Canada’s cattle ranchers rebrand as grassland protectors to counter beef’s bad rap | 24CA News
Inside an agricultural exhibition constructing on the Calgary Stampede, youngsters practise rotating cattle by means of completely different areas of pasture, incomes “carbon points” as they go if they will keep away from under- or overgrazing the land.
They’re taking part in Guardians of the Grasslands, a laptop recreation that was produced with funding from a authorities grant program, the charitable arm of the Canadian Cattle Association (CCA) and Ducks Unlimited Canada, which conserves and restores wetlands. The recreation is primarily based on a brief documentary of the identical identify that was produced by the CCA, the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Ducks Unlimited.
Both the sport and the documentary are a part of the business’s broader purpose to push again in opposition to beef’s dangerous rap and to as a substitute promote the concept cattle grazing could be good for the surroundings — a means of preserving native grasslands (which may, in flip, act as a carbon sink).
“Sometimes, what you thought was the problem is really the solution,” the documentary’s tagline reads.
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, agriculture is accountable for 30 per cent of Canada’s complete methane emissions — and 71 per cent of that’s attributed to beef manufacturing.
Improving the business’s environmental status may very well be an uphill battle, as considerations mount concerning the impression of methane emissions, and fashionable science articles steadily tout decreasing beef consumption as a easy technique to minimize one’s carbon footprint.
But ranchers say sustainability is a long-standing precedence for them — one thing that has change into extra vital as customers change into additional faraway from the method of meals manufacturing and extra involved concerning the impression of the meals they eat.
“It’s just something that I think has risen to the top of the conversation with the rest of the society,” stated Ryder Lee, basic supervisor of the Canadian Cattle Association. “Instead of being busy ranching, we have to answer that call.”
While beef demand stays sturdy, the business is properly conscious of the criticism across the carbon depth of manufacturing beef and is ramping up its public relations marketing campaign to win the hearts and wallets of Canadians.
Whether that message resonates with customers stays an open query that might have excessive stakes for the roughly $22-billion business.
Cattle and grasslands
The Guardians of the Grasslands movie says beef cattle could be optimistic for the ecosystem, as cows have taken on the function that bison traditionally performed in grazing the prairie grasslands and sustaining their equilibrium.
“With 74 per cent of Canada’s native grasslands now lost forever, preserving what’s left is critical,” the documentary says.
The laptop recreation model, which is meant to be performed after viewing the documentary, was launched within the spring.
“We’ve had beef industry resources before, but nothing that was gamified,” stated Amie Peck, the CCA’s stakeholder engagement supervisor. “We’re really hoping that that’s of interest to teachers.”
Tim McAllister, a analysis scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada primarily based in Lethbridge, Alta., stated the Grasslands documentary makes a level: Cattle do play a job in sustaining grasslands — which play a job in sequestering carbon — and in preserving the biodiversity of those areas.
“If we cultivate up those grasslands, we end up releasing a lot of carbon as a result of that cultivation process,” he stated.
The impression of the meat business, McAllister stated, entails extra than simply the surroundings: Raising cattle is a lifestyle for many individuals, and the custom across the business can profit communities.
University of Saskatchewan analysis assistant Kaitlyn Nielsen exhibits how a inexperienced feeder works to lure cattle, so the workforce can gather methane samples from their nasal vapours.
‘No one good meals manufacturing system’
Strictly emissions, although, the environmental impression of beef manufacturing is “much higher” than for some other sort of animal protein, stated Jim Dyer, an agro-environmental advisor in Cambridge, Ont., who’s studied the environmental impression of proteins for greater than a decade.
That’s partly as a result of methane emissions that come from cow burps, he stated, and partly as a result of cows are merely a a lot much less environment friendly animal to lift than different sources of protein, comparable to pigs and chickens.
Raising beef cattle on grass may also help sequester carbon and profit biodiversity, he stated, although the quantity of carbon sequestered this manner would not make up for the better total emissions produced in elevating beef.
Dyer suggests individuals ought to usually select pork over beef after they need to eat crimson meat, and go for grass-fed over grain-fed beef when potential.
As for McAllister, he stated it is as much as individuals to resolve for themselves what to eat, whether or not that features meat and the way a lot.
“But they need to realize that there’s trade-offs. There’s no one perfect food production system,” he stated.
Plans to spice up beef exports
Beyond mentioning the function that cattle play in preserving grasslands, the business has additionally pledged to cut back its carbon depth total, together with a dedication to chop a 3rd of its main manufacturing greenhouse fuel emission depth by 2030.
Asked about progress made towards that purpose, the chair of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, Ryan Beierbach, stated in an interview that an evaluation has simply wrapped up and outcomes might be launched to the general public quickly.
The federal authorities, for its half, has expressed a vote of confidence within the business and its sustainability aims. At a funding announcement held on the Calgary Stampede final week, officers applauded the Canadian cattle sector — with a consultant for the federal agriculture minister saying the business has achieved a “tremendous job at raising beef sustainably.”
In a news launch, the federal government touted a determine from the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, which stated the general greenhouse fuel emissions of Canadian beef manufacturing have a complete footprint of 11.4 kilograms CO2 equal, which it says is lower than half the world’s common.
“That’s the story that we want to tell the world, and today’s announcement is actually going to help tell that story around the world,” MP Francis Drouin, parliamentary secretary to Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, stated at an announcement that pledged $12 million for analysis into sustainable agriculture.
Drouin stated the notion that folks ought to merely cease consuming beef to cut back their environmental impression is a “failing strategy” and that the main focus ought to as a substitute be on decarbonizing the method of cattle manufacturing.
While Canadian beef exports nonetheless lag behind different international locations, such because the United States and Brazil, the federal authorities hopes to ramp them up within the years forward. Japan has reopened its doorways to Canadian imports, and Ottawa plans to open a brand new Indo-Pacific Agriculture and Agri-Food workplace in Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
“The world is looking for Canadian beef, [and] we know that we have a tremendous great story to tell,” Drouin stated.
How a lot does sustainability matter?
Back at residence, although, it isn’t clear if customers’ notion of beef and sustainability will make a lot of a distinction to the business’s backside line.
Kevin Grier, a livestock and meat market analyst primarily based in Guelph, Ont., stated whereas customers might say environmental points matter to them, style and worth are inclined to beat out these considerations in the case of selections on the grocery retailer.
Despite rising charges of vegetarianism, Statistics Canada information exhibits that Canadians’ demand for beef has remained “very, very strong,” tempered solely barely by excessive costs, he stated.
Those costs are anticipated to proceed to maneuver greater as western Canadian beef producers cope with drought circumstances and a few ranchers cull their herds. Fresh and frozen beef costs rose 9 per cent prior to now yr, outpacing different protein sources.
“That’s the issue I think that’s interesting, is what role beef is going to play in the meat case in the next couple of years,” Grier stated.
As for Ryder Lee, the CCA’s basic supervisor, he stated speaking about sustainability has change into a precedence whether or not it interprets to gross sales or not.
“Public opinion builds up over time,” he stated. “If we just stick to our knitting and raise cattle and don’t talk about what we’re doing, what we’ve found is decisions get made for us.
About 17 Alberta schools have so far registered to use the Guardians computer game. The organization hopes to offer versions tailored toward other provinces so they can be used in classrooms throughout the nation this fall.
