MLA boss says eat meat and save our climate-changed planet

In truth, the nation's red meat industry has actually achieved greater cuts to its carbon emissions than any other sector of our economy, says Meat and Livestock Australia's managing director, Jason Strong.

In less than 20 years greenhouse gas emissions from the red meat industry's burping ruminant livestock have declined almost 60 per cent.

"The reality is that individuals are emitting almost twice as much carbon by driving a car than by eating beef three or four times a week," Mr Strong told the NSW Farm Writers Association.

"In fact, 90pc of the nation's emissions come mostly from transport and electricity generation."

While sheep and cattle did create about 10pc of total greenhouse gas emissions, latest CSIRO research showed the sector's contribution had fallen 57 per cent in the past 17 years.

Since 2018 that figure had improved about five percentage points alone.

By 2030 the red meat sector's overall aim was to be carbon neutral, while at the same time achieving a 20pc lift in livestock productivity and greater profitability via smarter feeding, breeding and land management strategies.

Mr Strong said while climate change was undoubtedly one of the biggest issues preoccupying Australians today, discussion on the carbon challenge was invariably hijacked by negative narratives and simplistic one-line answers.

Flatulent cows had become easy victims of too many people's desire to offer unhelpful "one line solutions to complex problems".

Conveniently, such commentaries also deflected attention away from the critics' own problematic energy consumption habits.

Anti-animal protein campaigns such as meat-free Mondays were also typical of how some in the community vigorously tried to promote a feel good one-liner slogan which made livestock an easy target to be held up as responsible for global warming.

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In reality, good ruminant livestock production habits promoted healthy landscape management and, in turn, greater pasture production, which sequestered atmospheric carbon and contributed to climate action leadership.

Unlike humans and most other animals, which have just one stomach, cattle, sheep and goats were able to convert nutrient value plants into quality protein, while also leaving useful nutrition and gut microflora to be absorbed in the soil.

Grazing those plants stimulated growth, while producers establishing strategic tree plantings for livestock shade, pasture protection and erosion and water table management further encouraged absorption of carbon dioxide.

About 50pc, or 355 million hectares, of Australia's largely climatically-challenged land mass was home to red meat producing livestock - 26m cattle; 66m sheep and 4m goats.

That compared with just 8pc of the continent capable of producing protein from grain crops in a protein deficient world.

"Those figures highlight just one of the areas where the climate change and diet discussion gets off track and the willingness of some to attach themselves to alternative protein sources," Mr Strong said.

"They imagine they can take all that livestock land use and simply convert it to cropping.

"But if you do, everybody dies."

Livestock production was undoubtedly part of the climate solution, he said, noting the red meat sector had been ahead of the game, committing itself to the heavy lifting since 2017.

Mr Strong acknowledged while the industry's enthusiastic CN30 goal to cut emissions and achieve carbon output neutrality within eight years was not easy, the sheep and lamb sector was already producing fewer emissions than it had historically released into the carbon cycle.

In effect, our sheep already met their obligations to the United Nations's Paris Climate Accord, and based on current trends, the beef sector was just a couple of years away from the same turnaround in emission trends on the red meat road to CN30.

Interestingly, however, while Australians wanted climate action, and one in four shoppers suggested they would pay up to 15pc more for meat from carbon neutral supply chains, Mr Strong said they weren't yet paying any premium for climate-friendly meat.

Retailers also seemed mostly reluctant to differentiate the credentials of such CN products on their shelves, or reward producers accordingly.

The industry had so far invested $200m in carbon management strategies including improving genetics to breed animals with fewer methane producing traits; more energy efficient processing facilities; better herd and flock management strategies; feed supplements which enable a 90pc reduction in methane emissions, and use of higher quality legumes in pastures.

Dung beetles to bury decomposing manure and cost effective, accurate soil testing were other ingredients set to make the economic and environmental benefits of carbon management worthwhile.

Mr Strong used the Farm Writers forum to outline fresh commitments which would see the industry spending a further $150m in the next few years, with MLA involved in more than 20 research partnerships targeting emission avoidance, carbon storage and carbon accounting.

MLA's current and planned partnerships would see 15m tonnes of atmospheric carbon stored over 10m hectares within three years.

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