Cargill announces commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across its North American beef supply chain

Global demand for protein is rising rapidly, challenging farmers, ranchers and agribusiness to feed a growing population while protecting the planet. Across the food and agriculture industry, there is a pressing need to do more with less impact. To help address this need, Cargill is launching BeefUp Sustainability, an initiative committed to achieving a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity across its North American beef supply chain by 2030. The opt-in initiative will reduce GHG emissions throughout Cargill's beef supply chain from a 2017 baseline, measured on a per pound of product basis. BeefUp Sustainability is designed to engage a diverse set of stakeholders, including producers, customers and innovators. The initiative will focus on four key areas: grazing management, feed production, innovation and food waste reduction. The 30% reduction builds on the industry's existing GHG efficiency efforts and will equate to removing 2 million cars from U.S. highways for a year. Innovation within the North American beef industry has led to improved sustainability over the life cycle of cattle. Today, U.S. farmers and ranchers produce 18% of the world's beef with only 8% of the world's cattle. In fact, according the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the North American beef supply chain is already more than 35% more efficient from a GHG perspective than the global average. BeefUp Sustainability will help the industry build on this leadership. As an initial step in the BeefUp Sustainability initiative, Cargill will expand its partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Already, Cargill and TNC are collaborating on programs such as the Central Nebraska Irrigation Project, which is working to save 2.4 billion gallons of irrigation water over three years — equivalent to the water used by roughly 7,200 households. "There has been progress over the years across the industry and there is much more that we can do together," said Sasha Gennet, PhD, Director, North America Sustainable Grazing Lands Strategy at The Nature Conservancy. "We are committed to achieving a productive food system that improves water quality and wildlife habitat while reducing GHG's. Leveraging Cargill's network allows us to drive change at a meaningful scale."...press release

BEEF editor Burt Rutherford commented on the above release:

But I suspect they’ll learn the same things that Burke Teichert has been telling us for the last 10 years or more. Which leads me to another speculative thought. If you’re managing your outfit “wholistically,” as Burke suggests, you’re already doing the things that it will take Cargill and TNC the next 10 years to figure out. To be fair, Cargill will look at the entire supply chain, of which we’re just a part. And I speculate that other sectors are not nearly as far along in their sustainability effort as beef production is. After all, the beef business was the first to do a complete lifecycle analysis, setting a baseline from which we have already improved. So maybe we need to change our moniker from “the original environmentalists” to “the original sustainability experts.”

"Partnering" with TNC surely means TNC has received a grant or some type of remuneration. It would be interesting to know the amount of dollars being transferred. It is not mentioned in the release. 

UPDATE

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