A Practical Approach on Sustainability for Supply Chain Managers of Meat, Dairy, and Other Animal Proteins

Improving Animal Welfare: A Practical Approach, 3rd Edition Chapter 13 (2020)
A Practical Approach on Sustainability for Supply Chain Managers of Meat, Dairy, and Other Animal Proteins

By Temple Grandin
Dept of Animal Science
Colorado State University

Summary

The contribution of livestock to greenhouse gasses must be put in perspective. Energy (power generation) and transportation are the largest emitters. Methane is emmitted from ruminants but rice paddies and leaks in natural gas systems also emit methane. It is important to evaluate the full life cycle of either animal production or industry. The three pillars of sustainability are: 1) Protect the Environment, 2) Social Responsibility (includes animal welfare), and 3) Economically Viable. From the viewpoint of management of a food production supply chain, it is often easier to define practices that are definitely not sustainable. Some examples are: cutting down rainforest, depleting of water supplies or fisheries, overgrazing pastures, or exceeding the capacity of the land to utilize either manure or fertilizer. Poor animal welfare or abuse of animals would be definitely not be sustainable. When grazing is done correctly, it can improve soil health and sequester carbon. The integration of crops and livestock grazing can improve both the soil and biodiversity. Rotation of crops with grazing animals can also reduce the need for chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides. The most effective method for motivating sustainable production is to educate consumers to demand improvement.

Learning Objectives

Learn how grazing ruminants can be used to improve the environment
Understand the principles of sustainability
Animal welfare is definitely part of a sustainable system
Develop supply chains where the origin of a meat product can be tracked
Some programs for renewable fuels are not sustainable

Introduction

There has been many articles written about livestock being detrimental to the environment because they contribute to greenhouse gases. The first step is to put this into perspective. Due to COVID19, all around the world, air pollution was drastically reduced because cars were off the road or factories were shut down (Pathak, 2020; ESA, 2020). The reduction in pollution has "offered a glimpse of what a collective response can look like" (McKibben, 2020). For CO₂ emissions energy (power generation) and transportation are the biggest emitters of CO₂. According to the U.S. environmental Protection Agency, transportation is 29%, electricity 28%, industry 22%, and agriculture 9% (epa.gov2019). Hepburn et al. (2019) reports that energy production emits three times more CO₂ than all of agriculture. Transportation is over double compared to agriculture. Another unexpected source is the manufacture of cement. This single industry emits 5% of global CO₂ (Rubinstein, 2012). For methane emissions, the percentage emitted from animal agriculture is higher compared to CO₂. In the U.S., coal and natural gas emit one-third of the methane (eia 2011). All agriculture and waste management such as landfills, emit approximately the same amount. Carlson et al. (2016) reports that rice emits 48% of all the methane from crops. Ruminant animals such as livestock or wildlife are only one source of methane. Methane is also emitted from leaky gas wells (Elliot, 2019), landfills (eia 2011) and chemical production. Domestic natural gas distribution systems are another source of leaks (Hogue, 2019). People forget that natural gas is mainly methane. Equipment has to be carefully managed to prevent methane from escaping from oil drilling rigs and gas wells. The amount escaping can range from almost zero in well-managed facilities, to huge amounts in poorly managed facilities (Varon et al., 2019). Methane release from these facilities can now be easily measured by stallites (Varon et al., 2019; Economist, 2020; Gouw et al., 2020). The largest source of methane emission is energy production, followed by agriculture and waste management (eia.gov 2011). Another overlooked source is rice paddies and wetlands (earthobservatory.nasa.gov, 2015; Jiang, et al., 2019; Linquist et al., 2011). Out of all of the CO₂ and methane sources, livestock are responsible for 14.5% of all anthropogenic emissions (Grossi et al., 2017). Rice growing is responsible for 12% of global methane (Quin and Hodges, 2019). It is likely that rice may emit more methane than livestock in rice growing countries. Wild ruminants grazing and browsing animals such as deer, antelope, and elk also emit methane. Methane has to be taken seriously because it is a more potent greenhouse gas, but it has a much shorter lifetime in the atmosphere (Reisinger and Clark, 2017). Ruminant livestock emit more methane compared to pigs and chickens, but this must also be kept in perspective. Grazing ruminants such as cattle, sheep or goats can also be used in pasture/crop rotation systems or silvopasture that sequester carbon can improve soil health (Varijakshapanicker et al., 2019). Reducing methane emissions from livestock would help the environment. However, if other sources of greenhouse gas emissions, such as electric power generation and transportation remain the same, livestock would be responsible for only 5% of total warming (Reisinger and Clark, 2017).

