Regularly accused of being partly responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, the meat sector is emphasizing at the Salon de l’Agriculture the efforts of the sector to meet climate challenges.
Colorful posters, live cooking recipes and this slogan that keeps coming back: “Love meat, eat better.” At the Agricultural Show, the livestock and meat inter-branch, Interbev, communicates on its commitment to meet climate challenges.
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Emmanuel Bernard is a cattle breeder in Nièvre. Three years ago, he embarked on CAP2ER, an environmental diagnostic tool on his farm. “The principle was to take stock of the performance of my herdsays the breeder. All that was footprint around the use of fossil fuels, that is to say diesel, and after all that was fertilizer… Then, to see how we used the surface to feed the animals.” Result , it was at 14 kg of carbon per kilogram of meat produced.
A carbon footprint that the farmer has reduced by 15%, while being more productive by making a few adjustments: “For example, I tried to get calves with slightly younger animals. I changed my rotation, that is to say all the crops I was doing. I tried to produce more crops that grow in winter, because we can see that with the big heat waves, it’s very complicated to have vegetation in the summer.”
Diagnoses every five years
It cost him 200 euros a year. A modest sum to respond to attacks on the profession. This is also one of the reasons that prompted Patrick Soury, sheep and cattle breeder in Charente, to embark on the environmental diagnosis of his farm. “Producers need to speak up againsays the breeder. We are very virtuous and we couldn’t say it. So, it will also allow me to have a message with the citizens, around me, on the real positive impact of livestock farming on the environment, on the preservation of water, on the preservation of landscapes”, he assures, as well as on the maintenance of biodiversity, thanks to the meadows and bocages on the farms which capture carbon.
Once the three-year program is over, Patrick Soury, like all the other breeders who engage in the process, will repeat the diagnostics every five years with new objectives to achieve.
At the Agricultural Show, breeders want to highlight their climate efforts – Louise Buyens
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