 per cent reduction across its entire business, including supply chains, by 2030.
It’s important to keep a close eye on the commitments from companies and make sure they are actually achieved, says Marcia DeLonge, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“It’s really important to keep the big picture in mind about how farmers and ranchers need to be part of the climate change solution,” she says.