Evaluate the Entire Ufe Cycle of a Product

To accurately compare the sustainability of different practices, the entire life cycle of a product must be evaluated (Broom, 2019; Ciambrone, 2018). The famous paper titled Livestock's Long Shadow, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization failed to do this. It stated that livestock were worse for the environment than cars (FAO, 2006). The FAO document failed to include the entire life cycle of transport vehicles such as cars (Mitloehner, 2019). They did not include the environmental impacts of manufacturing the steel or refining the fuel. For livestock, the entire life cycle was analyzed. This is why it is so important that entire life cycle of a product is evaluated when comparisons are made.

The Three Pillars of Sustainability

There are many variations of the definition of sustainability (Tilman et al., 2002; SARE, 2019). Basically there are three major pillars. They are:

Protecting the environment
Social Responsibility (this pillar includes animal welfare - Buller et al., 2018)
Economically Viable (Producers of agricultural products and processors have to be able to be economically sustainable). The unsustainable practices that are outlined in this chapter would not have long-term economic sustainability. The problem is that practices that are not sustainable can make a short-term profit.

For the manager of an animal products supply there needs to be a clear definition of what is not sustainable. There are conditions that should be banned because they would never be acceptable (Broom, 2019). This is important because when a practice is definitely not sustainable, it would be grounds for either removing a supplier from the approved supplier list or working with that supplier to improve their practices. Clear guidance on what is not sustainable is also essential to help prevent lawsuits and legal actions when a supplier is removed (delisted).

Do not create a single sustainability score

Another approach is attempts to combine all sustainability measures into a single score (Scherer et al., 2018; Broom, 2019). This method has worked poorly for the Welfare Quality System. One study showed that a dairy with a high percentage of lame dairy cows could pass a welfare audit (DeVries et al., 2013). More recent studies have found problems with this approach for both dairy cows and broiler chickens (DeVries et al., 2013, Boijs, et al., 2017). A better approach is for either a government or a corporation to develop strict guidelines on specific practices that are not sustainable. If a non-compliance occurs, it would result in either a regulatory action or removal from the approved supplier list.

Examples of noncompliances which almost everybody would agree are not sustainable

