By Vasile Stanescu
There is a word the beef industry uses constantly, in its promotional materials, in its research funding announcements, in its government lobbying, and increasingly in the peer-reviewed literature produced by the scientists it mentors: “sustainability.” It appears in the name of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. It appears in the title of reports assessing the sustainability of Canadian beef production. It appears in editorials co-authored by government researchers arguing that the beef cattle industry has a “crucial role” in “ecosystem sustainability.” But the industry means something specific by “sustainability.” It means the sustained profitability of the beef industry. The project of the last decade of industry-funded climate research has not been to make beef production environmentally sound. It has been to redefine sustainability itself, so that the continued growth of the industry counts, automatically, as a sustainable outcome. It has made one question nearly impossible to ask: Should we raise fewer cattle? Here is one part of how they are doing that.
“Mutually Beneficial”
Why is there a program where the beef industry mentors scientists studying animal agriculture's effect on the climate?
The Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC) is an industry-led research-funding organization operated as a division of the Canadian Cattle Association. Despite the name, it is not governed by scientists. It is governed by a council of cattle producers. Its money comes from the beef check-off, a mandatory levy on cattle sales—a government-mandated fee that doesn't go to a public body at all, but to private organizations whose job is to grow the industry. The check-off raised more than $18 million in each of 2019–20 and 2020–21.
The BCRC runs a mentorship program that pairs early-career researchers with feedlot operators, industry executives, and the directors of cattle trade associations. The program is broader than the cases examined here. It also pairs researchers with academics, veterinarians, extension specialists, and conservation professionals. My concern is narrower: what happens when scientists studying cattle’s climate impact are mentored by people whose businesses and organizations depend on cattle production?
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