Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef seeks final public input

Oct 12, 2017

Sustainability tops Canadian beef industry’s priorities

By Kate Ayers

Staff Reporter

The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) is reaching out for public input on an updated draft of its beef processing indicators.

“The Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef’s role is to develop tools that facilitate continuous improvement and sustainability in the Canadian beef industry,” Monica Hadarits, programs and verification director said to Farms.com.

“Our membership (identified) a need (for) a verification framework to support sustainability claims for supply chains, and also (a need to) facilitate that continued improvement in the beef industry. So that’s really the driving force behind the verification framework that we’re working on right now.”

CRSB will launch this Verified Sustainable Beef Framework in December.

One element of this framework is a series of sustainability indicators. These indicators will be used to evaluate sustainable practices across the beef value chain, according to an Oct. 5 release from CRSB.

CRSB completed preliminary discussions on the beef processing sustainability indicators over the summer, which led the organization to refine the indicators. CRSB is now looking for feedback on the updated draft.

“With guidance from a steering committee of diverse expertise, the CRSB has developed sustainability indicators for beef processing that supplement indicators for beef production,” Cherie Copithorne-Barnes, chair of the CRSB and a cattle producer from Calgary, Atla, said in the release.

Producers supplied a lot of constructive comments and recommendations during the two rounds of public consultations on the beef production indicators. CRSB looks forward to the same type of feedback from processors on the beef processing sustainability indicators, Hadarits said.

Overall, CRSB “wants to provide a national framework that enables producers and processors to supply and source from verified sustainable operations. … end goal (is) to ultimately build trust with consumers,” she said.

The public consultation period is 30 days and runs until Nov. 4. For more information, click here.

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