Environmentally not Sustainable

Destroying rainforest for either crops, gold mining, biofuels, or livestock grazing (Ferrante and Fearnside, 2020; Tollefson, 2020). Satellite data has shown that rainforest destruction has increased (Sandy and Bandeirantes, 2019). Data from NASA satellites indicates that there are persistent fires along main roads that are likely to be caused by land clearing (NASA, 2019; Amigo, 2020)(Figure 13.1). It is often difficult to trace the origin of products coming from the destruction of rainforest because they may pass through multiple dealers in the supply chain.
Discharging manure, farm chemicals or slaughter house wastes directly into a river.
Depletion of non-renewable aquifers (mining water) for growing crops or livestock (Taylor and Nel, 2014; Sengupta and Cai, 2019; Whitman et al., 2019; Debrowolski and Engle, 2016; Lai, 2017, DeGraaf et al., 2019). Satellites can be used to monitor ground water usage (Richey et al., 2013, 2015).
Depletion of fisheries - This can often be difficult to measure until the fish stocks are badly damaged. One way to monitor overfishing is satellite imaging (Zou et al., 2014). Another method is tracking ship transponders, which can provide GPS coordinates for a ship's location. By catch is another major problem. It is fish that the fisherman does not want and they are thrown away (Burgess et al., 2018). One way to solve the by catch problem is to develop markets for the unwanted fish. Another major cause of fishery depletion is using wild caught fish to feed farmed fish. Conditions vary greatly. Both buyers and governments will need specific guidelines for different types of fish. An emerging technology is mining the ocean bottom for minerals (Hoefferman, 2019) This technology may damage fisheries.
Exceeding the capacity of the land to utilize manure as a fertilizer which adds excessive amounts of nitrogen to the environment (Stokstad, 2019; Van Grimsven, et al., 2016); Apuzza et al., 2019}. Sixty-one percent of the nitrogen emissions come from agriculture (Sterling and Meijer, 2019). Moderate use of manure to fertilize crops is beneficial.
Excessive application of chemical fertilizers or fungicides that damage soil health or cause nitrogen runoff {Bourzack et al.l 2017; Monosson, 2019}. Excessive nitrogen runoff from either cropland or sewage can damage ecology and cause dead zones in waterways that kill fish (Apuzza, et al., 2019; Gibbons, 2019). Moderate application is beneficial.
Loss of biodiversity or killing pollinators such as bees (Topping et al., 2020). Bees and other pollinators are essential for crop pollination (Winfrey et al., 2019). Large-scale monoculture and chemical use (insecticides/herbicides) are associated with decline of insects (Basset and Lamarre, 2019). A possible solution is planting areas around plots of cropland with diverse plant species.
Loss of birds and diversity of bird species - This is especially a problem for grassland and shore birds (Sevvick, 2014; Pennisi, 2019). Hendershot et al. (2020) reported that land with crop monocultures had 52% lower diversity of bird species compared to land which included both cattle pasture and coffee grown simultaneously with banana or plantain. One cause of this is a reduction in insects and habitats for birds to live. The author has observed that hedgerows around crops provide habitat for many small birds. A new law being considered in the UK would provide economic incentives to farmers to preserve environmentally sound practices such as hedgerows (Stokstad, 2020; Knight, 2020).
Overgrazing of pasture and the plants are not able to recover. When rotational grazing is done correctly, it can improve the land (Marty, 2015).

Different Types of Land

When discussing land use, there must be a differentiation between sparse rangeland where growing crops is not possible and arable farm land that is suitable for crops. There are huge areas - the U.S., Australia, Scotland, and Mongolia that is rangeland that is not suitable for crops (Eisler, et al., 2014). Marty (2015) and Xiao-Ming et al., 2015, both state that removal of livestock from properly managed rangeland would be detrimental. On arable land, the integration of crops and pasture can improve biodiversity and reduce greenhouse gasses (Lemaire et al., 2014; Carvalho et al., 2014; Moraes et al., 2014). In areas where fast growing trees are planted for either timber or biofuels, livestock can be grazed among the trees (Figure 2)(Jose and Dollinge, 2019; Goodchild, 2015). When done correctly, silvopasture can benefit the environment (Tonucci et al., 2011).

