Beef Cattle Industry Sustainability Provides Balance In Environmental, Social And Economic Arenas

In many cases, sustainability is all about things that the beef cattle industry already does in caring for animals, the land and those who are involved in the production of beef- but Cameron Bruett with JBS-USA says that we often fail in really explaining what we do to those that are not on the ranch on a daily basis. At the recent Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association Annual Convention in Midwest City, Oklahoma- Bruett was a keynote speaker who spent a good bit of his time talking about producing beef in a sustainable way.

 

 

Bruett is very familiar with the worldwide discussion on what is sustanable in the beef cattle industry. He served for the first three years as President when the global roundtable on sustainable beef was established. Bruett said it’s important to be involved in this effort as it brings the segmented value-chain all together to discuss common challenges. He said this effort establishes a common baseline for sustainability, but it does not set standards on how agriculture will meet sustainable outcomes. In the interview, he also discusses the U.S. roundtable for sustainable beef, which shows that when it comes to producing beef no one can sustainably compete with the efficiencies found in the US beef cattle business.

 

Understanding what sustainability when it comes to beef cattle production and processing is very important to being able to tell the beef industry's story. Bruett says "we've kinda crafted a definition that's becoming more and more broadly accepted- it's balanced so it's not just environmental but it's also social and economic in balancing those challenges." The key, according to Bruett is how we measure and prove that we are doing the things that we know are being done by today's cattle producer.

 

Along the way, he says that we need to be able to say "Here's are committment to the environment, to the rural community, to the rural economy- here are the things we are doing and we can prove that we are doing them."

 

Bruett's comments are featured in this edition of the Beef Buzz. Earlier in 2015, he also spoke in Oklahoma at the 2015 Texoma Cattlemen's Conference held in Ardmore- you can hear his full presentation there where he addressed a lot of these same issues- just click here for that full presentation from March of this year.