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Red meat supply chains go green

The red meat sector is undergoing a transformation due to the growing focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The market is driving a shift in the sector, motivating regulators to spark change towards climate-friendly meat.

While challenges remain, the trend towards climate-friendly meat will also offer opportunity for meat industry players, including those in Australia, global food and agribusiness specialist Rabobank says in the report Unlocking Climate-Friendly Meat; Supply Chain Initiatives Will Be Key.

As community demand for better environmental outcomes continues to gain momentum both globally and locally, opportunities exist for red meat supply chain stakeholders to implement programs aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) while retaining consumer trust, and promoting social acceptance, the report says.

But measuring emissions in the red meat supply chain remained one of the most challenging aspects confronting the industry.

Rabobank senior animal protein analyst Angus Gidley-Baird said the use of tailored programs with certain specifications in dedicated supply chains – similar to current grassfed and organic programs – would allow stakeholders to produce lower-emission red meat without necessarily undertaking onerous emission measurements.

Angus said a challenge for the red meat supply chain lies in bringing the two ends of the supply chain together.

“In the red meat supply chain, the bulk of the emissions occur at the production end of the supply chain, yet it is society – in this case consumers – that represent one of the key proponents for emissions reductions,” he said.

While a number of proactive governments around the world had begun regulating to reduce emissions in the red meat industry, he said, it would actually be industry players, using dedicated supply chains in a market-based approach, who would emerge as the key drivers of change.

And, while some governments had set a 2030 target for change, Angus believed this market-based approach would generate results faster, and said it was entirely possible that supply chains could implement changes in the next two to three years.

 

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