Consumers are in the driver’s seat when it comes to agricultural sustainability. For those that live and work on the land, ag producers struggle in understanding what consumers mean in using that term? Bob Langert of the Green Biz Group was one of the speakers at this week’s 2015 REBELation Conference put on by Alltech, an animal nutrition company. He formerly served as their vice president of sustainability for McDonald’s. In the beef breakout session, he discussed beef sustainability.
“It’s a very meaningful concept, the concept that beef is not only about assured supply and quality and performance,” Langert said. It’s also about treating animals well, treating the earth well and treating the people well.”
The whole sustainability movement is being driven forward by consumers. Langert said companies like McDonald’s are not doing this because they have activists on their doorstep, demanding sustainability but rather because consumers as a whole want this and they care about care about where their food comes from, what’s in it and how it’s processed. It’s a challenge that consumers have become skeptical of their food. He said agriculture can overcome that by being more transparent.
“All of us in the beef industry need to take charge, develop our own strategy and be way more proactive about telling our story,” Langert said.
Sustainability is also about doing a better job in measuring improvement by measuring that that on a day-by-day basis. He said these days you just can’t say you’re sustainable, you have to prove it because consumers want that verified and he believes agriculture will have to work on proving the values they have in their businesses.
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