Social Responsibility Not Sustainable: Includes Animal Welfare

Huge amounts of food wasted. In the U.S. and Europe, thirty percent of food is wasted (USDA.gov2016; European Parliament, 2017; Springman et al., 2018). It occurs at all points in the supply chain from the farm to the consumer's home. During the COVID19 pandemic, huge amounts of milk and produce were wasted due to less demand from closed restaurants and a failure to direct it to food banks for the poor. Large-scale agricultural systems provide low cost food but many people do not realize that they are extremely fragile. A fire that damaged a single large beef abattoir or COVID19 sickening the people who work in large centralized distribution systems can cut off access to food or essential medicine. When COVID-19 caused shut down of many large slaughter plants, pigs had to be euthanized on the farm. COVID19 may motivate the use of less fragile more diversified sources of food. There is a similar big is fragile problem in pharmaceuticals. Two-thirds of the active ingredients in essential generic drugs used in U.S. comes from China (Roos, 2020; Mullin 2020).
Overuse of antibiotics which may contribute to antibiotic resistance (Zhu et al., 2012; Tic et al., 2017; Van Boeckel, 2019), chicken and pig manure are the worst for transferring antibiotic resistance to the soil {Qian et al., 2018}. Samples collected from raw water flushed from hog houses contained antibiotic resistant salmonella (Casanova et al., 2019). Fish farming may also contribute to high levels of antibiotic resistance (Samuel et al., 2019). People may die when diseases become resistant to antibiotics. Seventy-three percent of all antibiotics are used in food animals (Van Boeckel et al., 2019). There is a need to differentiate between mass feeding of antibiotics and treating either individual sick animals or specific flocks of sick poultry. Denmark has greatly reduced antibiotic use by benchmarking producers so they can see how they compare to other producers (Jacobs, 2019). Antibiotic use is limited to sick animals. Tyson Foods, a major U.S. poultry company, has also greatly reduced antibiotic use. Karavolias et al, (2018) warns that never using antibiotics can have bad effects on animal welfare.
Food safety violations that could result in death or serious illness. Includes adulteration offood products with dangerous ingredients.
Unsafe working conditions which may cause death or severe injuries to people. This would also include measures to protect workers from diseases such as COVID19.
Abusive handling of livestock or poultry (OIE, 2020) See Chapters 1,2, and 5.
Poor production practices that cause injuries, lameness, high death losses or other animal welfare problems discussed in chapters 2 and 4.
High ammonia levels in indoor housing that damages the animal's eyes or lungs.
Filthy animals in deep mud or manure.
Transportation of seriously injured or sick animals that should have been euthanized on the farm (see transportation chapter).
Highly stressful methods to kill pigs on the farm were used during the pandemic. The pigs died of heat stress after the ventilation system was shut down. This is not acceptable and highly detrimental to animal welfare.

Economically Not Sustainable for all Stakeholders in the Supply Chain

Failure to pay producers, processor or transporters of either live animals or finished food products.
Deliberate mislabeling of poor quality meat, eggs or milk with labels for higher quality products.
Failure to pay either farmers or employees at a processing plant a wage that enables them to obtain basic needs.
Poor practices that deplete resources or damage the environment. These practices do not provide long-term economic sustainability. Unsustainable practices can provide short-term profits, but in five to twenty years, the resource is depleted. This is especially a problem on rented or leased land.

Traceability Through the Entire Supply Chain Will Help Stop Unsustainable Practices

When customers stop buying products produced in an unsustainable manner, it can be a huge driver of constructive change. A huge demand for exported beef may have created an incentive to destroy rainforest. Some buyers of this beef demand traceability to avoid rainforest beef and others do not (Sandy and Bandeirantes, 2019). Advocates of reducing damage to the environment need to educate consumers in Africa and China about the importance of preserving the rainforest. It is likely that many consumers in these countries are not aware of the problem. To insure that animal products do not originate from sources which violate sustainability principles will require a system for tracking. The best systems track from the animal's birth through the entire supply chain to the consumer. This is much easier for poultry or pigs because the supply chain is simpler in a fully integrated industry. Large food buying corporations are responding to consumer pressures to improve traceability. In many food companies, animal welfare and sustainability programs are being combined. It is often advisable to have the quality assurance department implement actual auditing of welfare and sustainability measures. Quality assurance personnel have the skill set to effectively implement a program to verify adherence to both welfare and sustainability guidelines.

