Proposed ESG Reporting In the Cattle Industry

The beef cattle industry is prioritizing sustainability amidst the environmental, social, and governance standards proposal initiated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The ESG movement requires publicly traded companies to disclose and adhere to these standards impacting loan eligibility and steering the sustainability efforts in the industry. R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America CEO, Bill Bullard explains how this proposal would impact the cattle industry.

“This is closely tied to the global roundtable for sustainable beef that was attempting to impose standards on cattle producers requiring them to report their animal husbandry and grazing practices. And of course, once the reports are made of them, those activities can be measured by some entity like the global roundtable for sustainable beef and once measured, then the producers can begin to be regulated.”

Bullard’s take on what he expects the means of measuring.

“The key to all of this is a mandatory radio frequency identification program in which all of the cattle owned by cattle producer be required to be registered in a database and have an electronic ear tag. And that's the means of measuring and once those means are achieved, we believe that cattle producers will very quickly lose their independence and freedom.”

Which Bullard, says means more government control of the cattle industry and more regulations that producers will have to adhere to.