February 23, 2012
Cargill, McDonald’s, Others Form Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef NPO
The 17 founding member of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef have formed an independent, non-profit organization to continue with their goal to realize environmental and industry-related improvements across the global beef industry, the group said.
The founding members are representatives from industry, non-profit organizations, associations, academia and think tanks including Cargill, McDonald’s, Merck Animal Health, Grupo de Trabalho da Pecuaria Sustentavel (GTPS), National Wildlife Federation, Rainforest Alliance, Roundtable for Sustainable Beef Australia, The Nature Conservancy, Wal-mart and World Wildlife Fund.
With the new NPO, the group said that it has formalized its commitment to a global beef supply chain that is environmentally sound, socially responsible and economically viable. The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef will now be registered an international legal entity under Article 60 of the Swiss code, allowing for support local, regional and national initiatives in beef production systems.
The Dutch government has already pledged several million euros for trainings and new technologies to improve the productivity of smallholder and frontier farmers. These funds will be distributed to successful applicants during the next four years, the group said.
The group has received the endorsement of the Consumer Goods Forum on matters associated with beef, and has formed an strategic alignment with Brazil’s The Working Group on Sustainable Beef.
In May 2012 the new NPO will participate in meetings in Australia with its affiliates at the Australian Beef Conference. The group also said that it intends to host the second Global Conference on Sustainable Beef later in 2012.
Since the Global Conference on Sustainable Beef in November 2010, the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef has initiated a series of dialogues in key beef producing regions to share information and practices across the diverse beef industry.
Photo: Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
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Reader Comments
“environmentally sound, socially responsible and economically viable”?
Simply feed the cattle grass. Cows make protein from eating grass. Humans do not. Cows do not need protein from plants; humans do. Plus, it takes more energy and nutrients to grow plant proteins than grass. Additionally, the meat tastes better when it’s grass-fed even with though there’s less fat and cholesterol. Let’s get over the “prime” meat ideology. It’s not ideal for anyone.
Feeding cattle grass and not grains IS environmentally sound, socially responsible, and economically viable.
kiai | February 23rd, 2012
Let us hope the group is moving beyond the position that industrial of factory-farmed raised beef is more sustainable. Greenhouse gas emissions is not the ONLY factor that should be considered in this debate. Limits to growth should be consideration/approach number 1.
Katherine O"Dea | February 23rd, 2012
Sounds like they smell the organic machine mooooving in on their cowcrap ridden territory! These groups are truly using the word sustainable in reference to surviving in the new marketplace, nothing to do about being sustainable to the environment or the planet, only their bank accounts. They are band wagon jumping at best. We had a firm up here in Canada try that and they were found out and now have to relabel all their product. When we were at the grocery store last week, all of their products were now 50% off!
Iain | February 23rd, 2012