Importance to Include Beef Producers in Global Roundtable For Sustainable Beef

In 2012, a initiative began to define sustainability in the global beef industry — the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. When it was first formed there were 12-founding members included large packers JBS and Cargill, large retailers McDonald’s, Walmart and NGO World Wildlife Fund and no producers. The next two years, they focused and bringing individual beef producers from around the world to the table. JBS Head of Corporate Affairs Cameron Bruett explains why it was so critical to engage beef producers in the Roundtable.
Bruett: “We have tiered levels where an individual producer whose got three momma cows for $250 can be a member of the Global Roundtable because we want that producer input. Because at the end of the day even if the large multi-nationals and NGOs agree on a scheme, a definition, a supply-chain model, it is the people on the ground that will have to enact that change. And those people on the ground that are most invested in the future stewardship of that land. If you don’t engage the producer, then you just create a marketing scheme where a producer has to sign off on a check list. Where as if you empower people rather than punish them, here are the things that we think you should focus on from a sustainability stand-point. Are you willing to do these things? Here are the market opportunities for you. They will want to improve — it is the very nature of agriculturists.”
There is also a U.S. Roundtable for Sustainability Beef which currently has more than half of the participants are individual beef producers and cattle membership state associations.