Integrated Poultry Supply Chain In this system, a single company operates the entire supply chain. The steps are" Chick hatchery --> broiler grower --> slaughter/further processing --> to either a supermarket or food service/restaurant. The weakest part of this supply chain would be supermarkets or restaurants who may attempt to substitute a different product. A fully integrated supply is the easiest system to monitor for both animal welfare and sustainability.
Integrated Pork Supply Chain: Piglets are born and fattened on either the same farm or the piglets are fattened on contract grower farms --> Slaughter/process --> supermarket, food service or restaurant. The weakest part of the chain would be supermarkets or restaurants who may attempt to substitute a different product.
Beef or Sheep Supply Chain: In some cases, beef or sheep may be the most difficult supply chain to monitor. The breeding animals that produce many of the lambs or calves may come from many small farms. The origin of the animals may be difficult to trace. This is the point where meat from cattle grazed on rainforest or other unsustainable sources may enter the supply chain. Fed cattle or sheep are easy to trace back to the feedlot or slaughter house. The young animals entering the feedlot may be more difficult to trace back to where they were born and pastured. In some cases, the cattle may go through several dealers or auctions before they reach either a feedlot or abattoir.
Small Producer Direct to Consumer: Small producers market all their animals directly into a system that is either operated by either a grocery company or the producer performs their own slaughter and processing. This system is used by many companies who have either high welfare or high sustainability special brands. These animals are much easier to trace. Figure 3 shows broiler chickens in portable pens that can be continually moved to fresh pasture.

Tradeoffs Between Sustainability and Animal Welfare

There are some situations where improving sustainability may conflict with animal welfare (Broom, 2019; Place and Mitloehner, 2011). Pigs and chickens may need to be intensified to improve sustainability (Garnett et al., 2013; Place and Mitloechner, 2014). There has been a big debate between animal welfare specialists and sustainability specialists on the use of slow growing or fast growing broiler chickens. Slow growing birds reduce serious problems such as leg abnormalities and lameness. Lameness can also be a problem if fast growing birds receive organic diets that do not contain synthetic amino acids (Rezaei et al., 2018). Slower growing chickens have been recommended by animal advocacy groups. They have become popular in the Netherlands and France (Thorton, 2016).

When the slower growing birds are used, it may require 10 to 15% more feed to grow them to market weight [Epp, 2018). From a sustainability standpoint on grain feed usage, this is really bad. Maybe this will be partially offset by better health (Epp, 2018). A flock with high death losses results in huge amounts of wasted feed. Recently, the U.S. poultry industry has bred fast growing birds to have thicker, stronger legs that greatly reduce problems with lameness. The solution may be to increase feed consumption by 4 or 5% and carefully monitor birds for lameness, breast blisters, diseases, and death losses. In the U.S. cattle industry, beef production has increased 25% since 1970 and the number of cattle in the U.S. has been reduced 6% (USDA, 2019). More productive cattle also reduce the amount of grain needed to fatten them (Capper, 2013). In the U.S. dairy industry, twice as much milk is produced with 60% fewer cows (Mulhollem, 2015) and water usage by the U.S. dairy industry was reduced 69.5% since 2007 (Capper and Cady, 2020). Unfortunately, animal welfare issues have increased in some high producing dairy cows {Grandin and Whiting, 2018}.

Some other examples of conflicts between welfare and sustainability may be effects of feeding and housing on methane emission or manure. Research shows very clearly that pig welfare is improved by providing straw or other roughage for environmental enrichment (Mikwanazi et al., 2019). This may increase problems with increased nutrient secretion in the manure. On the other hand, in countries where straw is abundant, using straw for pigs may reduce detrimental burning of fields (Broom, 2019). Therefore, in one system, providing straw for pigs would improve sustainability and in another situation, reduce it. The use of electronic precision feeding may help reduce phosphorus in the manure (Pomar and Remus, 2019). In many parts of Europe and Asia, beef cattle are housed indoors on concrete. If these systems are managed poorly, there may be increased problems with lameness and swollen joints (Grandin, 2018). Environmentally controlled buildings may make it possible to control emissions.

