National Cattlemen's Beef Association
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association refers to itself as "the marketing organization and trade association for America’s one million cattle farmers and ranchers." It claims a mantle of world leadership with its assertion that "The U.S. produces the most sustainable beef in the world through decades of improvement and innovation."[1] These production innovations are to a great extent based on the Holistic Management theory of Allan Savory, who founded and led the movement to greenwash US Beef in the 1980s, working closely with the Reagan-Bush USDA. The NCBA is closely affiliated with the Savory Institute in a variety of ways.
Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
The GRSB (Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef) includes the NCBA as well as the Savory Institute and major U.S. beef industry players, providing a forum through which they have collaborated since ~2012.[2][3][4][5][6]
Greenwashing
Beef PR War
See: Beef PR War
Methane Denial
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association—which lobbied for meatpacking plants to remain open during the pandemic—dispatched its former senior director of sustainable beef production research, Sara Place, to assure the conservative media host Glenn Beck[7] that methane emissions from “cow farts” were “fake news” and that cattle “are part of the climate change solution.”[8]
Sara Place is also featured by the Savory Institute, which promoted[9] an article she penned for the Beef: It's What's For Dinner blog, arguing that:
The social battle underway about what type of agriculture is best (local vs. non-local, vegan vs. omnivore, organic vs. conventional, grass-fed vs. grain-fed) is getting us nowhere.[10]
and: "we need... sustainability... regardless of the production system."
Influence
<https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2022/03/07/biden-methane-pledge-beef-climate-lobying/> <https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2022/03/09/global-warming-potential-star-methane-agriculture-net-zero/>
Methane Science
<https://www.distilled.earth/p/reducing-methane-emissions-is-one>
Environmental Stewardship Award
1995
Given to Sid Goodloe, Allan Savory's first U.S. business partner & influential USDA-affiliated advocate.[11]
Savory Institute
Tony Malmberg is a Co-Founder of the Savory Institute[12], Managing Member of Holistic Holdings International, LLC, and Board Director of Grasslands LLC.[13]
He has a 25-year_ working relationship with Eric Grant, who first wrote several articles for Range Magazine circa 1996 featuring Malmberg's application of The Savory Method.[14] At the time, Grant was working for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. [15]
Grant went on to serve as the Director of Public Relations and Communications for the American Angus Association. In this industry PR position he helped Malmberg "initiate writing a book about learning Holistic Management" and "steered it toward a how-to book." The book was published in 2022 as Green Grass in the Spring: A Cowboy's Guide to Saving the World.[16]
Voluntary Carbon Markets
In August 2021, a Review titled "Voluntary Carbon Markets Applicable to Grazing Operations" was prepared for the NCBA for the consideration of (aligned) farmers and ranchers.
The report evaluated five "Carbon Markets that Incorporate Grazing Management Systems":
• Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC)
• Soil and Water Outcomes Fund
While also mentioning, but not analyzing, the upcoming offerings of Bayer-Monsanto (Bayer's "RangeView" platform) and Native PBC.[17]
Sources
- ↑ https://www.ncba.org/producers/sustainability
- ↑ https://savory.global/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/2012-ar.pdf
- ↑ https://www.beefcentral.com/news/cattle-council-joins-global-beef-sustainability-roundtable/
- ↑ https://grsbeef.org/members/
- ↑ http://www.angusbeefbulletin.com/extra/2014/03mar14/0314fp_GRSB.htm
- ↑ https://grsbeef.org/Leadership/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20210723053023/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6LzLdrewu
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200715212037/https://www.thenation.com/article/society/beef-red-pill-right/
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/savory.global/posts/2149423611751076
- ↑ https://medium.com/@beefitsfordinner/latest-study-confirms-an-animal-free-food-system-is-not-holistically-sustainable-69df19dededd
- ↑ https://nmwrri.nmsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/ConfOneFile/2001%20Conference%20Proceedings%20(as%20one%20file).pdf
- ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-malmberg
- ↑ https://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/beef/4656/26773
- ↑ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59ecd7631f318d0fccbb9390/t/5b2695401ae6cfe7a8dc6630/1529255235499/Grant+Range+1996.pdf
- ↑ https://www.holisticmanagement.guide/blog/2018/6/17/new-age-cowboy-revisited
- ↑ https://www.google.com/books/edition/Green_Grass_in_the_Spring/UWd6EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22eric+grant%22+%22steered+it+toward+a+how-to+book%22&pg=PT220&printsec=frontcover
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20220214204752/https://www.ncba.org/Media/NCBAorg/Docs/ncba_carbonmarketsreview_final_20210823.pdf