Study shows 17% reduction in carbon emissions for New Zealand meat industry
04/09/2012
General manager for market access for promotions agency Beef and Lamb New Zealand, Ben O’Brien, said on announcing the results of the study that the focus had been to show the meat industry’s improvements in sustainability, mainly based on producing more meat from less pasture land.
“Compared to 1990,” Mr O’Brien said, “cattle and sheep farms in New Zealand produce more meat in terms of weight from fewer animals.”
The study, funded by Meat and Lamb New Zealand but carried out by external researchers, gives an average of 10.5 kilos of carbon emissions for each kilo animals weigh at the time of slaughter, although there is a wide range in the figures for different farms and different types of animal. This represents a decrease of around 17% compared to the figure for 1990.
Mr O’Brien said that more than 90% of emissions take place on the farm. Cattle and sheep on pasture land also offset some of their carbon emissions because eating pasture encourages new carbon-absorbing pasture land to grow.
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