Must Determine What is Optimal, Not Maximum

In both livestock and poultry, most of the improvements in productivity are due to genetic selection for meat or milk. There needs to be a balance. Selection for the highest milk production resulted in dairy cows which are more difficult to rebreed (Spencer, 2013). There is always a tradeoff. The author has observed leg conformation problems in pigs and beef cattle that have been indiscriminately selected for meat production. This has resulted in lame cattle and pigs. Managers often have a difficult time determining what is optimal level of productivity. A good visual analogy for genetic selection is if an animal is a country, it has a national budget. There are three things the budget can be spent on. They are the economy (meat, milk or eggs), the infrastructure (skeleton, reproduction, and heart) and the military {immune system}. If all the national budget is spent on the economy, then the infrastructure and the military have difficulty functioning.

Types of Livestock Grazing Systems

When the use of livestock is being discussed, there are four ways grazing animals can be used. The first type are grazing only systems. Grazing ruminants such as cattle, sheep, or goats are kept on pasture from birth to slaughter. There is also traditional pastoralism that is practices in many different countries. Kratli et al. (2013) stated that in many arid or semi-arid parts ofthe world, grazing livestock may provide better food security than crops. Unfortunately, grass fed beef cannot provide the total world supply (Hayek and Garrett, 2019). Animal products in the diet are important sources of nutrition for children in developing countries (Iannotti, 2018). However, overconsumption may be detrimental to health (Salter, 2018).

The second method used for raising cattle and other livestock for food is used in many countries. The parent animals (bulls, rams, cows, ewes) are kept on pasture and the offspring are raised in feedlots on grain. The third type of system has livestock and crops integrated in a sustainable system of crop rotation and grazing. A fourth type is silvopasture where livestock graze among the trees in planted tree plantations.

Pasture Systems

When grazing is done correctly, it can benefit the land and improve carbon sequestration (capture) (Shi et al., 2013; Lui et al., 2012); Chen et al., 2015; Xiao-Ming, et al., 2015; Borer, et al., 2014) and improve biodiversity (Papanstasis, 2009; Marty, 2015; Cook, 2017). Grassland is very abundant and it covers 40% of the land area (Chen et al., 2015). Grazing animals can utilize land that cannot be cropped (Varijakshapicker et al., 2019).

The biggest problem is poor management. Overgrazing can ruin the land. Pasture conditions around the world are very diverse. Optimal good grazing programs must be designed for the local conditions (McSherry and Ritchi, 2013; Roche et al., 2015). The use of rotational grazing is strongly recommended. Many studies have shown that sufficient time for grazed plants to recover is critical (Teague et al., 2013). In areas with low rainfall, recovery times are longer. People who are managing grazing systems must understand the difference between stocking rate and stocking density (Goodwin, 2019). When high density rotational grazing is used, livestock are heavily concentrated (Figure 4) in one part of the pasture for a short period of time and then moved. This mimics the grazing pattern of wild herbivores such as bison and wildebeests. They heavily graze a portion of pasture and then move away. Other ways to improve the benefits of grazing is to use sheep and goats to control brush to prevent wildfires (Huntsberger, 2019). In some systems, multispecies grazing is beneficial because cattle and goats eat different plants (Cook, 2017). David Montgomery (2012) in his book Dirt: The Erosion of Civilization warns that depletion of soil fertility and damage to the land was a major cause of the demise of ancient civilizations in Persia, Greece, Rome, and the Aztecs.

Integrating Crops and Livestock

Integrating grazing livestock into rotation systems with crops such as corn, soy, wheat, and other crops is a win-win strategy to reduce the use of herbicide, insecticides and chemical fertilizers (Franzluebbers, 2007; Carvalho et al., 2018; Russell et al., 2007; Veysset et al., 2014; Bonaudo et al., 2014). Unfortunately, integration of crops and livestock declined in the northern hemisphere. This was partly due to these systems being more complex to manage (Asai et al., 2018). Another factor against integrating is that farmers who grow crops and ranchers who grow livestock have become specialists. Many studies show the benefits of crop rotation (Krupinsky et al., 2002; Chen et al., 2018. Another benefit of crop pasture rotation is a reduction in greenhouse gasses (Carvalho et al., 2014; Soussana and Lemaire, 2014).

