Cargill to Develop Beef Sustainability Assessment

by | Dec 3, 2014

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CargillCargill Cattle Feeders, the cattle supply arm of the company’s US beef business, has entered into an agreement with Wichita-based consultancy Kennedy and Coe to create a verified beef supply chain sustainability assessment program for Cargill feed yards.

Based on the successful development of benchmarking and measurement criteria, this type of assessment could eventually be expanded to include cattle production in collaboration with stocker operators, ranchers, as well as with Cargill’s feed yard partners.

The assessment will begin with a yearlong focus on the economic, environmental and community impacts of Cargill’s four feed yards in Texas, Kansas and Colorado. After the initial phase of discovery and data collection performed by Cargill personnel, Kennedy and Coe will generate reports, analyze data and establish benchmarking.

Cargill beef customers also will be able to provide their sustainability criteria, resulting in a customized assessment report for measuring and documenting their organization’s supply chain sustainability progress.

According to Sara Harper of Kennedy and Coe, the goal of this project is to provide sustainability information that is relevant across the supply chain, including suppliers, customers, NGOs, producer groups, trade associations and consumers.

Cargill is one of the 17 founding members of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to environmental and industry-related improvements across the global beef industry.

The group released its draft Principles and Criteria for Global Sustainable Beef document for public comment earlier this year and was criticized for greenwashing the beef industry by a number of consumer, worker and environmental groups.

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