Study: U.S. beef industry can explore ways of improving sustainability, reducing environmental footprint
Two areas for potential improvement are water use and reactive nitrogen losses, the study says.
An Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-led team completed a comprehensive life-cycle analysis quantifying the resource use and various environmental emissions of beef cattle production in the United States. The aim is to establish baseline measures that the U.S. beef industry can use to explore ways of reducing its environmental footprint and improving sustainability.
“The environmental footprint of producing beef has long been debated. One challenge is that the impacts extend beyond just those associated with growing the animals and include the impact of producing feed and other inputs. This is further complicated by the diversity of ways that beef cattle are managed and fed,” says Marlen Eve, deputy administrator for natural resources and sustainable agricultural systems for the Beltsville, Md., research agency. “It is important to have an accurate quantification of these impacts to provide a baseline against which production system sustainability can be assessed and improved.”