Grass-fed beef
USA Industry
Food Miles
About 75% to 80% of grass-fed beef sold in the U.S. is grown abroad, from Australia, New Zealand and parts of South America, according to a 2017 report from the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture.[1]
Corporatization
Meat processor JBS USA now has a grass-fed line, Tyson Foods is planning a Texas grass-fed program and earlier this year, Perdue announced it was getting into the market.[2]
Greenwashing
General Mills
As a major supplier for General Mills, White Oak Pastures is "not just a small local farm, but actually part of a powerful and massive multinational company, and an important arm of its branding and marketing." Its claim to produce "carbon-negative beef" through regenerative grazing[3] has been conclusively disproven, after General Mills-funded research was found to have "significant lapses that grossly exaggerate or misrepresent the true SOC sequestration capacity of their farming techniques." [4] This research was cited by the Savory Institute as part of the Climate Collaborative, financed in part by General Mills, in their 2020 report on Regenerative Standards.
McDonalds
McDonald’s and A&W are promoting their grass-fed and sustainable beef on a massive scale. There is a strong mega-corporate branding strategy for “sustainable beef” at work[5]
- ↑ https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/08/13/746576239/is-grass-fed-beef-really-better-for-the-planet-heres-the-science
- ↑ https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/08/13/746576239/is-grass-fed-beef-really-better-for-the-planet-heres-the-science
- ↑ https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/climatecollaborative/mailings/1633/attachments/original/PPT-FINAL-Regenerative_Mapping-min_compressed.pdf?1579205603; p. 41
- ↑ https://plantbaseddata.medium.com/the-failed-attempt-to-greenwash-beef-7dfca9d74333
- ↑ https://sentientmedia.org/another-failed-attempt-to-greenwash-beef/