Page 10 - MWC 09-9-2021s

US CATTLE extremely complex.”
continued from page 3 Social Sustainability:
•Demonstrate climate What Consumers (Don’t)
neutrality of U.S. cattle pro- Know
duction by 2040. Sustainability is a complex
•Create and enhance op- topic, and one reason for that
portunities that result in a is because people have dif-
quantifiable increase in pro- ferent values. During a pre-
ducer profitability and eco- sentation at the 2021 Alltech
nomic sustainability by 2025. ONE Ideas Conference, Sara
•Enhance trust in cat- Place, chief sustainability
tle producers as responsible officer at Elanco, addressed
stewards of their animals sustainability and beef pro-
and resources by expanding duction.
educational opportunities in “One person may prior-
animal care and handling itize animal welfare above
programs to further improve an environmental footprint;
animal well-being. another may prioritize the
•Continuously improve affordability of food above all
our industry’s workforce other issues,” Place says. “It’s
safety and well-being. not that one person is right
The framework for the pro- or wrong, it’s just the reali-
gram was developed by the ty that this is the challenge
Sustainability Goals Task we’re dealing with in a plu-
Force, a committee made up ralistic society when it comes
of cattle producers nominat- to sustainability.”
ed from 17 states. Smith says Shawn Darcy, senior direc-
the committee was formed of tor of market research at Na-
aggressive and opinionated tional Cattlemen’s Beef As-
cattle producers who pushed sociation, shared some data
hard to create a position that insights to uncover gaps in
demonstrated leadership for consumers’ knowledge about
the industry. how their food is produced.
Ashley McDonald, senior While issues of animal
director of sustainability for welfare are growing in im-
National Cattlemen’s Beef portance to consumers, their
Association, spoke about top considerations about
the initiative with “AgDay’s” proteins are still issues like
Clinton Griffiths. “One thing taste, safety and value. The
that’s really important is it’s good news: 62% say they
not just about a climate goal, find cattle producers very
an environmental goal, it’s credible. There’s room for
not even the economic goal. cattle producers to take con-
It’s about all of them, because trol of the story.
sustainability truly is a bal- Environmental
ancing act between every- Sustainability: Many
thing that we do,” McDonald Paths to Climate
says. “And we hope to convey Neutrality in 2040
that the decisions that pro- Programs such as Progres- erate efforts that will lead to
ducers make on their farms sive Beef are also positioning climate neutrality.
and ranches, every day, are themselves to demonstrate
leadership in Demand
sustainability.
“Our commit-
ment to social
responsibili -
ty inspired us
to create and
apply meaning-
ful metrics to
internationally
recognized sus-
tainability indi-
cators such as
animal welfare,
antibiotic use,
efficient use of
natural resourc-
es and employee
safety. Internal
and certification
The Midwest Cattleman · September 9, 2021 · P10
audits also
create mul-
tiple layers
of account-
ability to
transform
knowledge
into contin-
uous im-
provement,”
says Heath-
er Donley,
vice presi-
dent of op-
erations at
Progressive
Beef.
The three
pillars of
NC B A ’ s
announce-
ment start
with the
foundation
that cattle
production
must be fi-
nancially
sustainable
for produc-
ers, and
when producers can achieve preciates how producers have
economic sustainability, it come to the table to demon-
feeds their environmental strate stewardship and sus-
and social sustainability tainability, it is now time for
goals, says Jason Sawyer, corporations to step up.
associate professor and re- “We’ve got to make sure
search scientist with King we’re part of the solution,”
Ranch Institute for Ranch Norton says. “We are with
Management with Texas you.”
A&M — Kingsville. Sawyer Drovers
spoke about the relationship
between the three pillars.
Sawyer outlined multiple
plans, emphasizing there are
at least three paths with one CANADA’S BEEF
aggressive and a couple mod- continued from page 3
The U.S. beef cow herd has
now declined by nearly 1 mil-
Economic Sustainability: lion head or 3% since July 1,
2018. The Canadian beef cow
David Norton, president herd has declined 6% since
of Sysco’s Specialty Meat 2017.
Service, and Kristine Rich- Like American producers,
mond, head of sustainabili- Canadian cattlemen are opti-
ty and ESG, with Darden, a mistic for higher cattle pric-
company that owns restau- es in 2022 and 2023. Much
rants such as Capital Grille of that optimism hinges on
and Longhorn Steakhouse, western Canadian ranchers
expressed appreciation for seeing improvements in pas-
livestock producers and the ture and range conditions.
essential role they play feed- Canadian ranchers said they
ing the world. expect to retain more heifers
“The demand for beef con- with the latest survey finding
tinues to walk through our 655,000 replacement heifers,
front doors,” Richmond says, or 24,000 more and the first
explaining restaurant sales year-over-year increase since
this year were 14% above 2017.
pre-pandemic levels.
Norton says while he ap- Drovers