GRSB says its mission is to ensure that sustainable beef can remain part of an important global supply chain.
Through its worldwide network of members, GRSB intends to power progress by setting ambitious goals around reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, improving land use, and enhancing best practices in animal welfare.Global sustainability goals
The goals are:- Climate: Reduce the net global warming impact of beef by 30%;
- Land Use: Ensure the beef value chain is a net positive contributor to nature;
- Animal health and welfare: Provide cattle with an environment in which they can thrive, achieved through increased adoption of best practices.
In order to support the urgent global ambition of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5° by 2030, GRSB members will implement and incentivise climate-smart beef production, processing, and trade, while safeguarding the carbon stores in soil and landscapes.
The group says that reducing atmospheric GHGs requires both emissions reduction and carbon sequestration, making agriculture a key player in positively sequestering carbon in soils.The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that grasslands alone could sequester 54 to 216 million tonnes of carbon annually by 2030.
Many GRSB members are also committing to investing in research and development of climate-smart practices, tools, and knowledge. When is comes to its land use goals, GRSB says many producers and farmers are already net positive contributors to nature.GRSB members will finance, source, develop, support, and share practices throughout the entire value chain that are designed to sustain and restore grazing lands; enhance resilience; conserve forests; grasslands; and native vegetation; increase biodiversity; and help reverse ecological decline.
GRSB members will also focus their efforts on continuing to improve the quality of life for cattle, achieved through increased adoption of best practices in disease prevention, treatment measures, cattle handling, and appropriate genetics.Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef is a worldwide network of the people and organisations aiming for progress in creating sustainable beef. GRSB promotes best practice, facilitates the exchange of knowledge and involves a collaborative approach.It says its aim is a more environmentally responsible, more economically resilient and more socially beneficial beef industry.
GRSB members include Cargill, JBS, ComGroup, McDonalds and WWF globally, and in Europe, include Belvedere Agriculture, HCC Meat Promotion Wales, and Rabobank. The sustainability goals will be led and implemented by members of the roundtable. Ruaraidh Petre, executive director of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, said: “The world relies on beef and the industry relies on a healthy world to produce it. That’s why there is growing momentum in the industry to protect and nurture the earth’s natural resources.The conversation around beef sustainability is more important now than ever, and we recognise the need for beef to be more environmentally sound, more socially responsible, and more economically viable.“The goals which we have launched today are a commitment from the global beef industry, articulating the role and responsibility that we are taking together towards achieving a more sustainable ecosystem," he concluded.
