by Brandi Buzzard Frobose, RAAA Director of Communications

Why should Red Angus producers care about sustainability?

Short
answer: Because if you’re not sustainable, you’re not profitable.

Longer
answer: Consumers want sustainable beef, even if they don’t know exactly what
that means, and as one of my favorite beef producers and role models, Debbie
Lyons-Blythe said, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

Beef has a
fabulous success rate – 90 percent of consumers love the taste of beef. Ninety
percent! I challenge you to name one president who has had an approval rating
of that level. However, on the flip side, only 38 percent of consumers approve
of how beef is raised, and sustainability is a big part of that.

Do I have
your attention?

What is sustainable beef?

The United
Nations definition of a sustainable agricultural system is one where natural
resources are managed in a way that maintains ecosystem functions to support
current as well as future human needs. Additionally, a sustainable food system
is one where food is nutritious and accessible for everyone.

In the agriculture
industry, we add “profitable” to that definition because multi-generation farms
and ranches didn’t get that way by operating in the red for 50-plus years. Excellent
land, resource and business management practices make an operation sustainable
in more ways than one.

For
example, did you know that U.S. beef producers raise 18 percent of the world’s
beef with only 8 percent of the world’s cattle? Doing more with less is one of
the unspoken, yet unwavering, mantras of American beef production and we will
continue to see that trend in our industry for years to come.

You may
think that sustainable beef is just a niche product with a special label, along
the same lines as antibiotic-free or hormone-free beef but you’d be wrong. Only
4.5 percent of retail-beef-purchasing dollars are spent on niche beef, meaning
that the remainder is spent on “commodity beef.” Furthermore, only 3 percent of
total beef production in the U.S. falls into a niche category such as organic,
natural or antibiotic-free or hormone-free. That leaves roughly 24.8 billion
pounds of commodity beef that doesn’t have a “story” for the consumer.

And, if you
haven’t noticed, the consumer base has changed over the past few years. Today,
nearly half of the U.S. population is made up of consumers born after 1981, and
they have different shopping habits than their parents and grandparents. In
fact, more than 50 percent of Millennials – the generation accused of ruining
everything from McDonald’s to college football – make a genuine effort to buy
products from companies that support causes that are near and dear to their heart,
including the environment. They want to know how their food was produced, which
is essentially the story behind their meal.

Transparency matters

Beef has a
lot of things to brag about. It tastes great, is in high demand (up 8 percent
over the past nine years) and, as I have heard repeated time and again at
industry conventions, it’s nature’s multivitamin.

So why are
we constantly having to defend our livelihood and prove that we are sustainable?

Because
consumer trust hinges on transparency – they cannot trust what they cannot see.
There is no “trust fall” teambuilding exercise in the grocery store – if they
don’t trust beef production, they won’t buy beef. That’s a relatively simple
equation to solve.

The
challenge is that cattle people are notoriously private; we don’t want anyone
to know our business and, even when we do share information, it’s vague at
best. However, transparency in the production chain matters to consumers in
regards to all purchases – from baby wipes to beef. If they can’t see and don’t
understand it, they fear it.

How can we improve beef
sustainability?

First off,
I want to make it clear that beef is already a sustainable protein. Farmers and
ranchers who are operating on third-, fourth- and fifth-generation farms and
ranches are a testament to that fact. Obviously, in order for something to be
sustainable it has to be profitable as well. But consumers are searching for a
bit more qualification than a black bottom line.

One way in
which the beef industry can improve its sustainability is by producing corn through
the use of no-till or conservation tillage. These practices increase soil
organic carbon and reduce soil erosion, which contribute to overall
sustainability measures for beef production. Therefore, growing corn more
efficiently, in a way that is better for the environment, will increase beef
sustainability.

Another
practice to increase beef’s sustainability is through the use of beta-agonists,
which improve the net contribution of actual beef protein to the supply chain.
Producing more beef, using the same amount, or fewer, of inputs of land, water
and feed positively contributes to beef’s sustainability measures.

This may
seem a bit obvious, but decreasing the amount of beef wasted contributes to
beef’s overall sustainability. In my home, you’d be hard-pressed to find
leftover steak but there is occasionally too much meat sauce for the spaghetti
or a chunk of beef roast that never got rewarmed. Tossing those small leftover
portions into the trash is not only wasteful, but it decreases the overall
sustainability of beef by wasting the resources that were used to produce it.
To remedy this, you can look into “planned-over” recipes from your state beef
council or access them online at BeefItsWhatsForDinner.com.

Last, but
most certainly not least, there are a whole host of industry publications that
share information on keeping cattle healthy, utilizing good genetics and
managing feed resources more effectively. All of these practices not only
contribute to the profitability of the ranch, but also the sustainability.

For
example, a producer who purchases a good or great bull will see more return on
their investment, i.e. greater amounts of high-quality beef for marketing.  A producer who uses average or below-average
bulls will have lower input costs on the genetic side but may have more feed
costs to get those calves to market, thereby decreasing their profitability and
overall sustainability of the business.

In short,
sustainability is about doing the same things we’re already doing – genetic
selection, pasture management, feed production and health management – just a
little bit better, every year.

What does this mean for me?

I’m not
encouraging all seedstock producers to quit their jobs and travel the country
as sustainability spokespeople. However, if we don’t speak up and talk about
beef’s positive sustainability story and how we are continuously improving,
someone from Green Peace or PETA will do the talking for us, and I can
staunchly guarantee we won’t like their version of the story.

Are you
wondering what you can do? You can start by committing a few pro-beef
sustainability facts to memory, such as:

• Only
  2 percent of greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to cattle in the U.S. (EPA,
  2016)
• From
  2005-2011, the U.S. beef industry reduced its greenhouse
  gas emissions and water use by 2 and 3 percent, respectively.
• Grain-finished
  beef cattle provide nearly 20 percent more human-edible protein than they
  consume.

Additionally,
take some time to think about your management practices. Do you have a grazing
plan in place? Do you have water resource management strategies in place that
address the use, optimization, conservation and quality of water? Those two
resources are vitally important to both the livelihood of your operation and
beef’s sustainability.

There is a
reason industry stakeholders from farm to fork are advancing the sustainability
story of beef to meet the challenge the industry faces. Sustainability is key
to your operation and the beef industry – consumers are demanding information
and will not settle for less than their expectations. If they can’t get it from
us, they will find another protein option to put on the supper table.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that beef sustainability is a fad – it’s not equivalent to flared jeans and disco, and it will most-assuredly still be a driving factor in the next decade.

Source: Red Angus Association of America