(Credit: Pixabay)A net carbon zero beef produced in New Zealand from a system where the farms that raise the meat help create their own carbon sequestration is being sold in the United States.
The angus beef from Silver Fern Farms, which has been certified in New Zealand as net zero, is produced by utilizing what the company calls “insetting,” meaning the carbon credits needed to offset the product’s emissions are created by farmers to optimize the role their farms can play in acting as carbon sinks. Then the farmers do not have to rely on purchasing carbon credits from outside sources, according to Silver Fern Farms.
With 96% of beef emissions occurring on the farm, Silver Fern Farms created a program in 2018 to map and measure the sequestration potential from the various types of vegetation that exist on New Zealand farms.
The company uses satellite technology and artificial intelligence software to measure the vegetation and enable a calculation of each farm’s ability to sequester carbon. The vegetation includes forests, shelter belts, regenerating native bush, natural animal shelters, erosion and riparian planting.
Many natural landscapes naturally capture carbon, and about a quarter of the world’s carbon is captured by forests, grasslands and rangelands, according to the University of California Davis’ CLEAR Center. It is sequestered in soil by plants through photosynthesis and can be stored as soil organic carbon, which creates the opportunity to store carbon through land management practices, the CLEAR Center says.
The potential role of natural areas to reduce emissions has resulted in programs such as by US Nature4Climate, which hopes to use data, research, case studies and other sources to help organizations reduce emissions by as much as 30% through 2030. The EPA, which several organizations hope will gain more power to regulate livestock emissions, estimates 25% of agricultural emissions come from farm animals.
“Taking care of our emissions is our own responsibility, no-one else’s,” says Silver Fern Farms CEO Simon Limmer. “We are not outsourcing our emissions, rather we are recognizing and incentivizing our farmers for their efforts to create farm environments that are better able to capture carbon, increase biodiversity and support nature positive food production.”
Silver Fern Farms says New Zealand’s agricultural science institution Ag Research has supported the net zero certification of the beef, which was done by the country’s environmental verification body, Toitu Envirocare.
The beef is USDA approved and being offered in 75 New York City grocery stores, as will as select locations in Los Angeles. Overall, Silver Fern Farms exports meat to more than 60 countries.
The company has a goal of reducing its emissions by 42% based on 2020 levels by 2030. It also is working toward eliminating coal from its production and operations as well as implementing regenerative agriculture programs across its farms.
