“We can’t get myopic on carbon”: Why biodiversity on beef, sheep farms counts

If society wants a cleaner, biodiverse environment and a solid food supply, policies can’t be only focused on methane while ignoring other factors, an expert says.

A leading scientist says he cannot see how producing beef or sheepmeat without any methane emissions will be possible in commercial settings in the foreseeable future.

Professor Richard Eckard from the University of Melbourne told The Weekly Times he did not think it would be possible to practically and cost-effectively reduce emissions to zero, given where research was to date.

But, Prof Eckard, who also advises the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, said it was likely methane emissions could be slashed by up to half, via a mix of new technologies such as methane inhibitors delivered through water and pastures bred to reduce emissions.

When asked if the industry as a whole was likely to be carbon neutral anytime soon, Professor Eckard said: “I don’t think it will be, I don’t see livestock ever being carbon neutral, it won’t get to zero ... but we can knock it down by 50 per cent,” he said.

However, to limit the impact livestock had on warming, Prof Eckard said the question should be “does it need to be zero?”, given methane’s different impact on warming, compared to other gases.

Prof Eckard said agriculture should “migrate the conversation from carbon neutral to low carbon” production. There needed to be a broader, more balanced interpretation of what environmentally sustainable livestock production was, he said, including a greater focus on biodiversity supported by livestock farms.

“We can’t get myopic on carbon and lose sight of the goal, then we would get obtuse outcomes,” he said.

He gave the example of the mining industry offsetting emissions by planting pine tree monocultures on prime farmland; land use which “does not hold much biodiversity value”.

“We have to be careful mining giants don’t put all quality ag land into trees to offset their emissions,” he said.

Professor Eckard is a program leader for the Zero Net Emissions Agriculture CRC, which was launched last year by the federal government.

Meanwhile, Rabobank senior proteins analyst Angus Gidley-Baird told The Weekly Times while pressure was increasing for non-financial environment, social and governance reporting at all levels of the supply chain, he did not think livestock emissions would provide a barrier to farmers taking out loans.

Mr Gidley-Baird said banks would “shoot ourselves in the foot” if they applied too much pressure to producers over emissions. “I think we very much have to work together,” he said.

“We can’t move so quickly so all the costs pile up on one part of the supply chain, otherwise we would break the supply chain.”

Overseas, New Zealand’s new centre-right government this month dropped the previous NZ leadership’s controversial methane tax on livestock, a change welcomed by NZ producers.