Reading Time: 5 minutes Who’s driving this bus? Amid ‘grocery wars,’ Jamie Oliver, ‘hormone free,’ Walmart, and a storm of related debate, this is the core question many producers and others in animal agriculture have about the new swath of expectations and ‘sustainability’ programs taking hold in the industry and the marketplace. One person with a unique, up-close perspective […] Read more
The new world of ‘sustainable’ beef
Rancher Cherie Copithorne-Barnes has dealt with the movers and the shakers in the sustainable beef movement – and they're not all the same
Study aims to show beef is sustainable
Analysis will create a baseline for things like water use and carbon sequestration
Reading Time: 2 minutes Consumers have been asking for it, and now the Canadian beef industry is one step closer to proving its sustainability. “We’re trying to find the impacts — both positive and negative — that come from beef production, from when an animal is born on the ground to when it becomes a kilogram of beef on […] Read more
McDonald’s ‘sustainable beef’ pilot project ramps up
Alberta visit of McDonald's global CEO signals a sea change in the beef industry
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s full speed ahead for McDonald’s “verified sustainable beef” project. The country’s largest buyer of beef is finishing up the first phase of its groundbreaking pilot project in Canada, and earlier this month the head of the global fast-food giant paid a visit to Alberta to get a first-hand look. Recently appointed CEO Steve Easterbrook […] Read more
How the ‘verified sustainable beef’ process works
Reading Time: 2 minutes McDonald’s has started verifying producers, as part of its promise to start selling sustainable beef in 2016. Here’s what’s been happening on Alberta farms so far: Earlier this year, McDonald’s said it had a list of 40 “indicators” that will be used to rate a beef operation. The indicators — which cover areas such as […] Read more
Basic info from cattle database will remain free
But new owners of BIXS also need to create revenue now that government funding has dried up
Reading Time: 2 minutes Cattle producers will be able to access basic data from the now privatized Beef InfoXchange System (BIXS), but may have to pay for some types of information, says the head of the company. “BIXS is totally voluntary, just like the Internet,” said Hubert Lau, president and CEO of BIXSco. “You can use the Internet and […] Read more
U.S. establishes roundtable for sustainable beef
All of the major players in the value chain are on board with the effort to measure and improve sustainability of American beef
Reading Time: < 1 minute The U.S. is the latest country to set up a roundtable for sustainable beef. The group has more than three dozen founding members, largely drawn from the beef value chain. That includes more than a dozen cattle organizations; major processors (including Cargill and JBS) and beef buyers (McDonald’s, Costco, and Walmart); and other industry players […] Read more
Guenther: McDonald’s sustainability goals to reach beyond beef
Farmers who want to keep supplying the world’s biggest quick-service restaurant chains can expect more scrutiny of their methods going forward. That’s because the chains’ customers appear to be looking for more sustainably-produced food — so companies such as McDonald’s in turn are looking for third-party verification to prove the ingredients they source make the […] Read more
McDonald’s sustainable beef pilot moves into high gear
Fast-food giant has a long list of ‘indicators’ and is seeking producers ready to prove they’re good stewards
Reading Time: 5 minutes Updated Mar. 16, 2015 for clarification: This story states below (paragraph six) that the indicators for the verified sustainable initiative are scored from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). In fact, McDonald’s Canada is still developing the terms that go with the scoring system. In its presentation at the Alberta Beef Industry Conference, an example was given […] Read more
New BIXS boss wants beef industry to help revamp — and fund — database
Hubert Lau says he hopes industry partners will help ‘build models where everybody wins’
Reading Time: 2 minutes The new operators of BIXS aren’t interested in reinventing the wheel, but want to partner with industry to take the livestock database to the next level. And while funding for the latest revamp of the Beef InfoXchange System is still being worked out, the money likely won’t come out of farmers’ pockets, said Hubert Lau, […] Read more
Canada picked for ‘sustainable beef pilot’
Five to Remember: The country’s largest beef buyer wants to establish its sustainability credentials, and that means big things for the cattle sector
Reading Time: 2 minutes It was anything but a conspiracy of silence. After all, McDonald’s announced to the world a year ago that it would start sourcing “verified sustainable beef” from some country on the planet beginning in 2016. But there was no big announcement when it decided Canada would be that country — although the fast-food giant told […] Read more
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