Optimizing Environmental Impacts in the Meat Industry

If you read my last article, you know I’m trying out a new monthly series sharing key ways the Meat Institute’s members and our The Protein PACT partners are working to achieve ambitious goals for the future. If you missed the first article introducing the Protein PACT vision, check it out here.

To celebrate April as the Global Month of Climate Action, I thought I’d get into some further detail about how the Meat Institute and our partners aim to measure and optimize our environmental impacts.

Our solutions start with data, which the Meat Institute has made a unique and ambitious effort to collect and report. This data collection effort represents a game-changing shift in the meat sector’s culture, with first-year data already representing more than 90% of meat sold in the United States. Companies of all sizes have submitted data covering 386 establishments and documenting companies’ unique journeys toward committing to improvement on 92 metrics under five key focus areas, tracking performance, and delivering results.

Environment metrics include greenhouse gas emissions, water use, solid waste, food waste, land use, and supplier commitments. To help drive achievement sector-wide, the Meat Institute has set ambitious targets linked to key metrics. In the case of environment, we have committed that by 2030 100% of our members will have greenhouse gas reduction targets approved by the independent Science-Based Targets Initiative, in line with the Paris Climate Agreement goals.

As of January 2023, 12 Meat Institute members have set or publicly committed to set Science-Based Targets (SBTs). These companies and others are not only working to achieve their own goals but also to share their experiences and develop resources that will help others take this important step.

Further, 84% of establishments reporting data are covered by a company commitment to reduce GHG emissions. Gaps remain, and the Meat Institute is working with members to develop resources that can help companies of all sizes make progress to set independently-verified, science-based targets.

Our Protein PACT partners and their members are also verifying progress toward ambitious commitments that protect the land, air, and water we all share while continuing to make nutrient-dense food people need to thrive.

For example, in alignment with pork’s We Care principals, the U.S. pork sector has set a goal to reduce GHG emissions by 40% by 2030, from a 2015 baseline, among other comprehensive goals. The National Pork Board helps producers measure, document and share their sustainable farm practices and continuous improvement with On-farm Sustainability Reports. Today, U.S. farmers produce nearly 20% more pork today with nearly 20% lower GHG emissions per pound, as compared to 1959 (source).

To further advance climate-smart pork, the National Pork Board(NPB) leads one and is a collaborator in two U.S. Department of Agriculture grants that awarded a total of $155 million, including to expand on-farm sustainability reports, incentivize soil health and manure manage practice adoption, advance cover crops and conservation tillage, provide direct assistance to producers, and expand climate-smart commodities markets.

In 2020, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy set dairy-wide environmental stewardship goals to achieve GHG neutrality, optimize water usage, and improve water quality by 2050. Already, U.S. dairy farmers have cut emissions from each gallon of milk by 25% while producing 71% more milk overall – with the lowest on-farm dairy emissions in the world (source).

USDA’s climate-smart grants include $800 million awarded to advance dairy sustainability, including to create pilots that directly connect on-farm greenhouse gas reduction efforts with low-carbon dairy market opportunities.

Through the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, the U.S. beef supply chain has committed to achieve climate neutrality by 2040 and has set specific metrics and targets for every step from raising and feeding cattle to retail and food service. Over the last several decades, U.S. ranchers have reduced emissions per pound of beef by more than 40% while also producing more than 66% more beef per animal (source).

Animal feed also plays an important role in the environment impact of nutrient-dense foods like meat and dairy. The animal food industry is working to optimize the use of energy and natural resources and enhance precision nutrition programs, including through efforts like the Institute for Feed Education and Research (IFEEDER) Sustainability Road Map. The road map will equip animal food stakeholders across the value chain to track data and achieve goals in sustainability-focused areas like land management, climate-smart practices and crop innovations, and use of feed additives to reduce livestock emissions.

We know that people have questions about how eating animal-source foods impacts their health and the health of our planet. It’s our job to help answer those questions and to continuously improve our contributions. That’s what the Protein PACT is all about.

For those interested in even more on this topic, I hope to see you at the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate SummitMay 8-10 in Washington (don’t miss the Protein PACT as the Summit’s exclusive event app sponsor).

I also invite you to join the Protein PACT and GreenBiz Group for a webinar on how animal agriculture drives sustainability solutions, scheduled for May 16, 1:00-2:00 p.m. eastern time (register here).

And finally check out a new report from Protein PACT partner Animal Agriculture Alliance summarizing sustainability efforts across various animal proteins.

Read the article on LinkedIn.