Justin Webb, Fergus O’Connor on sustainable food production

The founder of an ag technology company has called for supermarkets to step up to ensure sustainable food production.

Farmers are increasingly feeling the pressure to commit significant time and resources to reducing their carbon footprint.

And while many are already sustainably managing their land and livestock, it rarely receives recognition.

Justin Webb, co-founder and executive chairman of AgriWebb, a leading livestock enterprise management solution, thinks Australian supermarkets should “lead from the front” to ensure sustainable food production.

The UK’s fourth-largest supermarket, Morrisons, is working with AgriWebb and its farm suppliers to record livestock data on-farm, to help Morrisons reach its pledge to be the first supermarket to be completely supplied by net zero carbon British farms by 2030.

While Mr Webb acknowledges the UK’s food supply is less than 60 per cent of its domestic food demand — meaning a much more highly integrated relationship between the retailer and the producer — he said there was opportunity for Australian supermarkets.

“For the producers it is not farming for carbon’s sake, it is farming to be productive as a livestock producer. And a by-product of that is producing animals that are in fact carbon neutral.”

Then at the other end, Mr Webb said supermarkets were desperately looking for ways to convince consumers they don’t have to have guilt in buying red meat, because there is animal welfare and environmental welfare attached to and clearly attributed within that product.

“It is really important not to put the burden of sustainability on the thinnest part of the margin wedge — the farmers.”

Currently, there is no one auditing scheme Australian farmers can participate in to prove they are carbon neutral. There are, according to industry, numerous and disjointed schemes.

“Australians supermarkets could follow the model that is happening in the UK and the US whereby retailers are taking a responsibility and a monetary responsibility to actually pay for and engage with farmers with software and other tools, or paying more per kilogram of product produced, that can enable and empower sustainability.”

University of Tasmania Associate Professor Matthew Harrison said everyone in the supply chain had a role to play.

“One of the largest greenhouse gas emissions in the supply chain of livestock farms is enteric methane. So we should first perhaps be focused on developing pathways to reduce this source of GHG,” Prof Harrison said.

“But supermarkets (as well as wholesalers and processors) have a role to play. This is both in reducing their own GHG emissions but also in encouraging land managers and farmers to be carbon neutral producers.

“They can do this by incentivising their farm suppliers by paying them a premium for carbon-neutral products.

“Ultimately the cost of reducing farm and business activities needs to be met by someone — I suggest that this should be the consumer. In this way, the attitude of the consumer will determine the extent to which the market shifts towards promotion of carbon-neutral product, or not.”

Berrys Creek beef producer Fergus O’Connor, who has reduced his methane by 50 per cent, by planting trees, introducing rotational grazing, developing mixed pastures and using compost rather than synthetic fertilisers, said the whole supply chain needs to “work on” the carbon issue.

“Joining carbon schemes, particularly the Government’s Emissions Reduction Scheme are too expensive for individual producers (due to upfront costs)... I don’t necessarily think supermarkets should be responsible, but we need a better overall scheme and if we want farmers to lower emissions we need some benefits,” Mr O’Connor said.

“If farmers can use a simple app, that can then be audited properly, it would benefit farmers and the supply chain, because if our beef isn’t carbon neutral we won’t be able to sell it to the US and Europe soon enough (because they won’t want it).”

“In so many aspects of this carbon space, Australia is so far behind.”

The Weekly Times asked both of Australia’s major supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, if carbon neutrality or sustainability was the responsibility of the producer or supermarket.

Coles said the recent launch of its Finest Certified Carbon Neutral Beef “was a great example of Coles working with suppliers to achieve better sustainability outcomes”.

And a Woolworths spokeswoman said its red-meat wholesale business, Greenstock, was working collaboratively with farmers to help reduce emissions across the entire supply chain.

“We’re currently working on a voluntary trial with some of our beef suppliers, offering them access to THESIS software to understand opportunities to develop consistent baselines and tracking for livestock supply chain emissions,” she said.