Industry group says that letting cattle graze on grasslands protects them and makes them more diverse
At the Calgary Stampede, kids practice rotating cattle through different areas of pasture, earning “carbon points” along the way if they can keep the land from getting too much or too little grass.
They’re playing Guardians of the Grasslands, a computer game that was made with help from a government grant program, the charitable arm of the Canadian Cattle Association (CCA), and Ducks Unlimited Canada, an organization that protects and restores wetlands. The game is based on a short film with the same name that was made by the Canadian Conservation Association, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, and Ducks Unlimited.
Both the game and the documentary are part of a larger effort by the industry to fight against beef’s bad rapInstead, they should promote the idea that grazing cattle is good for the environment because it helps to protect native grasslands, which can act as a carbon sink.
The documentary’s tagline says, “Sometimes what you thought was the problem is really the answer.”
Environment and Climate Change Canada says that agriculture is responsible for 30% of Canada’s total methane emissions, and that 71% of those emissions come from the production of beef.
It might be hard to improve the environmental reputation of the industry, asconcerns mountAbout what happens when methane is released into the air, and popular science articles often sayreducing beef consumptionAs a simple way to reduce carbon emissions.
But ranchers say that sustainability has been a top priority for them for a long time. This is something that has become more important as consumers become less involved in food production and more worried about how the food they eat affects the world.
“It’s just something that I think has risen to the top of the conversation with the rest of society,” said Ryder Lee, the general manager of the Canadian Cattle Association. “Instead of being busy with ranching, we have to answer that call.”
Even though there is still a lot of demand for beef, the industry is aware of the criticism about how much carbon is used to make beef and is stepping up its PR campaign to win the hearts and wallets of Canadians.
Whether or not this message gets through to consumers is still unknown, and the answer could be very important for the roughly$22-billion industry.
Cattle and grasslands 
The Guardians of the GrasslandsThe film says that beef cattle can be good for the ecosystem because cows have taken the place of bison in grazing the prairie grasslands and keeping them in balance.
“With 74% of Canada’s native grasslands gone for good, it’s very important to protect what’s left,” the documentary says.
The spring was when the computer game version came out. It is meant to be played after watching the documentary.
The CCA’s stakeholder engagement manager, Amie Peck, said, “We’ve had beef industry resources before, but nothing that was made into a game.” “We really hope that teachers will be interested in that.”
Tim McAllister, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lethbridge, Alta., said theGrasslandsThe documentary makes a point: cattle do play a role in keeping grasslands healthy, which helps keep carbon in the soil and keeps the area’s biodiversity.
“If we farm those grasslands, we end up releasing a lot of carbon,” he said.
McAllister said that the beef industry affects more than just the environment. For many people, raising cattle is a way of life, and the traditions around the industry can help communities.
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“No one has a perfect system for making food.
Strictly looking at emissions, though, the environmental impact of beef production is “much higher” than for any other kind of animal protein, said Jim Dyer, an agro-environmental consultant in Cambridge, Ont., who’s studied the environmental impact of proteins for more than a decade.
That’s partly due to the methane emissions that come from cow burps, he said, and partly because cows are simply a much less efficient animal to raise than other sources of protein, such as pigs and chickens.
Raising beef on grass can help sequester carbon and benefit biodiversity, he said, though the amount of carbon sequestered this way doesn’t make up for the greater overall emissions produced in raising beef.
Dyer suggests people should generally choose pork over beef when they want to eat red meat, and opt for grass-fed over grain-fed beef when possible.
As for McAllister, he said it’s up to people to decide for themselves what to eat, whether that includes meat and how much.
“But they need to realize that there’s trade-offs, there’s no one perfect food production system,” he said.
Plans to boost beef export
Beyond pointing out the role that cattle play in preserving grasslands, the industry has also pledged to reduce its carbon intensity overall, including a commitment to cut a third of its primary production greenhouse gas emission intensity by 2030.
Asked about progress made toward that goal, the chair of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, Ryan Beierbach, said in an interview that an assessment has just wrapped up and results will be released to the public soon.
The federal government, for its part, has expressed a vote of confidence in the industry and its sustainability objectives. At a funding announcement held at the Calgary Stampede last week, officials applauded the Canadian cattle sector — with a representative for the federal agriculture minister saying the industry has done a “tremendous job at raising beef sustainably.”
In a news release, the government touted a figure from the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, which said the overall greenhouse gas emissions of Canadian beef production have a total footprint of 11.4 kilograms CO2 equivalent, which it says is less than half the world’s average.
“That’s the story that we want to tell the world, and today’s announcement is actually going to help tell that story around the world,” MP Francis Drouin, parliamentary secretary to Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau, said at an announcement that pledged $12 million for research into sustainable agriculture.
Drouin said the notion that people should simply stop eating beef to reduce their environmental impact is a “failing strategy” and that the focus should instead be on decarbonizing the process of cattle production.
While Canadian beef exports still lag behind other countries, such as the United States and Brazil, the federal government hopes to ramp them up in the years ahead. Japan has reopened its doors to Canadian imports, and Ottawa plans to open a new Indo-Pacific Agriculture and Agri-Food office in Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
“The world is looking for Canadian beef, [and] we know that we have a tremendous great story to tell,” Drouin said.
How much does sustainability matter? 
Back at home, though, it’s not clear if consumers’ perception of beef and sustainability will make much of a difference to the industry’s bottom line.
Kevin Grier, a livestock and meat market analyst based in Guelph, Ont., said while consumers may say environmental issues matter to them, taste and price tend to beat out those concerns when it comes to choices at the grocery store.
Despite rising rates of vegetarianism, Statistics Canada data shows that Canadians’ demand for beef has remained “very, very strong,” tempered only slightly by high prices, he said.
Those prices are expected to continue to move higher as western Canadian beef producers deal with drought conditions and some ranchers cull their herds. Fresh and frozen beef prices rose nine per cent in the past year, outpacing other protein sources.
“That’s the issue I think that’s interesting, is what role beef is going to play in the meat case in the next couple of years,” Grier said.
As for Ryder Lee, the CCA’s general manager, he said talking about sustainability has become a priority whether it translates to sales or not.
“Public opinion builds up over time,” he said. “If we just stick to our knitting and raise cattle and don’t talk about what we’re doing, what we’ve found is decisions get made for us.
About 17 Alberta schools have so far registered to use the Guardians computer game. The organization hopes to offer versions tailored toward other provinces so they can be used in classrooms across the country this fall.