McDonald's to tackle carbon footprint of UK beef farms

McDonald's, which serves over two million customers a day in the UK across 1,200 restaurants, is one of Europe’s largest beef buyers. Working with energy auditing company and independent rural consultancy, The Eco2 Project, the chain aims to measure the greenhouse gas emissions of 350 beef farms across the UK and Ireland by April 2010. It will measure each farm's emissions, using what it calls "the world’s most sophisticated on farm greenhouse gas calculator", which has been accredited by The Carbon Trust.

The food and agriculture sector already contributes 10–12 per cent of total global GHG emissions, and there have been calls to ration the amount of meat we eat a week to help fight climate change. Last week, the Government launched its food strategy, which calls on farmers to produce more food with fewer emissions.

McDonald’s believes that the beef industry has the capacity to reduce its GHG emissions through relatively small changes in farm practices and supply chain efficiencies.

Steve Easterbrook, chief executive of McDonald’s UK, said: "We are very excited by the development of this ground breaking project which we are piloting in the UK and which will help drive further reductions in our beef supply chain.
At the same time it should also deliver real financial benefits to the farmer."

Eco2, which has experience of working across the agricultural sector, says it will deliver a detailed energy and carbon assessment that helps farmers and growers to target energy and carbon reduction opportunities. Areas it will assess will include energy utilisation, water utilisation, nitrate ‘Vulnerable Zones’ and rainwater harvesting. Through this process, it is confident it can help the beef industry reduce emissions in line with the targets set out by climate change initiatives.

“There has been a lot of discussion and speculation about the greenhouse gas emissions associated with livestock production,” said Peter Darlington, a director of The Eco2 Project. “This model will for the first time bring transparent data from real farms to accurately inform that debate.

“We think we can bring about significant reductions by harnessing the efficiencies of dairy beef, by improving existing suckler cow farming techniques and practices, and by generating further supply chain efficiencies. Our advice will help farmers do this by improving their existing farming methods, relatively small changes can result in carbon savings on beef farms.”