• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta June 29, 2022
London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty June 29, 2022
G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance June 29, 2022
Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ For Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use June 26, 2022
BREAKING: UN Nature Summit, the ‘Paris Conference for Biodiversity’, Moves to Montreal in December June 19, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Jurisdictions Canada

Canadian Sustainable Beef Standard is ‘Marbled with Loopholes’

December 11, 2019
Reading time: 3 minutes

Peggy_Marco / Pixabay

Peggy_Marco / Pixabay

1
SHARES
 

Lacking real substance, marbled with loopholes, and in need of a crash course in regenerative agriculture is Corporate Knights’ assessment of the green burger promise being served up by the Calgary-based Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB).

Facing declining sales as the public grows more aware of the link between eating meat and the climate emergency—from Big Ag driving Amazon forest destruction, to cattle’s methane-heavy digestive process, to its own over-sized carbon footprint—Canada’s beef cattle industry is weighing in with a messaging blitz touting its own awareness of the need to be more sustainable.

The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef was set up to promote and lobby for that message, Corporate Knights states. First launched by the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, its members now include McDonald’s Canada, Costco, Loblaws, American beef supplier Cargill and the Brazilian equivalent JBS, and the World Wildlife Fund. Its stated mission is to “legitimize sustainable beef production in the public eye and underpin producers’ social licence to operate.”

But writer Wayne Roberts sees that goal as an uphill battle in an age of climate crisis, when “raising animals for meat is said to be responsible for some 14.5% of all human-caused global warming emissions, similar to the share of emissions that comes from cars.”

Corporate Knights credits the Roundtable with going “beyond hot air to grapple with issues of sustainability,” noting its publicly-stated recognition that true sustainability means addressing the “triple bottom line” of social responsibility, economic viability, and long-term, stable environmental health.

To this end, the Roundtable requires that “to be deemed sustainable, ranchers and processors must show progress on issues such as soil health, water conservation, biodiversity, animal welfare, and workers’ rights.”

In practice, though, the CRSB’s “basic requirements, as well as optional ratings for ‘excellence’, often appear vague and there are a few loopholes,” Roberts writes. “On all-important matters such as air quality and greenhouse gases, for example, the only requirement is that operators should be ‘aware of management practices that support carbon sequestration and minimize emissions’.” Similarly gauzy language is found in CRSB requirements for soil health, which state only that it should be “monitored and managed”.

As for animal welfare, “there are no requirements to minimize animal suffering beyond meeting Canada’s voluntary national farm animal code of practice,” he says. Nor does the CRSB mandate that meat products certified “sustainable” be free of antibiotics, hormones, and steroids.

Calling out similar gaping lapses in the American equivalent of the CRSB, a 50-member coalition of American environmental, public health, animal welfare, worker, and consumer groups declared that “weak performance measures set a low bar, open the doors to greenwashing, muddy the waters of ‘sustainable’ beef marketing claims, and undercut efforts to recognize and reward credibly more sustainable producers and brands,” Corporate Knights notes.

Another problem in Canada is that the Roundtable “doesn’t address systemic supply chain issues related to processors and retailers”—including the reality that two of its board members, the behemoth Cargill Foods and JBS, control 80% of beef processing in Canada, according to research by longtime food policy analyst Rod MacRae, professor of food studies at York University. MacRae also found that 72% of retail meat sales in Canada are captured by only four retailers.

“The concentration of corporate ownership makes it almost impossible for ranchers, farm workers, and processing workers to enjoy sustainable working and living conditions,” MacRae said.

The head of the Ontario Independent Meat Processors Association, Franco Naccarato, told Corporate Knights that small and local—from farm to abattoir to butcher shops—is the “pivotal” formula for making the meat industry sustainable. That’s partly because transportation emissions are so much smaller, but also because smaller operations bring communities back to a thriving “circular economy” where other businesses, like tanneries, can become established employers.

“You can’t design for sustainability without this balance in local economies,” Naccarato said.Corporate Knights suggests the CRSB should also educate itself about growing interest in regenerative agriculture, a practice whose central principles of pasture-centred animal husbandry and no-till farming mean healthier (and happier) cows, and fewer emissions.



in Canada, Ending Emissions, Food Security, Jobs & Training, Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion, Methane, Supply Chains & Consumption

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Keith Hirsche
Jobs & Training

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
392
London Eye UK England
Cities & Communities

London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 29, 2022
120
Number 10/flickr
International Agencies & Studies

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
142

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Keith Hirsche

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
392
François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

June 29, 2022
223
David/flickr

U.S. Supreme Court Expected to Gut Emission Controls as Climate Scientists Petition for Plan B

June 26, 2022
1.2k
Danielle Scott/flickr

Advocate Urges Ottawa to Intervene Before Ontario Builds Highway 413

June 29, 2022
128
Number 10/flickr

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
142
London Eye UK England

London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 29, 2022
120

Recent Posts

AJEL / Pixabay

Windfall Tax on Food, Fossil, Pharma Giants Would Raise $490B to Solve ‘Catastrophic’ Food Crisis: Oxfam

June 29, 2022
57
futureatlas.com/flickr

Ottawa Demands Deeper Fuel Emissions Cuts, Offers Fossils a Double-Dip on Tax Breaks

June 29, 2022
77
Province of B.C./flickr

Comox Joins Municipalities Seeking Ban on New Gas Stations

June 29, 2022
75
/Piqsels

Refocus Agriculture Spending to Cut Emissions, Boost Productivity, OECD Urges Governments

June 29, 2022
28
Jimmy Emerson, DVM/flickr

Public Vigilance Key to Protecting Greenbelts for Climate Resilience, Report Finds

June 29, 2022
35
Miguel V/Wikimedia Commons

Forests Fall Short of Full Carbon Storage Potential, Study Finds

June 29, 2022
62
Next Post
Roy Luck/Flickr

Rural Municipalities Take the Hit as Alberta Cuts Taxes for Gas Producers

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}