Unfortunately, there are big economic incentives for monoculture crops. In the shortrun they work well, but for long-term, they are not sustainable. A farm policy that pays farmers subsidies to raise corn provide a disincentive to either rotate crops or integrate livestock and crops. In Europe, farm subsidies paid to both crop and livestock farmers have caused the land to become overloaded with manure and fertilizer. Runoff has created algae dead zones in the Baltic Sea (Apuzza et al., 2019).

In North Dakota in the U.S. there is increasing interest in cover crops to improve soil health. Farmers have become more interested in cover crops because the weeds have become resistant to herbicides (Powles, 2008). Cover crops as part of a rotation system with soybeans can reduce weed growth by 40% to 50% (Bormgardner, 2019). To make cover crops profitable, they must be grazed. Local conditions on farms vary greatly and local specialists should be consulted on recommendations for seed mixes for planting. Carvalho et al. (2018) states that cover crops must not be overgrazed. Light to moderate grazing improves overall soil health. Some cover crops have made cattle sick, according to Pat Melgares at Kansas state University (2019) and North Dakota State University Extension, 2019. To avoid this problem, it is essential to consult with local experienced grazers or local research scientists.

Things that Look Sustainable But are NOT Sustainable

Renewable energy from plant biomass is not always sustainable. It is most likely to not be sustainable when the biomass from either crops or trees has to be transported for long distances. Another factor which may make energy from biomass unsustainable is, if the demand for biomass becomes so great that it leads to monoculture with no crop rotation. This is also detrimental to biodiversity (Gaspavatos et al., 2013). There are two types of biomass use which can quickly become non-sustainable. They are the use of wood pellets to fuel electric power plants and ethanol which is derived from corn (maize). Other biomass programs that need to be carefully monitored are sugarcane in Brazil and eucalyptus trees in Argentina. The author has observed huge areas where the only crop was sugarcane. Managers of eucalyptus plantations should consider developing silvopasture systems for grazing livestock among the trees.

Long Distance Transport of Wood Pellets is not Sustainable

One study showed that local sourcing of biomass was sustainable and importing wood pellets were not (Paletto et al., 2019). Importing these products for long distances by ship over the ocean has huge costs in petroleum products. Another problem is cutting down mature trees in the countries where the wood chips are harvested (Elbein, 2019; McGrath, 2017). Seventy to 75% of the world's wood pellets are exported to the EU from many countries such as U.S., Canada, Latvia, Russia, Estonia, and Vietnam (Wang, 2018; Harrington, 2015; Voegel, 2019). Demand for wood pellets has imports from these countries increased 21% between 2017 to 2018 (Wood Resources Int. 2019; McGee, 2019).

Ethanol Statistics

The production of ethanol from corn (maize) has greatly increased. In 2018, approximately 33% of the total U.S. corn crop was processed for ethanol (USDA Agriculture Economic Research Service,2019). The production of ethanol exceeds the needs for ethanol in the U.S. Ten percent of U.S. ethanol production was exported in 2018 (Bates, 2019). This huge demand provides an economic incentive practice monoculture of crops. The author has observed marginal pasture planted in corn, and corn being grown with no crop rotation. The USDA NRCS (2007) clearly states that corn that is grown for ethanol should be rotated with other crops. Nunes et al. (2018) and Ruen (2014) clearly shows the benefit of rotating corn with perennial grasses.

