STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH

Duane A. Lienemann
UNL Extension Educator

      
      As I indicated in last week’s edition, McDonald’s has announced it will begin purchasing verifiable sustainable beef by 2016. I was surprised at the reaction that I had to this article and questions generated. It was fun to hear people’s comments and fears so I decided to study this issue further. I am sure anyone that is involved in the cattle business wonder just exactly what McDonald’s means by “sustainable beef” and as I alluded to last week - nobody knows. And that is a conundrum. Historically, sustainability in the beef business meant that your income exceeded your operating expenses and you were able to stay around for another year. If that didn’t happen – you were unsustainable – out of business! That is simple, but pretty much hits it right on the nail-head for simple people like me. Our consumers didn’t change much or demand more than what we produced. However, consumers change and the world in which cattlemen now must operate are different today. It seems almost moralistic or idealistic in nature. So that’s where our dilemma comes in; everybody has their own mental picture of what sustainability means when it addresses their moral values or their particular ideology.
     The definition that many beef producers now use is: “Sustainability refers to not only the preservation of the environment but also the continuation of U.S. beef production as a profitable and enduring entity. That means not only working to sustain environmental and animal resources but using concepts and practices that will allow U.S. beef production to grow in size and scope, thus offering a future for new generations in production agriculture.”  I can buy into that. Actually up until last week, there was a lot of conversation about beef sustainability, but very little definite action. That has now changed --as we now we have a deadline. You may recall in last week’s column that McDonalds as put a deadline of 2016 to begin purchasing verified sustainable beef. They don’t say how much and they don’t give themselves a timeline to have their entire beef purchases sustainable. But I bet you in 2016, we will have standards and they will have a way to verify them. So the clock starts and it ticks away each day. We better have an idea of where they are coming from.
     In reading into what McDonald means in its definition of beef sustainability it seems to me that they are concerned about the greenhouse gas emissions that have been associated with raising cows and producing beef as well as other major environmental impacts that include: deforestation and land degradation for cattle grazing or feed; the contamination of water, air and other natural resources; and the energy and natural resources embedded in fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides for grain to feed cattle. The company has been addressing some public concerns about beef for years. In the late 1980s, for example, it committed not to source beef from the Amazon biome. In 1997, McDonald’s began working with Dr. Temple Grandin to develop animal welfare standards for cows, chickens and hogs, as well as a supplier-audit program. 
     What I didn’t know last week is that another big retailer is joining McDonalds, or actually they are joining a retailer that has had it in place a little longer.  It should not surprise you that Walmart has also indicated they are going this route.  Somehow last September, I missed the Walmart announcement that it “will have an expanded program with a consistent message and a standard of excellence that will touch at least 50% of the cattle industry by the close of 2016”. This expanded program will include “guidelines on land stewardship, water quality and reduced feed and manure emissions.”
     I don’t think this will be an easy task because of the nature of beef production. It may interest you that roughly 400,000 cattle farms provide meat that eventually ends up in a McDonald’s burger, many of them small operations with 50 or fewer head of cattle. They are the beginning of a value chain that includes ranches, dairy farms, cattle stockers, feedlots, beef packers and processors. Along the way, beef is raised, fattened and slaughtered, and the resulting beef is trimmed, ground, mixed with other beef, formed into patties, inspected, packaged, frozen, shipped to distribution centers and, eventually, to one of McDonald’s worldwide restaurants or Walmart’s retail shelf. Walmart even goes further as it also offers many other cuts of beef and also utilizes a lot of American beef. This all could be troublesome to those small beef producers or suppliers if they don’t have the resources to comply to any outlandish demands that are made.
     So you have McDonald’s and Walmart setting goals that will have to have standards that will have to be met. And today, we don’t know what those standards are. Raising beef cattle is inherently a sustainable process. Cattlemen have always been stewards of the environment. At what point then does sustainability come into question? Is it when cattle are transferred to feedlots? Does sustainability imply grass feeding? Does it mean antibiotic and hormone free? Do the terms “natural” and “organic” factor into sustainability?  This could represent a turning point for the U.S. beef industry, one in which customer expectations drive the market. This could become a future of not making our own decisions.
     With the continuing emphasis on GMO concerns, antibiotics, and hormones - to name a few, how long will it be until demands considering those issues aren’t a part of the equation? With all the pressure and particularly from the well-funded groups that utilize myths to further their agenda, I can’t help but think we may have a long, bumpy ride unless we really do our part in educating the public and its consumers. The beef industry has a good story to tell and we need to continue telling the cattlemen’s story and defend the beef industry, and that effort will now have to shift into road gear. We cannot just sit back and hope problems go away, we must be aware of what is going on in the world around us – apart from our pastures, ranges and/or feedlots and then confront it head on. Hold on to your hat- it may be more that wind that is going to raise it! 

   The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: http://www.webster.unl.edu/home