JBS's first sustainability chief Jason Weller on the world's single biggest challenge

Let that soak in, says the man who has been tasked with moving the world's largest meat company, JBS Foods, to its goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

Then consider it will have to be done with less arable land, with less greenhouse gas emissions and against a backdrop of many food production systems already eroding at unsustainable rates whereby they require more and more intensive inputs every year.

It's a big deal - it is the world's single greatest challenge, says Jason Weller, JBS's first ever global chief sustainability officer.

The only way forward is to have livestock producers part of the sustainability conversation alongside the world-renowned climate scientists and experts, he said.

"Feeding a world of 10b people sustainably for generations to come is our call to action," Mr Weller told the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef conference, held in late 2022 in Denver, Colorado in the United States.

"We must position the cow as an indicator of an ecosystem that is doing its job - feeding people and providing a home for other species," he said.

The cow must be positioned as an indicator of environmental protection, of animal welfare, of biodiversity and ultimately the path forward to feeding a world with two billion extra mouths, he said.

ALSO FROM THE CONFERENCE:

JBS welcomed Mr Weller to its executive leadership team in September. He came from Truterra, where he helped establish one of the largest agricultural carbon credit programs in the US as president of the farmer-led sustainability business at Land O'Lakes.

He told delegates at the GRSB conference that growth in the global population was driving the biggest challenges ever faced by the world as one.

"As we grow, we eat and clothe ourselves and we consume energy that is transformed into greenhouse gases," he said.

In particular, the growth in global demand for meat, across all animal species, is going to be enormous.

"In Asia and in Africa, as people's incomes increase, they are changing food buying preferences and wanting to enjoy more meat," Mr Weller said.

"Continual growth in global demand for livestock production is forecast for the next 40 years at least.

"At the same time, we are seeing impacts (from population growth) - some of them are materialising in the form of GHG emissions.

"We currently have unprecedented levels of drought across the US. California has never had a dryer year and climatologists are predicting these sort of extremes will only become more frequent."

According to the UN, agriculture's full cycle as a food system emits about 31pc of total GHG emissions.

It was clear the world had to produce more food with less resources, Mr Weller said.

And while companies, and even entire industries, around the world were on their own carbon neutral journeys, the answer to sustainable food production would have to be a multi-stakeholder approach, Mr Weller argued, 'because this is far bigger than any one organisation or company.'