Sensible Solutions for Sustainability

The reasonable and sustainable solution is to use biomass in a truly sustainable manner. This will probably require harvesting less biomass and not by continually increasing harvesting of trees or corn. The problem is that people do not stop at the truly sustainable level. Overloading the system and becoming unsustainable is most likely to occur when demand for either meat or biomass becomes high. Another problem area is destroying pasture land or tropical savannah for soybean production (Rausch, et al., 2019). Large amounts of soy production is exported for feeding pigs. Satellite imagery shows the damage. The author has also observed ploughing up of pasture in Argentina for either soy or biomass production. The long-term solution is educating consumers in both the developed and developing world to demand sustainable products.

Huge Sustainability Problems in Other Industries

The livestock industry has problems that it must solve, but there are other industries that also have serious sustainability issues. One big offender is the clothing industry. Thomas (2019) estimates that 20% of all clothing that is manufactured goes unsold and many articles of clothing are worn only a few times. Many products that are not sustainable are exported from developing countries to the most developed countries.

The author was shocked to read that many items thrown in mixed recyclable bins were exported to China, India, Vietnam, and other developing countries (Chaudhuri, 2019; Walt and Meyer, 2020). The trash was shipped as backhauls in empty shipping containers. Many countries no longer want the trash and a more sustainable solution must be found. Cheap oil can be made into cheap plastic, and recycled plastic then becomes more expensive than new plastic (Walt and Meyer, 2020). This will reduce the economic incentive to recycle.

Important Ethical Questions

Is intensification of agriculture sustainable? (Margan et al., 2017). Fletcher and Schaefer (2019) suggest that the best solution may be using a combination of new technologies and older organic, sustainable methods.

Is it ethical from a sustainability standpoint to use genetic engineering to prevent animal and crop diseases (Gerhart et al., 2017)? Crisper gene editing can be used to prevent PRRS in pigs (Whitworth, 2017). Is gene editing ethical to create the soy heme molecule that makes a vegetable-based burger taste good? The natural soy plant does not produce sufficient heme to make thousands of patties. The heme molecule is inserted into genetically engineered yeast to produce a lots of heme to mix into the patties (Lupo, 2019).

There are situations where conventional agriculture may be more sustainable than organic (Van Wagenburg et al., 2017}. In some situations, merging organic principles with some industrial farming techniques may be the future of farming (Montgomery, 2020; Heyman, 2020).

Some people state that using animals for food is unethical. There is one area where animal protein is essential. In developing countries, small amounts of animal protein in the diet improve child development (Iannotti, 2018; Vairjakshapanicker et al., 2019; Das, et al., 2019).

Conclusions

To increase the incentive to produce eat in a sustainable way will require customers who insist on sustainable practices. There are many practices that are sustainable when they are done in moderation, but they quickly become non-sustainable when overloaded. Some examples would be grazing, timber production, biofuel production, fishing, and monoculture for either producing feed for livestock or producing palm oil. Traceability through the supply chain is essential.

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List of Figures

Figure 13.1. Rainforest in Brazil burning due to fires set for clearing land. This photo was taken by a NASA satellite in August, 2019. It clearly shows a pattern of fires along a major road. Photo by NASA.

Figure 13.2. Silvopasture which is a method for grazing livestock among trees is a sustainable practice when it is done correctly. Conditions can be highly variable and consultation with skilled local people is essential. Photo courtesy Temple Grandin.

Figure 13.3. On Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm - pens with broiler chickens are continually moved to fresh pasture. This method will only work on small-scale operations. In many cases, there are ideas and principles that can be learned in small operations that can be modified and used in larger operations. Photo courtesy Temple Grandin.

Figure 13.4. Irish beef cattle graze on lush green pasture and they are frequently moved. They can be trained so that a single electric string confines them. There is a huge demand for grassfed beef and extremely good management is required to prevent unsustainable practices such as overgrazing. Severe welfare problems can occur if the producer overly restricts a beef cow's access to grass to increase pasture carrying capacity. This can result in severe welfare issues for the cow.

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Improving Animal Welfare: A Practical Approach, 3rd Edition Chapter 13 (2020) A Practical Approach on Sustainability for Supply Chain Managers of Meat, Dairy, and Other Animal Proteins